Community_Arts_and_Education_Committee
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 COMMUNITY ARTS, EDUCATION, and GRANTS COMMITTEE
April 8, 2008
4:30 p.m.
25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 70
San Francisco
Minutes
The meeting was called to order at 4:30 p.m.
Commissioners Present: P.J. Johnston, Maya Draisin, Sherene Melania, Sherri Young
Staff Present: Luis R. Cancel, Judy Nemzoff, San San Wong, Dia Penning, Robynn Takayama, Ebony McKinney, Lucy Lin, Rebecca Wolfe
- Cultural Equity Grants Program Director Report
Cultural Equity Grants Program Director San San Wong reported on the Native American Arts and Cultural Traditions grants program. She informed the Committee of the number of grant applications received in each grant category and the total amount of funds requested. Ms. Wong stated that approximately 50% of the applications were from individual artists; this center of activity within the Native American communities is consistent with findings from the research conducted in the development of the grants program. Ms. Wong said that panel funding recommendations are determined after grant applications are reviewed according to the published review criteria, including artistic or project quality and feasibility. If funding recommendations are at “full funding” (same as the requested amount), approximately 46% of the applications can be funded; at partial funding (75% of requested amount), then approximately 61% of the applications can be funded. Five panelists will be secured for the grants review. There are currently three Native American and one Hawaiian panelist. The last panelist will represent the Chicano/Indigenous community. The panelist composition represents the composition of the pool of applicants.
Ms. Wong invited Commissioners to the grants review panel, which will be held on April 28, 2008. She also invited the Commissioners to a roundtable policy discussion on Native American arts scheduled for April 29, 2008. This event is to be co-hosted with the San Francisco Foundation.
Vice President Maya Draisin asked if the Commissioners' role is an observatory one or if they can provide information to the panel. President P.J. Johnston replied that the Commission should maintain distance from participating in the panel process.
Cultural Affairs Director Luis Cancel added that there will be a policy conversation with panelists after the grants review process if the Commissioners are interested in participating.
Ms. Wong noted that other individuals may be invited for the roundtable discussion and the conversation will be centered on the Native American community.
President Johnston inquired about potential conflicts that may arise given the small Native American community in San Francisco.
Ms. Wong responded that many of the grants review panelists are coming from outside San Francisco, such as from Sacramento and the Lakota Reservation, and can also speak to what is happening nationally. Furthermore, all panelists are required to fill out the City's conflict of interest forms to declare direct, financial, and perceived conflicts. Any conflicts listed are discussed with the City Attorney's office.
Commissioner Sherri Young made the following motion:
Motion to approve the following individuals as grants application review panelists for Cultural Equity Grants:
Kawika Alfiche, Director, APOP Hawaiian Cultural Center
Randy Burns, American Indian Community Advocate
Ken Harper, Founder and Curator, AIDS to Native Eyes (ATNE)
Celia Herrera Rodríguez, Artist and Educator, U.C. Berkeley and California College of the Arts
Motion passed unanimously.
Ms. Wong reported on the San Francisco Bay Area Arts Town Hall. She explained that the purpose of organizing the Arts Town Hall is to help build stronger arts communities, especially those that are historically underserved.
Ms. Wong said that the chief partners with SFAC are the Center for Cultural Innovation (a statewide service organization for individual artists), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Hewlett Foundation and the Irvine Foundation, as well as over 35 organizations who are part of the planning committee. The date for the Arts Town Hall is June 9, 2008, and the event will take place throughout the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts complex. Ms. Wong reviewed the agenda with workshops developed by teams of community leaders. She asserted that the important charge of the Cultural Equity Grants program is to provide individual artists, small and mid-sized arts organizations, and organizations rooted in historically underserved communities, with fair access to resources. She sees the Arts Town Hall as a way to provide access to the CEG constituency and to bring the constituency together to form a stronger voice and network.
Ms. Wong said that one of the critical issues for individual artists is that San Francisco is becoming more expensive to live in; therefore artists and organizations are moving out of the city and partnering around the Bay Area. The Arts Town Hall planning committee wanted to emphasize a Bay Area-wide scope of assets and challenges, and look potentially at the Bay Area through concepts of “super-city.” Therefore, a Regional Arts Strategies Leadership Caucus was formed, which includes local arts agencies from Santa Cruz, Silicon Valley, San Jose, Berkeley, Richmond, Oakland, Contra Costa, Alameda and Marin. The Arts Town Hall will also look at involving non-arts models, policy makers, and city planners.
Commissioner Young expressed confidence in the partnerships and spoke to the value of the goals of the Arts Town Hall. She stated that she has attended the planning committee meetings and found that the members are all the top thinkers and actors of the arts community in San Francisco. She welcomed other Commissioners to become involved and asked Ms. Wong what roles Commissioners could take to support this effort.
Mr. Cancel asked Ms. Wong to identify which of the potential keynote speakers are from San Francisco. He also inquired about a budget for the Arts Town Hall.
Ms. Wong replied that the budget for the Arts Town Hall includes support from foundations, Cultural Equity Grants, Center for Cultural Innovation and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Planning committee members were also contributing their time and organizational support.
Mr. Cancel wanted to know how the discussions and content will be captured.
Ms. Wong explained that the planning committee for the resource room was considering live blogging and other vehicles for attendees to capture their thoughts, ideas and potential actions. She mentioned a possible student journalism project, in collaboration with San Francisco State University and journalist and social activist Jeff Chang, to produce reports.
Mr. Cancel stated that he thought it would be important to have reports after the Arts Town Hall.
President Johnston and Commissioner Young stated that Ms. Wong should not hesitate to ask the Commission and Commissioners for support and to be involved in the Arts Town Hall.
- Community Arts and Education Program Director Report
To introduce the motion, Community Arts and Education Program Director Judy Nemzoff explained that the Programs in the Community Grant funds art programs at social service organizations and the panelists chosen to review the applications reflect experience working in the arts and social service organizations.
Staff received 31 applications this year, an increase in applicants in spite of a reduction in outreach. Staff reduced outreach in response to a reduction in funding for the next fiscal year.
Ms. Nemzoff said that the review panel would close with a policy discussion that would include the possibility of limiting the number of consecutive years a grantee could receive funding, to allow new funding opportunities for other organizations. This would be a consideration for the future and not affect this round of applications. Commissioner Johnston asked how this would help new organizations receive funding. Ms. Nemzoff responded that several organizations have fine-tuned their application over the years, are consistently funded, and assume that the funding will be annualized. She added that these are great programs and the issue isn't about their work but their expectation that they will be funded every year. The second issue is providing opportunities to seed new projects and programs, which may open up if organizations are required to rotate off for a year or two. Commissioner Johnston thought that was a healthy conversation to have for revisions to next year's guidelines. He said it's natural for grantees to assume that the funding would be available each year. Commissioner Draisin asked for confirmation that a healthy organization should be able to handle a year without receiving the grant. Ms. Nemzoff stated that indicators of a healthy nonprofit include multiple revenue sources and that we would let organizations know a year ahead of time so they would have time to plan.
Mr. Cancel asked why the funding had decreased. Ms. Nemzoff responded that the program had received additional funding from supplemental funds for two years, which would not be available for this program next year.
Commissioner Melania made the following motion:
Motion to approve the following panelists to be considered for the Programs in the Community Grants panel pool:
John Calloway, musician, educator
Wendy Levy, Director of Creative Programming, Bay Area Video Coalition
Indra Mungal, Community Programs Manager, Oakland Museum of California
Raelle Myrick-Hodges, Artistic Director, Brava! for Women in the Arts
Kirthi Nath, Video Instructor, Bay Area Video Coalition
Jason Wyman, Youth Development Peer Network
The motion passed unanimously.
- Cultural Center Report
Because next year's budget is still in flux, Ms. Gonchar, in consultation with the Controller's office, advised a postponement of the Management and Programming Plan (“MPP”) and proposed grant allocations to the Cultural Centers until May. With this one-month delay, the MPP will be reviewed by the CAEG Committee in June and the full Commission in July.
The review of the MPP will be an opportunity to support Mr. Cancel's efforts to help build improved organizational capacity of the tenants and better position them for long-term leases. Ms. Nemzoff asked Commissioners to review the MPPs carefully and ask questions that pertain to building stronger nonprofits. Ms. Nemzoff said she would send out a checklist for healthy nonprofits published in Grantscraft: Practical Wisdom for Grantmakers.
Ms. Nemzoff reported that the African American Art and Culture Complex would close for electrical and ADA-compliance work when power and water would be turned off. Executive Director London Breed is working to assist subtenants with temporary relocation plans. Programs of the center will continue to take place at multiple sites around the community and staff will be retained. Ms. Nemzoff supports funding this transition, which will be reflected in the MPP. The closure is scheduled from approximately October, 2008 through January, 2009.
President Johnston recognized that the Cultural Centers need time to submit a complete MPP. Ms. Nemzoff recommended that the June meeting be dedicated to discussing the MPPs.
President Johnston asked to have an update on SomArts at a future meeting.
- WritersCorps Report
WritersCorps Project Manager Janet Heller reported that the final reading associated with Intersection's Spring Literary Series will be held on Tuesday, April 29, 2008, at 7:30 p.m. Students from Downtown High School and Ida B. Wells High School will be performing with their teachers and Linda Watanabe McFerrin. She shared a recent article written by Robert Hurwitt for the San Francisco Chronicle, which offered a favorable review of the reading series.
Teaching Artist Journal (Jan-March 2008) featured WritersCorps in its cover article written by Training Coordinator Judith Tannenbaum.
The final event for 2008 is the Annual Literary Festival on May 22 at the San Francisco Public Library, where students will be sharing new work from recently published site publications and broadside series. Also, WritersCorps youth will be reading at a San Francisco Giants Game on June 3.
She reported on preparation and planning for the upcoming 15th anniversary of the program in 2008-09. Harper Collins will release a sequel to the first national WritersCorps youth anthology Paint Me Like I Am which has sold over 30,000 copies. Sherman Alexie has submitted the foreword for the new book entitled Tell the World, which is coming out in October, 2008. Alexie has also committed to read with WritersCorps youth on December 1 at Herbst Theatre.
Ms. Heller said she is excited for Commissioner Calegari to join the Committee.
- Arts Education Report
Arts Education Program Manager Dia Penning gave a presentation on the five-year plan for the arts education program. This plan will support efforts by the school district to implement the Arts Education Master Plan, and by the Mayor to create a family-friendly city.
The plan includes holding discussion forums, creating a middle school voucher program, developing the Inside/Out website and print publication, working with other City agencies, developing lesson plans for the Arts Commission Gallery, and supporting the implementation of the San Francisco Unified School District (“SFUSD”) Arts Education Master Plan. Some of these programs will require additional resources and staff.
As Ms. Penning presented a multi-year timeline, Mr. Cancel said those plans could be integrated into an agency-wide master plan.
President Johnston asked how effectively the School District had been implementing arts education. Ms. Penning said there were challenges because the Visual and Performing Arts Office has only three staff people. She added that Proposition H money is not being cut; it's exclusively for in-school programs. President Johnston said it's important to support the teachers integrating arts into the classroom.
Ms. Nemzoff provided a summary of the history of the birth of the Arts Education Master Plan. Ms. Penning explained that the SFUSD Arts Advisory Committee supports the Visual and Performing Arts Office by acting as advisor and sounding board for Master Plan implementation, and supports their budget allocations and strategic decisions to Supervisors, the Mayor and the Superintendent.
To best keep the Commissioners informed, Commissioner Draisin said she would like a quarterly update. President Johnston would like to know “what fires are burning.”
- Buildings and Grounds Superintendent Report
Ms. Nemzoff encouraged Commissioners to attend the unveiling of the renovated Bayview Opera House, an event that is part of the Neighborhood Arts Festival.
- New Business
Mr. Cancel suggested that the Cultural Center directors should present an update and their plans for next year to the full Commission to help all the Commissioners better understand the complexities and diversity in the program. President Johnston agreed and said it should be an informational presentation. He also encouraged CAEG meetings to be scheduled at the Cultural Centers. Ms. Nemzoff agreed and added that the Cultural Center directors love to host the Committee meetings.
- Adjournment
As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:05 p.m.
4/29/08 RT
