Every year the Santa Maria Arts Council awards thousands of dollars to burgeoning artists with its annual Individual Grants in the Arts Competition. While awarding the upcoming generation, the council also honors someone in the arts community for longtime contributions, giving the grants in their name.
This year’s competition honors Craig and Linda Shafer, who have shared nearly 40 years of their life together working to improve the cultural and creative landscape of the Santa Maria Valley.
Longtime members of the Arts Council and staff at the Pacific Conservatory Theatre (PCPA), the Shafers were both surprised when they were chosen as the honorees this year, they told the Sun.
“We were floored, we were stunned, we were like, ‘Really?'” Linda said.
“Totally blown away,” Craig added. “Had no idea that was going to happen.”
It’s not unusual for Arts Council members to receive the honor, Craig said, but to receive the distinction as a couple was a special surprise.
It makes perfect sense when you review the bullet points in the Shafers’ history with arts in Santa Maria. They’re responsible for starting programs for the Arts Council, publicity, fundraising, membership, and other organizing.
Before they were ever Arts Council members, the Shafers got their feet in the arts community at the Allan Hancock College Dance Department. Linda began taking dance classes (Craig was soon to follow) in her late 20s, she said, even though she didn’t care for school dances growing up.
“This was so different,” she said. “You’re in class, being instructed, then you’re learning combinations, and learning to go on stage and be a different person and character. It was a lot of fun.”
The pair took many dance classes together, they said, from ballet to contemporary to jazz. They were in several choreographed performances, and did some choreography of their own for dance recitals and for PCPA’s Education and Outreach performances.
Making inroads to PCPA was a good thing for the Shafers. In 1994, Craig became the conservatory’s publicist, and a year later Linda began working in the box office there. Craig still does publicity for PCPA, but he did take a break for a few years beginning in 2004 when he became arts editor for the Sun (then called the Santa Maria Sun).
As head of the paper’s arts section, Craig began attending Arts Council meetings and became familiar to many in the arts community. He became a commissioner for the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, eventually serving as chair.
“I found that being the arts editor for the Santa Maria Sun, artists and arts organizations love you. Underline, capitalize, glowing letters, love you,” he said.
Craig was voted president of the Arts Council in 2005, and he and Linda have been closely involved with the council ever since.
They’re both excited for a couple of changes to this year’s grants competition, especially the showcase event on May 7, which will happen at PCPA’s Marian Theatre for the first time. For the Shafers, the new venue for the showcase isn’t so much about the meeting of their two favorite organizations, the Arts Council and PCPA, but more so the logistics. The showcase features performances by the winners of the grants, so the professional venue will help make them feel and look good, they explained.
“We get to use the professional technicians and sounds and lighting,” Craig said.
“And have a floor that the dancers can dance on and have room,” Linda added.
The Shafers are involved with a lot of the planning and organization of the showcase, which is just in a day’s work for them. The pair’s dedication to the Arts Council and arts in Santa Maria is part of a passion that goes back many years, which the council’s other members have found worthy of honor and praise.
“You just do it because you love doing it, and then when you look back, and you’re like, ‘It’s been that long?'” Linda said. “With dancing and PCPA and then the Arts Council, it’s like, ‘Yeah!'”
An upside of being honorees is that the Shafers get to serve as an example to young artists who are considering a career in the arts, Craig explained.
“Arts is doable. You can make a career out of it,” he said. “And I think for young artists, their parents are probably telling them to get a business degree, and they’re saying, ‘Arts is driving me.’ Well I say, let arts drive you.”
Managing Editor Joe Payne thinks it’s about time the Shafers were honored! Reach him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 5, 2018.
