Regional Economic Recovery Through the Arts

"There's been a lot of talk about, how do you make this sustainable, and there's not one answer, but one piece that is core to that, is really galvanizing and cementing around this notion that arts and culture is already right here and we need to lean into it and value it and uplift it. And in that way it won't be able to be ignored'“ - Fernando Pujas

This episode is part of our special series on how the arts and culture sector is coming back from the covid 19 pandemic and features voices from the Co-Production of Arts For A Better Bay Area State of The Arts Summit held at the Strand Theatre in San Francisco on June 28th 2023. The focus of the summit was on rebuilding our communities through the arts. 

This episode features panelists from our breakout panel discussion “Regional Economic Recovery Through the Arts" on how the Arts are being utilized in economic and community development coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. The panel features the voices of Laura Poppiti, the Deputy Director of the Center for Cultural Innovation, Richard Raya, the Chief Strategy Officer at Mission Economic Development Agency, Fernando Pujals, the Deputy Director of the Mid-Market Business Association & Foundation, Meredith Winner, the co-founder and COO of Building 180 and Managing Director and Co-Founder of Paint the Voice, and Jacob Bintliff, the Manager of Economic Recovery Initiatives at the City of San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development along with our co-host Susie McKinnon a Steward at Arts for a Better Bay Area.

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Delve deeper into Voices of the Community Series on Arts & Culture, Making the Invisible-Visible, Covid-19's impact on nonprofits, small businesses and local government, City of Stockton's rise from the ashes of bankruptcy and our archives: You can explore episodes, speakers, organizations, and resources through each series web page. Watch and learn from all five series now!