Shaping Our Community: Meet UC San Diego Park & Market Resident Partner Felicia Shaw of San Diego ART Matters
This quarterly feature spotlights the dedicated community members behind the transformative organizations based at UC San Diego Park & Market. These resident partners operate from leased office spaces at the Park & Market building, located in the East Village neighborhood of downtown San Diego. Our mission at Park & Market is to convene community organizations to spark conversations and enhance collective impact.
Felicia Shaw is the executive director of San Diego ART Matters, the nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening San Diego’s creative ecosystem and advocating for greater public and private investment in the region’s arts and culture sector. For fans of the arts, Shaw is exactly the kind of person you’d want championing the arts in your community—she’s warm, engaging, and genuinely enthusiastic about the arts while maintaining a determined commitment to the community of creators she serves.
San Diego ART Matters, formerly known as the San Diego Regional Arts and Culture Coalition, has a rich history of service dating back more than 30 years. It emerged out of necessity in 1989 when the City of San Diego considered slashing arts and culture budgets in tough economic times. “We were formed specifically to fight that battle, to ensure that the arts did not get deleted from the budget, and we were successful,” Shaw recalls. From that victory, the organization solidified its role as a faithful advocate for the arts, expanding its mission beyond budget defense to encompass a broader range of services and support for the arts community.
The organization was entirely volunteer-run before Shaw was hired as its first executive director in 2023. She was a natural fit, having previously chaired the organization’s board. She is a seasoned veteran of the nonprofit arts and culture community, with previous stints at the Women’s Museum of California, San Diego Foundation, Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, and City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, to name a few. Throughout her career, Shaw has led several wide-ranging change initiatives focused on regional cultural planning, cultural tourism, arts education, diversity, equity and inclusion, and support for individual artists.
San Diego ART Matters operates not just as an advocacy organization but also as a service organization, fostering connections within the arts community, providing professional development, and promoting the arts as a vital economic driver. Shaw emphasizes the importance of a healthy arts sector, stating, “Our ultimate goal is to ensure the health of the arts and culture sector, that we have all the capabilities that we need to serve the region and ourselves.”
Ensuring the sector’s health has considerable social benefits, evident through numerous stories about how the arts transform lives. But its economic impact, now more measurable than ever, may surprise. According to a 2023 report by Americans for the Arts, the nonprofit arts and culture sector is a $1.37 billion industry in San Diego County—one that supports 19,771 full-time equivalent jobs and generates $110 million in local and state government revenue. “We no longer need to speak in generalities about the impact of the arts,” says Shaw. “We have the data and compelling stories that consistently show investing in the arts yields a substantial return, whether it’s time, talent, or money. Engaging with arts and culture in San Diego guarantees a positive outcome.”
Shaw’s journey into the arts began in her Midwestern childhood, where she was immersed in a family that valued creativity. “Growing up, I was the kind of kid who probably wouldn’t have been the star on the stage, but I was good at logistics,” she shares. This early inclination toward supporting and enabling the arts led her to a career dedicated to making art accessible and impactful. Shaw’s background in managing and facilitating creative endeavors laid the foundation for her role as an arts administrator, where she finds joy in helping others shine.
With Shaw’s leadership, San Diego ART Matters is poised to continue meeting the evolving needs of the arts community in a post-COVID society. Her vision is two-fold: First, it’s to thoroughly examine legislation affecting the arts community and ensure it aligns with its needs. She also envisions a unified arts community across San Diego County that provides consistent, high-quality experiences for residents and visitors alike. “We have such a great arts and culture scene here in our community, but what we don’t have is the organization that acts as the glue. That’s the role of San Diego ART Matters,” Shaw explains.
As Shaw and San Diego ART Matters continue to champion the arts from their new home office at Park & Market, the community can look forward to a more abundant and interconnected arts sector that welcomes all, enriches lives, and strengthens the region’s cultural fabric.
For more information, visit San Diego Art Matters at UC San Diego Park & Market or www.SDARTMatters.org.