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Sacramento-raised painter David Garibaldi delivered a poignant speech at Wednesday's "For Art's Sake" meeting. The 26-year-old thanked Mayor Kevin Johnson and the city for its support and guidance when he was growing up in Sacramento.

While Garibaldi was a high school student interested in the arts, the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission recognized his potential and sent him to California State Summer School for the Arts on a full scholarship, he said. Garibaldi credited this and his high school art program with helping him redirect a creative fire that led him to graffiti the streets of Sacramento, inspiring him instead to become a performance artist.

The "For Art's Sake" initiative launched in June and holds meetings once a month, the fourth Wednesday of the month from 10 to 11 a.m., in different locations throughout the Sacramento area. "For the next three and a half years, the arts initiative will be something I'm fighting for," Johnson said in a previous meeting.

More than 150 people showed up at Hot Italian pizzeria at 16th and Q streets to see Garibaldi deliver a speech and visual presentation. He is currently a licensed artist with Elvis Presley Enterprises, the Bob Marley Estate and Jimi Hendrix Estate, as well as an official Disney artist in the Disney Fine Art program. He recently performed his art show "Rhythm and Hue" as an opener for Blue Man Group and Snoop Dogg.

After the meeting, Hot Italian served pizza as members of the arts community mingled. The Sacramento Press spoke with some of the attendees.

"It's nice to have a mayor bringing this type of support to the arts," said Jay Bridges, of a film initiative called 916 Hollywood. He said the company will help bring Sacramento to the attention of the film industry, and also praised the level of support Johnson has received from corporations.

"It's really inspiring," said Kathy Ossmann, a singer and president of the Sacramento Master Singers board. "This is the first real support for the arts that raises public awareness and focuses on the arts."

She also addressed questions of whether or not the initiative was accomplishing enough.

"The most concrete accomplishment is being accepted for the Kennedy Center's 'Any Given Child Program,' (but) one year is a short time to accomplish something like building a new facility," she said. "This is much more about public awareness and perception, so I'm not disturbed nothing more concrete has been accomplished."

Next month's meeting will not take place on the fourth Wednesday of the month, due to its proximity to Thanksgiving. Instead, it will be held Nov. 18 at the Sacramento Theatre Company, 1419 H St.

For more information, please visit http://www.cityofsacramento.org/mayor/forArtsSake.