Urbanowski: What’s up in Morgan Hill? Art, that’s what!

In October, I had the pleasure of attending a truly remarkable public art conversation organized by Morgan Hill in collaboration with a rich cross section of partners from sectors across the community. The gathering highlighted the vital role art is playing in the dynamic development of this jewel of a city in the southern part of our county.

The forum was hosted at the beautifully renovated Granada Theater and opened with welcome remarks from Mayor Mark Turner. It featured panel discussions and presentations by local property developers,  business operators, architects, members of the Morgan Hill Library, Culture & Arts Commission, the superintendent of Morgan Hill Unified School District and public art specialists. There were interactive exercises to gather resident feedback on potential new public art policies, and the program concluded with a call to action for Morgan Hill to adopt a fee for public art on all local development. The city is now formally exploring those options.

One thing that stood out was the way art was discussed as an integral part of both capital projects and successful business. From experiential retail and masterful culinary presentations, to hands-on craft workshops and live performances, creative practice is essential to the success of a vibrant downtown core.

Community pride springs from exciting restaurants and unique public arts installations (we see you Tarantula and Harmony Tree), to a community playhouse, sports center and artistic street scaping. Collaboration and vision are essential to this success, along with a commitment to both serving local residents and attracting out of town visitors. The mutual respect and shared enthusiasm for artistic excellence between the private and public sectors in Morgan Hill was palatable.

Next up in Morgan Hill is the opening of Cura Contemporary in the newly constructed Edes Building. I got a sneak peek of this one-of-kind building, which will house a restaurant, art gallery and art studio/workshop space. It’s an inspiring design and vision, brought to downtown by business owner Dan McCranie. The vision for the operation of the space is to continue to uplift the local community and it matches the innovative and truly beautiful structure. You can check it out at the public opening on Nov. 16.

And then, in the new year, the Hotel MOHI will open across the street, bringing another breakthrough design, a celebrity chef and tons of creative spirit, from developer Frank Leal.

As Deputy City Manager Edith Ramirez reminded me, “Morgan Hill is at a very exciting junction with the addition of the new Fine Art Center — Cura Contemporary and the addition of celebrity Chef Charlie Palmer who is bringing his new Appellation Hospitality brand to the downtown boutique hotel.  The combination of these two significant achievements, coupled with the city’s direction to invest in public art, reinforces the city’s vision of becoming a culinary destination, a place for fine art, quality craft retail and a place for creatives and makers to call home.”

I name-check these projects and these leaders as examples of folks that have invested their time, treasure and talent in Morgan Hill over decades. We can see what leadership, vision and collaboration centered on commitment to local community and integration of the arts can inspire and make reality. Is your town’s development community and public sector leadership leveraging arts and culture like this?

Alexandra Urbanowski is CEO of SV Creates, the state and county designated arts service organization and local arts agency for Santa Clara County. She serves on the leadership committee for the California Coalition of County Art Agencies and as a board member at the School of Arts and Culture at the Mexican Heritage Plaza. Her columns appear every first Wednesday of the month. Contact Alexandra at [email protected].