School of Arts and Culture at MHP

Special initiativesduring the year ended june 30, 2022, the School launched a new program, community development, that seeks to inform and influence what the neighborhood surrounding the plaza can become. The School leverages a cultural district strategy to preserve the cultures, traditions, and identities that are uniquely san jose to establish the city's first cultural district with the plaza at its center. The acquisition of the property located at 1751 alum rock avenue is the first step to realizing la avenida, the vision of a cultural district in east san jose with the plaza at its center. The School will expand some of its current programs to this building, which will eventually house a black box theater, a caf, a family wellness center operated by gardner health services, as well as local neighborhood businesses.

Facilitythe School operates the plaza, which the city of san jose owns. The School leverages the $35 million facility to offer its programs, including quality Arts education courses to the community through its Arts education program; an Arts leadership program for people of color (i.e., the multicultural Arts leadership institute); and community events through its community engagement and market rate programs. In this way, the long-underutilized facility is activated and transformed into a vibrant hub of community activity.

Events - community access and engagementthe community engagement program provides local artists, Arts, and community agencies access to the plaza, training and technical assistance on using the space, and access to audience networks. Activating and curating the six-acre, $35 million, city-owned facility as a programmable Arts and cultural destination and community hub, the School provides east san jose residents with a safe, active, family venue for diverse Arts activities that speak to its unique cultural heritage. In the year ended june 30, 2020, the community engagement program worked with 60 community partners to present relevant, multicultural programming that celebrated the local community's diversity and subsidized the cost of 156 productions. In 2023, the School worked with 70 community partners to host and present 153 events. This activation continues to increase steadily as the Arts and cultural sector and the local neighborhood recover from the pandemic.the School's community access policy is defined primarily by the spirit of the guiding principles for community access and engagement:create welcoming, inclusive and affordable community gatherings and cultural offerings in partnership with artists, Arts schools and community-focused nonprofits that capitalize on the strengths of this unique facility and location in east san jose.develop partnerships with a network of artists, Arts, and community schools to leverage existing relationships and capacity while advancing and growing collective impact.build community confidence, enthusiasm, and trust over time through consistent communication, responsiveness, and a reliable menu of opportunities.develop a broad mix of programming focusing on mexican Culture while activating opportunities for social integration with the wider multicultural artistic community present in san jose.facilitate multiple entry points for community members, partner schools, and private clients.create a relationship of reciprocity with schools and the community through "mission compatible" activation of spaces.embrace grassroots participation as critical to the success of the schools' vision and provide opportunities for community feedback.events - market rate rentalthe School is located in a beautiful, multi-use venue in a historically significant location and neighborhood. The site is the same place where civil rights activist cesar chavez organized the first grape boycott with the farmworker movement. The house he lived in is located a quarter of a mile away from the school.the business plan written by the School steering committee in 2011 identifies rental income from the facility as an essential component of the long-term sustainability of the School. at its inception, the School has partnered with a for-profit company, giant creative services, to ensure a careful, creative, and attentive approach to market rate rentals.this close partnership with the School staff resulted in the increased usage of the facility by several art schools and private events in a manner never before seen under previous operators. However, in fy22, the School decided to bring the management of the market rate rentals in-house and hired its own team to manage the department. The School's market rate rental program generates revenue that then directly supports the School's programs. In addition, 98% of all events at the plaza, through the market rate rental program, are rooted in the community. In 2023, the plaza hosted over 80 personal celebrations and events. As before, these events are deeply rooted in the community.

Arts education programthe School provides a "multi-cultural and inter-cultural venue" for community events and programs that embrace all cultures while exploring the artistic traditions, cultural history, and contemporary creative expression of mexican and latin american Arts. The School believes that the Arts are powerful vehicles for human development and social transformation - by creating nurturing communities for children, especially at-risk youth. The School believes, as research indicates, that creative experiences in the Arts offer students the opportunity to "envision and set goals, determine a method to reach a goal, and try it out, identify alternatives, evaluate, revise, solve problems, imagine, work collaboratively, and apply self-discipline" (the California state board of education visual and performing arts).the goals for the Arts education program are to engage youth, ages 4 to 18, in positive, culturally relevant, safe, and empowering learning experiences that will inspire and strengthen the youth and families of san jose to be agents of positive change. To reach these goals, the School seeks to achieve the following objectives: 1) offer east san jose students access to Arts education; 2) activate a community asset the plaza, where the School is located; and 3) offer quality student learning experiences in the Arts. In the year ending june 30, 2021, the Arts education program was placed on hiatus due to the pandemic. Even so, the School distributed about 5,000 art kits to students for them to continue Arts engagement while sheltering in place. The Arts education program has not returned to its pre-covid level of activity. This is partly because the east san jose community that the program primarily serves remains disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Even as other parts of san jose recover, east san jose's recovery lags, and residents here cannot pay for Arts education programming. As a result, the School is redesigning its Arts education program to be free of charge to those families who live in the local neighborhoods surrounding the plaza. In 2023, the School offered all of its Arts education program activities for free and served 682 students through its summer camps and community event workshops.multicultural Arts leadership institute (mali)mali is a professional development opportunity for leaders of color in the Arts, cultural, and entertainment sectors. Through mali's year-long training program, the School develops local multicultural Arts practitioners by giving them the technical skills, philosophical underpinnings, and networking opportunities necessary to grow and sustain their work, schools, and the Arts sector in silicon valley. Since 2008, mali has worked with over 150 leaders of color in silicon valley, of which 25 hold director-level positions, 22 are small business owners, 12 are artist laureates, six are san jose cultural ambassadors, five are recipients of the leigh weimers award, and seven work in government. In addition, since its founding, the School has invested over $1.5 million in mali members and has provided over 15,000 hours of direct instruction, mentorship, and networking. Without such investments, these artists and Arts groups would not have been able to participate in the creative economy fully. Mali is based on the principle that when leaders in the Arts reflect the ethnic makeup of their local population, the agencies they represent are more culturally responsive to their community's needs. To prioritize and clarify diversity in the Arts leadership field, mali builds intentional networks among Arts leaders of color and develops in them cultural leadership skills that overcome past tokenism. As such, mali: 1) identifies future and emerging multicultural Arts leaders; 2) develops and delivers a training program that builds upon and enhances their skills and knowledge so they can address challenges to success and stabilize or grow their agencies; and, 3) equips them to successfully participate in community forums, initiatives, and task forces to address specific community issues and advocate for a strong, healthy multicultural Arts community.