Santa Cruz County Arts Commission

Mission Statement
The mission of the Santa Cruz County Arts Commission is to promote, expand and plan for the cultural life of Santa Cruz County and to bring artists and arts organizations together with government for the benefit of all the citizens of the County.

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 Meeting Schedule                     Meeting Minutes                    Meeting Agendas

Arts Commission Members

James Nee, Evelyn Bernstein	District 1
Cynthia Kilian,  VACANCY	District 2
Bobbi Todaro, Joanna Phillips	District 3
Judy Stabile, Paul DeWorken	District 4
Shirlee Byrd, VACANCY	District 5

Meets 1st Monday, 4:30 P.M.
Simpkins Family Swim Center
979 17th Avenue, Santa Cruz

 

James Nee
James was raised in Detroit, Michigan, has lived in Santa Cruz County since 1987, has two grown children and two grandchildren. He has been a board member of the California Grey Bears.  His hobbies include creating visual art, hiking, and long-distance backpacking. James has an AA in studio art, a BS in wildlife management, MPA in public administration, and MA in zoology.  He worked 20 years as a wildlife biologist and 13 years as a biologist/agriculture inspector.  Jim joined the Commission to expand the Commission's role in showcasing our county's high quality arts, to increase the amount of good art in public places, and to help make our county an essential destination for people seeking excellence in visual and performing parts.

 

Evelyn Bernstein
Evelyn Bernstein was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1931, where as a teenager she fell in love with dance, sculpted in clay, and spent time with some of the era’s arts and musical innovators, a practice that continued for many decades in New York and California. After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School, she worked in the garment center and studied at Brooklyn College at night. As a young mother, she studied poetry with Kenneth Koch and many years later, attended Cabrillo College.

A Santa Cruz County resident since 1970, Evelyn has served on the Santa Cruz County Women’s Commission, the South Santa Cruz County Commission on Alcoholism, and the boards of the Battered Women’s Shelter, Women’s Crisis Support, and Chadeish Yameinu (Jewish Renewal Community of Santa Cruz). In addition, she was a volunteer for the San Jose Peace Center and the Literacy Committee of the Santa Cruz Volunteer Center. She currently is an active member of the Soquel Neighbors Association.  She is married to engineer-attorney-jazz photographer Leonard Bernstein; their two children are singer-poet Lisa B (Lisa Bernstein) and noted software consultant David R. Bernstein. She has four grandchildren. 

 

Joanna Phillips
Joanna was born and raised in Fresno, California. She graduated from Cal State University Fresno, majoring in Speech Communication. She went back to school to do graduate work in Education of the Deaf, working in the local school district as a teacher.  In 1972 Joanna moved to San Jose and began a new career in Real Estate. After successfully owning a Century 21 franchise from 1980 – 1986, she began her training career by becoming the Director of Recruiting and Training for Better Homes and Gardens in San Jose until 2000. When she got a call from Robert Bailey, the CEO of Bailey Properties in Santa Cruz, CA to inquire if she would like the same job in Santa Cruz, and live in her beach house, the answer was YES! Power Training was born and Bailey Properties continues to be the field-testing facility for all updates to this course.

Joanna is a mother and the grandmother of Sara, who is 4 yrs old. Joanna enjoys spending time at the beach, playing with Sara and traveling.  Joanna served on the City of San Jose Art Commission from 1996-2002. This experience gave her a great deal of background on the arts programs in the City of San Jose. She also has performed both in theater and as a motivational speaker. She joined the Santa Cruz County Arts Commission in the hopes her past experience would be of benefit to the residents of Santa Cruz County.

Judy Stabile
I have been an artist for 22 years, and enjoy working in a variety of media and processes including sculpting in stone, casting in bronze and glass; printmaking; fabric collage; and painting with acrylic, oil and encaustics. As a volunteer, I have curated and co-curated twelve visual art exhibits for the Pajaro Valley Arts Council: served as a mentor to other curators; and have served as a Gallery Committee member for PVAC for nine years. For the past three years, I have co-curated (for PVAC) exhibitions of sculpture for an outdoor venue at Sierra Azul Nursery and Gardens. This exhibit was pivotal to my interest in public art. As a result, I applied to be a member of the Public Arts Commission.

Bobbi Todaro

Cynthia Kilian

Cynthia has lived in Santa Cruz County for 33 years, has been a self employed realtor for 23 years.  She attended Weber College of Nursing and University of San Francisco B.S.O.B.

Serving the Muse 
Cynthia served as board president for the San Francisco Pickle Family Circus, Tandy Beal & Company for 9 years.  She is currently a director and previously served as marketing VP for the Santa Cruz County Symphony.  Cynthia is a founding board member of the Aptos Academy, a director for the past 14 years.  As part of the Monterey Symphonic Chorus, she has traveled to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Russia, Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of IONA, seat of Celtic Spirituality; in summer 2009, the chorus sang at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. for President Obama.

Serving Community
During the summer months, Cynthia serves as a nurse, part of a medical/dental team at Little Flock orphanage in Southern India .  She walked 350 miles across Northern Spain on a pilgrimage - The Camino Santiago de Campostella - in 2004.  She climbed Wayan Picchu, the mountain near Macchu Picchu, Peru in 2005.  Cynthia worked as a loan executive to the United Way of Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties for five years during her 17-year career with Pacific Bell.  Cynthia was part of a Katrina Animal rescue team, rescuing 100 animals flown into Monterey Airport from Iberia, Louisiana, helped care and transport them to a shelter facility in Santa Cruz.

Serving  Family
Cynthia has 3 great adult children. Melanie is an artist, a comedian with Second City, has an MBA and is working on her PhD.  Adam served as an army ranger in Iraq and Afghanistan; he is now a Los Angeles County firefighter.  Ashley graduated from Menlo College in Atherton. CA, manages a medical office, and has a California Real Estate License.

 

Shirlee Byrd
I grew up in Hollywood, California and worked as a dancer and went to Chounards Art School where I studied painting. After marriage and raising four children, I went back to school to study art history. After getting a master's degree, I taught art history at San Jose State University, San Jose City College and the San Jose Museum of Art for about twenty years. My specialty was early modern, European art.

After moving to the San Lorenzo Valley, I commuted to San Jose but also helped found the Santa Cruz Mountains Art Center in Ben Lomond where we had exhibits of local artists and initiated a summer art camp for children. Because of my interest in local arts, I was invited to be on the Board of the Cultural Council where I served for six years and joined the Open Studios' Committee. After retiring from San Jose, I became interested in local issues in art as well as the environment. Art advocacy and public art have always been of great interest to me. I think a society without art is a dead society.

I have served for four years in my second term as a County Arts Commissioner, after I moved from the San Lorenzo Valley to the City of Santa Cruz). Before that I served about five years from the Valley, including two years as President.

Paul DeWorken

 

Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County

City of Santa Cruz Arts Commission