Chairman’s Message & AC Arts Commission History

Since my appointment as chair of the Atlantic City Arts Commission in February 2005, I have sought to invigorate the Atlantic City Arts Commission with a strong sense of mission for the Arts. As its Chairman, and with a great appreciation for the arts, I will lobby government officials, casino executives and ordinary people to give the arts top priority in our lives. The Atlantic City Arts Commission is a group of artists and art lovers appointed by Atlantic City Government to further the arts in all its aspects.

Our founder, Florence Miller brought a messianic mission for the arts to Atlantic City. She pushed our City Fathers to spend four million dollars to build our art center, and established the Atlantic City Arts Commission. However, my concern for the state of the arts in Atlantic City is that art appreciation has never been so shallow and under appreciated. The Atlantic City Arts Commission must move forward into the forefront of the arts as Florence Miller and Joanna LaSane and other founding members strove to do.

My first objective has been to establish our presence on the Internet. For the first time in our history, we have a web presence. This is our way of communicating with the larger arts community and government officials. On this Website, we will post our agenda, objectives, and art proposals. These requests for art, will come to us from many areas: casinos, hospitals and government entities. Also, on this site we will have links to other art organizations and institutions.

I have identified eight areas of great concern to the Atlantic City Art Commission. To address these concerns, each of our eighteen members, has an assignment with committees that will analyze our by-laws and objectives and make recommendations to strengthen our mission. At the same time, we will seek more input in the planning and zoning process of Atlantic City.

Additionally, Atlantic City's Garden Pier, for years, has been in a bad state of neglect. We must work together to bring it brought back to its shinning glory days. To do this, we will work with Michael Cincerella, his Board of Directors and the Atlantic City governing bodies, to bring the Pier back to a truly gleaming and representative first class arts center.

To bring cohesion and a sense of purpose to the Atlantic City Arts Commission, I have initiated a series of field trips to three regional arts centers and groups for this year. We will see what those art organizations are doing for those cities. The first of these field trips will be to the Galloway Township Arts Center in April 2005. Other field trips will be to the Ocean City Arts Center in June and to the Millville Arts Center in the fall. These field trips will give our members a different outlook on art organizations and organizing in general. On these field trips, we will network with fellow artist, art administrators and other professionals knowledgeable of the arts. We will look at the novel ways other successful art organizations are conducting themselves; we will see how they get things done to enhance their cities. As a cohesive and well-rounded arts group, we can get things done and make the arts shine in Atlantic City.

Sincerely,

Lennox Warner
Chairman, Atlantic City Arts Commission
September 15, 2005