Arts_Task_Force
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 SPECIAL MEETING OF THE ARTS TASK FORCE
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
4:00 p.m.
Mission Cultural Center, 2868 Mission Street
Minutes
The meeting was called to order at 4:21 p.m.
- Roll Call
Voting Members Present
Rick Galbreath
Tim Gaskin
Elaine Katzenberger
Krissy Keefer
Tony Kelly
Pamela Wu Kochiyama
Maria X. Martinez
Anjali Nath
Vinay Patel
Pamela Peniston
Richard (Rick) Putz
Alma Robinson
Laird Rodet
Virginia (Ginny) Carollo Rubin
Darryl Smith
Marc Vogl
Debra Walker
Voting Members Excused
Ken Foster
David Gluck
Voting Members Absent
Jeffrey Ferns
Nonvoting Members Present
Mike Farrah (replacing Daniel Homsey as the representative from the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services)
Tim Hallman
Renee Hayes
John R. Killacky
Jewelle Gomez (Arts Commission, on behalf of Richard Newirth)
Elizabeth Murray
Geraldine O’Brien
Gloria Woo
Nonvoting Members Absent
Bob Davis
Rich Hillis
P.J. Johnston
Carolyn McMillan
Charles Roppel
- Approval of Minutes
Tony Kelly moved to approve the June 15, 2005, minutes and was seconded by Alma Robinson. The motion carried without objection.
The following changes to the minutes of July 5, 2005, were made with unanimous consent:
Gloria Woo and Pamela Wu Kuchiyama should be indicated as present; Rick Galbreath should be indicated as excused.
Maria X. Martinez requested that the word “representatives” be inserted in the second paragraph of Item 8 so that the corrected version reads as follows (additions underlined):
Ms. Martinez reported that members of the Task Force met with some of the Supervisors’ representatives and agreed to work together to hold district meetings.
Gloria Woo requested clarification in the fifth paragraph of Item 8 (approving expenditure of up to $4,000) to indicate that she had volunteered to and was authorized to mail the Town Hall notices and that reimbursement of those expenses would be part of the Task Force recommendations. The paragraph as amended should read as follows (additions underlined):
Motion to spend $4,000 on publicity and production costs for the July 30 Town Hall meeting. Gloria Woo is authorized to produce and mail Town Hall meeting notices, and the Task Force, as a part of its report, will recommend that the Mayor’s Office of Community Development be reimbursed for the costs of such production and mailing facilitated by Ms. Woo.
There was no public comment.
Maria X. Martinez moved to approve the July 5, 2005 minutes as amended. Renee Hayes seconded. The motion passed without objection.
The issue of approving the July 20, 2005, minutes was then before the Task Force. Rick Putz moved to approve the minutes. Vinay Patel seconded and the motion carried without objection.
There was no public comment on this item.
NOTE: ALL VOTES ARE UNANIMOUS UNLESS OTHERWISE RECORDED.
- Announcements by the Chair
The next meeting will include School District /Proposition H discussion and will be back in City Hall. The September 21, 2005, meeting will include a land use discussion.
There was no public comment on this item.
- Discussion of Budget Allocation
The funds allocated by the Board of Supervisors will be recommended to be spent as part of the overall recommendations of the Task Force. Costs of mailing were substantially under $4,000.
Ginny Rubin asked how the Task Force received this money, and what will be the process by which we decide how to use it.
Pamela Wu Kuchiyama indicated that her understanding is that the funds were provided to fund printing of a report or implementing the recommendations of the Task Force.
Jewelle Gomez commented that the question seems to be establishing a process, or appointment of a finance committee or similar body to describe a process, by which the Task Force will recommend disbursement of the allocated funds.
Vinay Patel offered that we should seek direction from the Board of Supervisors as to what use of the funds was intended when the Board made the allocation.
Tony Kelly recalled that Supervisor Peskin is not a fan of Task Forces since their recommendations cannot be supported. Supervisor Ammiano moved to allocate funds to be able to implement recommendations.
Mike Farrah said that the monies are held in Mayor’s office, subject to certification by the Controller. He suggested that recommendations go to the Board and then be forwarded to the Mayor’s office for disbursement.
Ms. Murray said that Supervisor Ammiano said that the appropriation was made so that the Task Force could do its work, that monies are currently available to fund the actual work of the Task Force.
Elaine Katzenberger indicated that she was unaware, when she was appointed, that the Task Force would be responsible for expenditure of $100,000, and expressed some discomfort with that responsibility.
Marc Vogl suggested that the Task Force should move toward consensus on a process for expenditure of the allocated funds in order to get to the meat of the issues facing the Task Force.
Ginny Rubin will head an informal work group to come up with a budget for expenditure of the funds allocated to the Task Force.
Public Comment:
Christina Orth from the Exploratorium queried whether the Budget Committee Minutes were available. She commented that she was glad to have the discussion in the open and that arts organizations need to be in on the debate and aware of the recommendations.
There was no further public comment on this item.
- Presentation from Foundation Representatives
John Killacky was recognized and introduced Brad Paul of the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, and John Kreidler of Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley prior to a brief presentation on the statistics of foundation giving to the arts. The highlight of this was that 22 San Francisco foundations which were polled contributed $52 million to the arts in the last year.
Rick Putz offered that the growth of arts organizations (i.e., greater demand for funding) continues to rise while growth in funding did not keep up. John Kreidler responded that the greatest growth in nonprofit arts funding was from 1965 to 1980.
Brad Paul then took the floor and proposed that the seminal question facing the arts today is how to attract additional political and monetary support, and that the answer was in framing the issues by equating support for the arts as economic development, community development, business development, workforce development, violence reduction and safety enhancement strategies that are all intertwined. Further, successful solutions to those problems require the arts as a foundational planning tool when crafting strategies to address seemingly intractable problems.
As a primary example, Mr. Paul cited the 23rd Street Plan in Oakland, which integrates business, arts and culture to create after-5:00 p.m. activity—i.e., building a neighborhood. Mr. Paul stressed the arts and business as a community development tools.
To fund these strategies, Mr. Paul suggested learning from other practices such as the forgivable loan process for theater or arts venues—i.e., at the end of the term, the loan converts to a grant, which keeps the liability on the books and assures performance of the borrower/grantee to actually complete the promised project. Mr. Paul also suggested that the 2% for art fee for development should go: 50% into the local economy to commission artists and artwork, 25% to local performances; 15% to façade improvement such as neon signs; 10% for services to artists (marketing and other such administrative assistance).
Mr. Paul also suggested that the successful Housing for Teachers program which subsidized rents in exchange for tutoring could be replicated for artists to establish after-school arts programs. He proffered that Martha Sanger at the Housing Authority could implement such a program.
John Kreidler, the next speaker, introduced himself as a member of the Arts Task Force of 1993-94 and currently a member of the Institute and a GFTA board member.
Mr. Kreidler reminded the Task Force of the historical support for the arts and artists going back to the Renaissance when the Sienna (Italy) Artists Guild comprised of “city fathers” commissioned artwork—and then decided what to pay the artist based on their judgment of the work. He “fast forwarded” to the Depression-era Works Progress Administration (“WPA”),which utilized 44,000 artists employed in all categories—the San Francisco Puppet Theater and Sculpture Studio were founded with WPA funds and saved many artists’ careers during the Depression. In the mid-1970’s, the Nixon administration’s Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (“CETA”) program consolidated the arts, bundled and made grants to mayors and governors. Title 6 was added during the Watergate years as catchall employment program that funded several arts efforts in San Francisco and gave a start to the community gardens. The City made Title 6 grants to nonprofits until the job recovery of the 1980's when the Reagan administration lost interest in the CETA program.
Mr. Kreidler bemoaned that fact that we no longer have any substantial national or state programs supporting artists. Private Industry Councils are leveraging federal and state money for training and are beginning to show an interest in the demand for training in arts as a technical avocation.
Mr. Kreidler suggested several potential funding mechanisms such as Communities of Opportunity Initiative and Community Benefits Districts.
Adding to community appreciation of the arts, Mr. Kreidler offered that the arts in the schools polls extremely well with parents, indicating support for 3 to 4 hours a week of arts instruction. Further, Mr. Kreidler stated that the arts should be practiced just like sports. The audience for the arts is familiar with the art just like sports fans are familiar with the sport.
To bring the City more into a more active role, Mr. Kreidler suggested and supported the concept of an Arts Liaison, to make the Mayor understand that the arts are a vehicle to solutions to a multitude of the city’s ills. Every City agency should have an arts element as a part of their mission and this liaison to the Mayor would be the point person to be sure to make it happen.
Public Comment:
Toby Leavitt of the San Francisco Shakespeare festival offered that that there is a political climate and GFTA funds should be major priority. Specifically she asked what and how strong is the nexus between tourist dollars and arts spending. Brad Paul responded that there is strong nexus: Arts spending directly benefits the tourism industry and arts spending should be increased in outer neighborhoods. The byproduct would be a reduction in violence and therefore San Francisco violence would get out of the headlines.
There was no further public comment on this item.
- Outline Report of Recommendations to the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor
Vice-Chair Kelly reported that the workgroup was in the process of distilling the “Report Element Suggestions” down to a manageable number and that it is a challenge to do so.
Maria X. Martinez offered that the report must be a clear list of action items that can be implemented—four pages of specific items would be best.
Mike Farrah responded that the report should start with the easy recommendations first followed by longer-term issues that can be acted on in a systematic manner.
There was no public comment on this item.
- Outreach Update
Several of the District representatives reported progress in arranging town hall meetings, and a general solicitation for someone for youth outreach was made.
There was no public comment on this item.
- New Business
Renee Hayes, responding to the general inquiry of what the CVB was doing to get tourists into the neighborhoods, distributed “Diverse City Destinations” brochures.
There was no public comment on this item.
- Public Comment
There was no additional public comment.
- Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 7:04 p.m.
10/11/05 DW/RG/spr
