The art and entertainment industries originated mostly in California. As time went on, however, other states began to adopt these venues and make them their own, which caused significant competition between them and California. The art and entertainment industries were some of California’s largest sources of tax revenue, and so their sudden drop in value was significant for the entire state. In 1982, Wendy Goldberg, representative of the California Arts Council at the time, put her efforts into establishing new schools and programs to encourage young artists to stay in California for their education, after realizing, with the help of others, that many artists were leaving to study in other states, and staying there to work after they completed their educations.
In 1985 the California State Summer School for the Arts was established, with three main goals:
1. To enable talented students of all ethnicities to participate in intensive training in arts or entertainment
2. To train and support future artists who might want to practice the arts or find a career with the major performing arts companies
3. To re-establish the art and performing industries in California.
Since its inception, over 11,000 gifted students have graduated from the California State Summer School. The school now has over 35 board members, including Wendy Goldberg, Anne Johnson, Jamie Tisch and Maggie Drake.
