Photo credit: Vignesh Ramachandran 

The technology industry that sprawls across Silicon Valley often defines the region to the world. But community leaders want to make something else clear: Silicon Valley is also home to a vibrant arts and culture scene.

Silicon Valley Creates – a new venture created by the merger of the Arts Council Silicon Valley and 1stACT Silicon Valley – wants to make people more aware of the region’s growing arts and culture ecosystem and encourage investment in the space. It’s a complex challenge in a largely suburban region sometimes overshadowed by northern neighbor San Francisco, a city perceived to have a more established arts and culture scene.

But go back in time to October 2007, when Knight Foundation invested $3.5 million in 1stACT Silicon Valley, and it is clear there have been serious efforts to boost Silicon Valley’s artistic and cultural identity. 1stACT (arts, creativity and technology) was a catalyst organization that focused on community building and placemaking in San Jose and the Valley. The organization’s initiatives included a project to rejuvenate the South First Avenue (“SoFA”) district in downtown San Jose. Drive through SoFA these days and its transformation is seen in the trendy aesthetics and artsy vibe. In addition to urban design, 1stACT focused on cultural stewardship and cultural literacy, embedding its agenda, staff and board in partner organizations.

“We’re in an evolutionary transition of creating the next civic identity and economy here,” said Judith Kleinberg, Knight Foundation’s Silicon Valley program director. “We already have the information economy, and so now we’re trying to establish the urban hub and the political hub. This is a great place to live and work, but we also want people to enjoy it as an attractive destination for entertainment and leisure, one with an exciting, creative vibe.”

One of 1stACT’s notable success stories involved San Jose’s Mexican Heritage Plaza, a cultural facility located in the Mayfair neighborhood, an area known for its large Mexican-American population. When the facility faced serious leadership and financial challenges, 1stACT staffer Tamara Alvarado helped figure out how to reinvent the facility and make use of its 55,000 square feet of programmable space, which includes a theater, gardens and classrooms.

“Multiple communities were interested in seeing this place not only survive but thrive and wanted to see something different,” Alvarado said.

The solution was born from the community’s vision: the new School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza was created with a multicultural perspective, aiming to serve children first. About 1,200 people per week come through the center, which offers after-school programs and sessions in visual and performing arts. Alvarado, who is now executive director of the school, is proud of the turnaround—especially considering the alternative: The property might have become a fenced-off eyesore.

Now, after the merger, former 1stACT managing director Connie Martinez is carrying on the momentum as CEO of Silicon Valley Creates. As a catalyst organization, 1stACT was never meant to be around permanently, she said, but instead began embedding its goals in partner organizations and has passed the baton.

According to Kleinberg, Knight Foundation recognized the impact of those efforts with an additional three-year grant of $1.8 million in 2011, an investment that continues to support the transformation in the region.

“Our first investment was having a substantial effect in the Valley as 1stACT undertook this difficult work, and we wanted to ensure the sustainability of that progress,” she said. “It was our vote of confidence in what 1stACT was doing—and in the work that continues under Silicon Valley Creates.”

Martinez said Silicon Valley Creates is helping make consumers more aware of local arts and cultural choices so that they can participate in what the region has to offer.

“We’re reimagining the role that an organization like this can and should play in our quirky region called Silicon Valley,” Martinez said. As part of that process, she said the organization and community must leverage their assets and attributes. For example, Silicon Valley is non-hierarchical, she said.

“If you want to learn or think about our arts and culture ecosystem, we are Web-like, which means we’re distributed; we’re organic; we’re – in this case – D-I-Y, do-it-yourself,” Martinez said.

The region is also very diverse: “You have people coming here from all over the world … because of Silicon Valley,” Martinez said. “Other cities are cosmopolitan as well, but because of Silicon Valley, there are technologists and engineers, and I think the arts and culture ecosystem reflects that.

Roy Hirabayashi, who founded San Jose Taiko in 1973, was also one of the founders of 1stACT. He said Silicon Valley Creates can continue 1stACT’s work of broadening the arts offerings in the region.

“San Jose has always been a multicultural city, and it definitely shows that now,” Hirabayashi said. “You can see a whole variety of different kind of festivals happening that are really relating to those different communities that still exist and are very popular.”

Just this year, San Jose has been the location for events as diverse as an international short film festival; a two-day gay pride festival; Day of the Dead observances; Japantown events; the C2SV Technology Conference and Music Festival (Silicon Valley’s own SXSW); and celebrations for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights.

Rich Braugh, another 1stACT founder, said he has wanted to see the arts and cultural base “flourish within the Valley.”

“There’s always been a base, but it’s always been less rigorous and less successful than the entrepreneurial side of the Valley,” said Braugh, who is a senior vice president at UBS Financial.

But Braugh believes the creativity and openness to taking risks in the region may help: “There’s a culture in the Valley which is: ‘Don’t be afraid to try.’”