The Arts and Culture Commission:

• advises and recommends to the City Council, through the Community Services Department, annually on the elements of prioritized, unified operating and capital improvement program budgets for arts and culture, based upon unaudited financial reporting prepared on a quarterly basis by the Community Services Department;

• advises the Community Services Department on appropriate performance standards and benchmarks for use in evaluating the City’s arts and culture programs based on recognized guidelines and local priorities; and,

• recommends to the Community Services Department, public involvement mechanisms to assure community-based arts and culture programs, projects, policies and initiatives follow the Arts and Culture Plan.  

The Arts and Culture Commission also advises the City Council, through the Community Services Department, in articulating the vision for and exploring the critical issues relating to arts and cultural development based on projected arts and culture funding and the implementation of the Arts and Culture Plan.  

The Arts and Culture Commission is composed of 11 members who live, work, or attend school, in Tempe.  A minimum of 51% of the members on the Commission shall be Tempe residents.  Members serve three-year terms, with the exception of the Student member, who serves a one-year term. The Arts and Culture Commission members shall be from the following categories; however, no more than three members can fill the same category:

• Practicing artist from various disciplines.

• K-12 arts and culture teacher or K-12 affiliate or teaching artist.

• Affiliate from the Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and Arts.

• Urban planner or designer or architect or historian.

• Student from a post-secondary school (one-year term).

• Representative from a business or organization that supports arts and culture.

• Tempe resident with an interest in arts and culture.

• Individual with expertise in organizational development, public policy, financial analysis or accounting.

• Current or former arts and culture presenter, producer, arts administrator, curator or arts facility manager. 

The Arts and Culture Commission typically meets on the second Monday of the month at 6 p.m., except in July and Aug., in the Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Pkwy., Tempe, or the Tempe History Museum, 809 E. Southern Ave., Tempe, unless otherwise noted on the meeting agenda.