Coronado CREATES

The City of Coronado recently marked a major milestone with the celebration of its 125th anniversary. Now, Coronado, through its Cultural Arts Commission (CAC), is looking to the future by undertaking a community-based cultural planning process.  The plan will:

• Identify Coronado’s creative resources, assets, needs, and challenges
• Define goals through a community vision
• Establish an action plan to invigorate and inspire Coronado’s “Culture of Creativity” in the coming years

A primary goal of the plan is to create a blueprint for Coronado to elevate its standing as a city for creativity and excellence in the arts. This public / private collaboration will define specific strategies for community-wide implementation to sustain Coronado as a magnet for arts, culture, and creativity.

On behalf of the Cultural Arts Commission, we are proud to share Coronado CREATES, a 10-year master plan for arts and culture. Coronado is a culturally rich community with diverse cultural resources enjoyed by our residents. The plan was approved by the Cultural Arts Commission at their February 14, 2019, Special Meeting and accepted by the City Council at their April 16, 2019, Regular Meeting.

In a few short years, the Cultural Arts Commission has advanced our arts and cultural opportunities: it has managed and expanded the City's collection of public art, has incubated and launched new ventures such as the Coronado Island Film Festival and the Coronado Community Read, has brought together the arts and cultural community as a group of partners that network and create together, and enhanced the community with the expansion and maintenance of the City's Banners on Orange Avenue Program. The Commission has established and manages the C3 Gallery in the Coronado Community Center and in its first three years has mounted a dozen exhibitions featuring the work of 175 local artists and over 1000 pieces of artwork. We're proud of what has been accomplished, and in this plan, we look ahead to addressing priorities for the next ten years.

This plan is in response to what we have heard from our residents, who continue to ask for more arts, culture and creative activities throughout our community. Our residents appreciate our nonprofit arts and cultural organizations and ask for these to continue to thrive.

This is an aspirational plan and one that seeks to take advantage of opportunities for growth that may never present themselves again in our lifetimes. Our goal is for Coronado residents to continue to benefit from creative assets that significantly enhance our quality of life. As our demographics change, it is our shared culture that fosters our sense of community and shared values. Culture brings us together, and through culture and the arts, we can best demonstrate our commitment to our heritage and history and our current diverse cultures. The Arts belong to every resident.

To the scores of community residents who volunteered their time to participate in the Coronado CREATES process, our sincere thanks. To the hundreds who participated by taking our online survey, we appreciate your input and have used it extensively to shape this plan. To our Advisory Steering Committee members who went above and beyond in wise counsel, we value your time, your thoughtful input, and your dedication to Coronado's culture.