Influential Santa Ana civic and arts leader Don Cribb has passed away

Three police officers have been posted outside the small home of Don Cribb this afternoon. They confirmed that he has passed away. Foul play is not believed to be a factor.

Cribb had been slowing down this year and now he is gone – an impactful loss given his long and fruitful history in Santa Ana.

Cribb was a native of Santa Ana who graduated from Valley High School. He went on to study English and Film at USC and also attended the University of the Americas, in Mexico City. He was quite fond of reminiscing about those years and his adventures in Mexico’s art community.

Cribb wrote on his Linkedin page that his “family was dysfunctional in many ways, Father became an alcoholic some years after returning from the Korean War. I was just a small boy. While much of my formal education focused on creative writing, photography, and film, most of my education was experiential. I was a curious boy who found the rhythmic rocking of the back seat in my family’s Rambler station wagon an incubator for dreams.”

When many others saw only crime and problems when assessing Santa Ana back in the 1980’s Cribb saw potential. In 1987, Cribb formed the 14-member non-profit Santa Ana Council of Arts and Culture (SACAC), with a master plan to integrate art, artists and the culinary arts, according to the Orange Review.

“The resulting Artists Village became the hood ornament for the citywide arts movement, a 10-block interactive art center featuring live-work artists’ studios, galleries and quality restaurants,” said Cribb.

The city created the ten-block Artists Village, Orange County’s first publicly subsidized artist colony, on the southwest downtown portion and strolling distance of La Cuatro in 1994, according to PBS.

Cribb leveraged his Santa Ana Council of Arts and Culture (SACAC) group to steer the city to commit subsidies “to assist with the donation of land and exclusive right-to-negotiate guarantees.” The city invested heavily to jump-start the Village. This included $5 million in federal community development block grants, $1 million in general redevelopment dollars to purchase and renovate buildings for lease at $1 a year, as well as to provide forgivable loans to area investors for rehabilitation.

Santa Ana’s arts movement picked up steam when Cribb’s notable artist friend David Hockney agreed to stage a solo exhibition in Santa Ana instead of Newport Beach,” according to Cribb.  The media loved the event, and the Segerstrom family hosted a private party for David.

What later sealed the deal for the Artists Village was when CSUF opened the Grand Central Art Center in 1999. Cribb and Cal State Fullerton Gallery Director Mike McGee originally conceived the Grand Central Art Center in 1994 as the anchor and catalyst for a 10-square block area in the heart of downtown Santa Ana, designated as the Artists Village, according to CSUF.

Former Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who partnered with Cribb to bring the Artists Village to life, said tonight about Cribb that “he did a lot and left things undone. I listened to him and empowered him.”

Cherie Kerr, the Artistic Director of the OC Crazies, an improvisational comedy organization based in Santa Ana and a founding member of The LA Groundlings, an iconic school and theater where many famous actors, comics and writers had their starts, said “If it weren’t for Don Cribb, the art community in Santa Ana wouldn’t have happened.

Randy Au, Assistant Director of the Visual Arts Conservatory and teaches ceramics at OCSA, said “Don is the visionary godfather of the whole arts movement here in Santa Ana.

Cribb’s friends often visited him at his beloved home in Santa Ana’s Park Santiago Neighborhood and would bring him lunch. When he was feeling better he would sit on his porch and greet those stopping by. He will be missed by so many.