Wednesday morning Mayor Kevin Johnson held his second "For Art's Sake" meeting, which saw an increase in attendance over last month. More than 100 people crowded into the Verge Art Gallery on 19th and V Streets.

To open the meeting, Dennis Mangers, senior adviser for Senator Darrell Steinberg, summarized the previous meeting. Afterward, Johnson took the podium to lay down his vision for the arts initiative.

"What is our vision? What are our goals? Who do we want to be as an art community? Those are things we are going to start answering ourselves," he said. "Over the next 11 months, we're going to create a sustainable arts community."

He mentioned that as a whole, an estimated $100,000 would be necessary to fund the initiative. This would enable the group to build a website and hire consultants and interns to help organize logistics.

"I need you to understand that there's no 'I' in 'art,' and there's no 'I' in 'team,'" Johnson added. "For the next three and a half years, the arts initiative will be something I'm fighting for."

Johnson then announced the creation of a leadership committee, and five committee subgroups. These subgroups will concentrate on arts issues such as funding, facilities, marketing and education, and one group will concentrate on film.

The film subgroup will meet to ensure Sacramento is perceived as a great filming location for studio productions. Johnson invited Jeremiah Jackson, a Harvard Fellow working with the mayor's office for eight weeks, to speak about the film industry.

Jackson noted that the group will raise the profile for the city, expose youth to the arts, and bring in revenue. Over the past few weeks, Jackson has been studying ways to change the perception of the city and raise the city's profile as a good location for filmmakers.

Each committee will meet at least once a month, and the team's leader will research how to build an "action plan" for the group's issue. Each person who attended the meeting was told to write down two subgroups they would be interested in.

There was a similar crowd at last month's meeting, consisting of representatives from organizations like the Sacramento Ballet, Chalk It Up! and Sacramento Theater Company. Sacramento's Poet Laureate Bob Stanley also attended.

Every fourth Wednesday of the month, "For Art's Sake" will meet in a different venue. Next month the meeting is on Wednesday, August 26 at Capitol Public Radio from 10 to 11 a.m.

Sharon Gerber, the mayor's Arts Liaison will be the point of contact to tie all the subgroups together. Anyone interested in funding the initiative or attending the meetings should contact Sharon Gerber by emailing her at sharongerber@sixdegreez.net.