The success of every civilization is the importance it places on literacy, culture and the arts. In Morgan Hill, one of the important commissions is the Library, Culture and Arts Commission. What is the purpose of this commission and how can it help you? The commission interacts with the Morgan Hill City Library, Santa Clara County Library and serves to advise the Morgan Hill City Council on matters pertaining to the library, culture and arts in Morgan Hill. We can best accomplish this by understanding how the city can best serve your interests.
Most issues about the library from the community are brought to the attention of our dedicated library staff at the library located at 17575 Peak Ave., and are handled at a local level. The commissions challenge for the next years is to implement a policy for culture and arts. We, the members of the commission, encourage the community to offer suggestions to us about how to enhance and further enrich culture and arts in Morgan Hill.Â
New Library
We are excited about the construction of the new library scheduled for opening in the summer of 2007. The commission is working in conjunction with the Morgan Hill city staff and the friends of the library to assure that the new library is a showplace for the community offering improved facilities and parking. It will be doubled in size from the present 13,900 square feet to 28,000 square feet providing more space for books and media as well as increased seating and computer availability. The new library is being built using Morgan Hill redevelopment funds. The operation of the library is funded by the Santa Clara County Library that oversees nine libraries in the county.
Arts and CultureÂ
The commission is working on a new culture and arts policy. This effort is a result of the decision in 2005 to make culture and arts an integral part of the library commission. There is already a strong emphasis in arts and culture in Morgan Hill. We have an exciting playhouse offering excellent programs. Our community and culture center is available for many events and provides for rotating art exhibits throughout the year. The newly completed granary is now home to Gallery Morgan Hill and also offers art exhibits. The Leadership Morgan Hill project for the class of 2006 was to raise funds for outdoor art at the new library. This successful campaign provided two sculptures and we all look forward to seeing them in front of the new library. But where do we go from here? Again, we need you, members of the community to tell us what is important and where we should emphasize our efforts. We welcome inputs from the community and offer our services to speak at community events to answer questions and present information about our programs. Also, we invite you to come to our meetings on the second Monday of each month at 7pm. Presently we meet at the community center but will be moving back to the council chambers in the next few months after construction around City Hall is completed. An agenda of the topics addressed at the commission meeting are posted at City Hall prior to each meeting.
The commission has six members and the city is looking for another person to fill one vacant slot. It is an opportunity to participate in the literacy, culture and arts of our community and contribute to making Morgan Hill an even better place to live. Contact the city clerk’s office at (408) 779-7259 if you are interested in applying for the position. In any event, we hope to hear from you and encourage your participation in our Library, Culture and Arts Commission meetings.
Einar Anderson is a third-term commissioner for the Morgan Hill Library, Culture and Arts Commission. He’s lived in Morgan Hill for more than eight years. He’s a retired marketing director for ASAT, Inc., a Silicon Valley semiconductor packaging company. He also a volunteer park ranger at Henry Coe State Park.
