Meeting Information

Community_Arts_and_Education_Committee

COMMUNITY ARTS, EDUCATION, and GRANTS COMMITTEE
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
4:30 p.m.
25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 70
San Francisco

Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 4:37 p.m.

Commissioners Present: Maya Draisin, Sherene Melania, Sherri Young

Staff Present: Judy Nemzoff, San San Wong, Dia Penning, Janet Heller, Melissa Hung, Robynn Takayama, Ebony McKinney, Weston Teruya, Rebecca Wolfe

1. WritersCorps Report
   WritersCorps Project Manager Janet Heller showed the recently produced WritersCorps teacher recruitment video. Ms. Heller asked for the Commissioners' help in recruitment. Commissioner Melania asked how many positions WritersCorps might need to fill. Ms. Heller said two or three next year.
   
   Ms. Heller provided an update on upcoming publications that mention WritersCorps or feature articles by WritersCorps teacher alumni.
   
   She reminded the Commissioners about the launch of the Park Branch Library open mic and WritersCorps' participation at the Glide Memorial Church, Martin Luther King, Jr. event on Monday, January 21, 2008.
   
   
2. Arts Education Report
   Arts Education Program Manager Dia Penning announced the Arts Education Funders Collaborative professional development workshop at the Presidio on January 16 and 17, 2008.
   
   She discussed the collaboration with the SFAC Gallery and the development of lesson plans for exhibitions including “Mission Greenbelt” and “Reconciling America,” which are available on the Inside Out website. A website redesign will be completed by next month.
   
   She reported that the Arts Commission supported bilingual publication of the Arts Education Master Plan in Chinese and Spanish, and made the Market Street kiosks available to promote the Young at Art Festival.
   
   She also announced that a workshop for the Arts Providers Alliance called “Classroom Management for Arts Educators” in collaboration with Edgewood Center for Families will begin on January 28.
   
   Ms. Penning reminded the Commissioners that this is the last year of the Arts Education Funders Collaborative and invited them to participate in the professional development days at the Presidio.
   
   
3. Cultural Equity Grants Program Director Report
   Cultural Equity Grants Program Director San San Wong presented two motions. The first is the one-time International Arts Festival grant. She reminded the Committee that they have discussed this grant in previous Community Arts, Education and Grants committee meetings, and she provided a quick overview. Basically, the Arts Commission received an add-back of $100,000 to support the production and marketing of an international arts festival in San Francisco. Last year, the add-back was administered by Grants for the Arts. The add-back came to Cultural Equity Grants since it is the Arts Commission's primary grants program. To administer it, CEG applied its fair grants-making process, issuing a Request for Proposals, establishing criteria for evaluation, and conducting its usual panel review process.
   
   She reviewed the overarching categories for the criteria for evaluation: quality of the proposed festival; impact on audiences and communities in San Francisco; quality and soundness of plan; and organizational capacity and capability to implement the arts festival. In each category, there are specific criteria. For example, in “impact on audiences and communities in San Francisco,” the reviewers look at: “quality of the engagement of local communities and audiences with the festival's culturally and economically diverse artists from San Francisco and from other countries”; “credibility of the organization's plans for securing the desired audience”; and “ability to promote and market the arts festival.” Under “organizational capacity and capability to implement the arts festival,” the specific criteria include: “soundness of the organization's overall financial health”; and “involvement and support of the organization's board.” As another example, under “quality of the proposed arts festival,” the criteria include: “quality of the artistic programming, including its curatorial or artistic vision”; and “quality of collaboration with other arts, cultural and/or non-arts organizations based in, and utilization of multiple venues throughout, San Francisco.”
   
   She reported that there were five experienced panelists from different organizational sizes, different backgrounds, including artists, curators and administrators. She said that they understand curatorial vision and partnerships, and have a sense of scale and activity in the Bay Area. As $100,000 is one of the Program's largest grants, all the criteria are weighted equally, but it is important that the awardee can manage the funds well. Two proposals were received, one from the San Francisco International Arts Festival and one from World Arts West.
   
   Ms. Wong called for questions from the Commissioners, but there were none.
   
   Commissioner Melania made the following motion:
   Motion to approve the recommendation to award one grant totaling $100,000 for the 2007-2008 International Arts Festival grant to the following organization and to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into a grant agreement for the amount listed:
   
   World Arts West, $100,000
   
   Commissioner Draisin called for public comment.
   
   Andrew Wood, Executive Director, San Francisco International Arts Festival, said that he would be submitting an appeal to the award to World Arts West. He said that the panel is experienced, but that they were convened to look at Cultural Equity Initiatives. He said that was okay because they are experienced, but that only one has experience in international presenting, and they have experience in film. He said that they don't have experience getting artists into this country, and that from World Arts West's description of their plan to get folks into the country, they don't know what they're talking about. He said that they are starting in January; they don't have artists identified and they are coming up with a process for distribution of money to go to international musicians. He argued that in the best case, it will be March before they know which people to get into the country. He said that they will have to do premium processing, and that there's no way to get visas in time; it takes a long time. He said that there was nobody on the panel with experience to tell them that. He said that he had been talking to Interim Director of Cultural Affairs Nancy Gonchar about this.
   
   Motion passed unanimously.
   
   Ms. Wong presented background information on the second motion, to award the grants for Cultural Equity Initiatives Level 1 (“CEI-L1”). She described this as a cornerstone program for CEG, because it is about building strong arts organizations and support systems in communities which have been historically underserved. In Cultural Equity Initiatives Level 2, applications were reviewed from Aunt Lute, Queer Cultural Center, and First Voice. CEI-L1 provides shorter-term grants, sparking incentive for certain change. She said that the panel recommended 18 grants out of a total applicant pool of 29 applications, which she thought was a good percentage.
   
   After each panel, the panelists and program staff have policy discussions to talk about issues that they see organizations facing as discussed in these applications. Given this information, staff asks how to improve the Program's services to these organizations? In the spring, she said, staff is undertaking an assessment and planning process.
   
   She highlighted some of the field issues as follows:
   * Fatigue in the field, especially with organizations that are 20 years or older. They're in a period of post-California Arts Council, post-9/11, with no history of business and corporate support. Many are struggling to make a shift, to move from single source support, to build an individual donor base.
   * Newer organizations - it is very exciting to see them. It's interesting that several have been incubated through other organizations such as Queer Cultural Center and Asian Improv aRts. It also represents a dialogue and building between generations. Should the Arts Commission be encouraging incubation and sharing? Is this a new viable strategy?
   * Artist-led organizations: Might they need new, different strategies of support? What are the different needs of a solo artist vs. those of a company?
   * No African American organizations applied. Ms. Wong spoke with Commissioner Young and Community Arts and Education Program Director Judy Nemzoff about this briefly. Is this a result of Black flight from the city? Gentrification? What is happening? Have artistic aesthetic changes fostered a different kind of artistic support system, maybe more multiracial formations? Ms. Wong is working with some Oakland funders to bring together different African and African American artists to have a roundtable conversation about what is happening and how to address this. As part of the planning process, the group wants to have other conversation series with other organizations/communities as well.
   * Should the Arts Commission and CEG provide other technical assistance and access to other kinds of outside expertise to grantees?
   
   Ms. Wong describe these as some of the burning issues, and said that through evaluation, she expects to have more to share.
   
   Commissioner Young made the following motion:
   Motion to approve recommendations to award eighteen grants totaling $439,500 in the 2007-2008 cycle of Cultural Equity Initiatives Level One grants to the following organizations, and to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into grant agreements with each for the amounts listed:
   
   3rd I South Asian Independent Film Festival, $25,000
   ABADA Capoeira San Francisco, $25,000
   Asian Improv aRts, $15,000
   Carnaval San Francisco, $25,000
   Children's Book Press, $25,000
   Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco, $25,000
   Chinese Historical Society of America, $25,000
   Fresh Meat Productions, $25,000
   Galeria de la Raza, $25,000
   Gen Taiko, $25,000
   Melody of China, Inc., $25,000
   Oasis for Girls, $25,000
   Purple Moon Dance Project, $25,000
   Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project, $25,000
   Radar Productions, $25,000
   Theatre Rhinoceros, $25,000
   Women's Audio Mission, $24,500
   World Arts West, $25,000
   
   Commissioner Draisin called for public comment.
   
   Pam Wu Kochiyama, Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (“APICC”) and Interim Director of SOMARTs said that another issue facing Asian American arts organizations is how they transition from the old guard to new organizations. She said that APICC is in a transition phase, looking for directors. She said they're looking for people to work at a $40,000 salary level with benefits, but they're in a time post-CAC and potentially working with a multi-director structure. She said it looks like World Arts West will be getting a CEI-Level 1 grant and the International Arts Festival funding. She asked if this money would be better used by being distributed to another organization.
   
   Motion passed unanimously.
   
   
4. Community Arts and Education Program Director Report
   Community Arts and Education Program Director Judy Nemzoff framed the discussion of the funding to the Native American community by providing a history of the Cultural Center program. Forty years ago, the City received four buildings to serve as Cultural Centers. In 1997, legislation passed to fund the Cultural Centers through Hotel Tax Funds: SomArts, Bayview Opera House, Inc. (“BVOH”), African American Art and Culture Complex (“AAACC”), Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (“MCCLA”) were funded. There was also a Commission decision to support three Cultural Centers “without walls”: Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (“APICC”), Queer Cultural Center (“QCC”), and Native American Cultural Center (“NACC”).
   
   The Cultural Centers are required to submit annual reports and Ms. Nemzoff said it became apparent that funds weren't reaching the Native American community in the way the Commission hoped they would. In spring 2007, the Controller's Office withheld funding from the NACC. At the same time, a discussion began about how to improve the Cultural Center program.
   
   At the November CAEG Committee meeting, a motion to fund AIM-West with funds previously allocated to NACC was put on the agenda by former Commissioner Cuellar, naming AIM-West as a sub grantee of SomArts. The motion passed the Committee, but later staff and Commissioners felt the motion was premature and the SomArts board also voted to delay decisions about new programs for several months. The motion was severed at the full Commission's meeting on January 7, 2008, to allow time for community input and a policy discussion.
   
   Ms. Nemzoff emphasized that the funds are not lost and staff will do everything they can to retain the funds for distribution.
   
   Commissioner Draisin thanked members of the public for attending this meeting and the previous day's full Commission meeting. She asked the public to steer their comments towards the ecology of the Native artist environment in order educate the Commissioners and inform their decision-making. Ms. Nemzoff added that there would be more opportunities to provide feedback to staff. Commissioner Draisin opened the floor to public comment.
   
   Janeen Antoine, director of American Indian Contemporary Art, said she was an original board member for NACC but left after a couple of years. She said she had been waiting to see what would happen with NACC and would like to see fiscal accountability from the organization.
   
   She added that AIM's possible funding launched a meeting that created a Native Arts Alliance; 27 people attended the formation meeting. She said she would love to meet with SFAC staff to talk about funding possibilities.
   
   Kim Shuck, NACC's former interim director, described Native arts activities including poetry readings and visual art shows and added that many Native artists are moving to San Francisco.
   
   She said there are 1,000 right ways to distribute money to the community and encouraged staff to reach out to the many Native communities because they are not homogenous. She added that because of multiple forms of displacement, Native communities do not follow city boundaries. Finally, she mentioned an upcoming show at Galeria Encantada.
   
   Richard Casteneda is an art student who moved to San Francisco in 1992. He said there are very few opportunities for Native American artists. He said the arts are not just pretty objects for sale, but rather the arts have the ability to communicate issues and history and educate young Native people as well as outsiders. He said he supported funds to go towards Native arts and added that there are many people who want to be part of something new. He did not find an opportunity to get involved in NACC.
   
   Tomasita Medál, founder of Keep the de Young in the Park, asked if the Commission does outreach to artists of color; she felt that no outreach was done to the Native community about this funding. She said she wanted a staff position to inform artists of color about available grants. She also expressed gratitude towards Ms. Antoine for bringing the group of artists together.
   
   Ernest Rivera, interim director of SomArts, said he advised Mr. Gonzalez on how to improve the AIM-West proposal and added that SomArts was still considering the proposal. He said his goal was to unite AIM and the artists.
   
   Holy Old Man Bull is an artist and works at the Human Rights Commission. He said he is grateful for funds to Native American artists from the Arts Commission. He said arts money should stay with artists rather than enterprises that are not primarily arts-focused.
   
   He added that Kim Shuck worked for six months without pay to untangle the mess left behind at NACC. He encouraged the Commission to consider paying NACC's outstanding bills.
   
   William Means from Minneapolis is the chairman of AIM. He said that for three years the NACC money had been corrupted with little or no oversight. He said funding AIM, which has been around since 1979, would put the money into the community. He reiterated that SomArts said they're willing to work with AIM and added that AIM's audits have been positive.
   
   He expressed his knowledge of nonprofit management by stating that one can't use a grant to pay old debt. He said Ms. Shuck should seek help from the City Attorney. He said that over $400,000 has been corrupted and asked where that money had gone.
   
   He said he would like to help the Native Arts Alliance form and would distribute the money to the community if the Commission followed the original motion passed at the November 2007 CAEG committee meeting. He concluded by stating that AIM is uniquely positioned to include international indigenous people.
   
   Tony Gonzales is the director for AIM-West. He said he wrote the proposal that came before the CAEG committee under Commissioner Cuellar. He would like a modified proposal reviewed by Commissioners with consideration to the circumstances of why the proposal was submitted in the first place. At the end of June, 2008, he said, new possibilities may be considered. He said he didn't want to see the funds held up another year. He also didn't want more false promises. He concluded by saying that criminal charges should be placed against NACC.
   
   William Simmons is a Choctaw from Oklahoma, an administrative coordinator for the San Francisco Treaty Council office, and a member of AIM. He said there is no separation of art from spirituality and politics. He said he respects the work taking place in the arts. He saw the Alcatraz event, which incorporates art and culture, grow from hundreds of attendees to thousands. He said he had been approached to be part of AIM-West. He believed the proposal before the Commission was a valid proposal.
   
   Mary Jean Robertson was part of the Neighborhood Arts Program and participated in workshops at MCCLA, SomArts, and several Native organizations that are now defunct. She said it had been disappointing over the last three years to witness the misuse of funds at NACC. She agreed that this violation should be taken to the City Attorney and that the public should know how funds were being used.
   
   America Meredith is an artist. She said that innovation in San Francisco is very strong, but she doesn't see Native Californian art on the national scene. She said it's been almost a decade since American Indian Contemporary Arts closed and there is nowhere for Native artists to show. She encouraged the Commission to allocate the funds to the Native arts community.
   
   Rene Yañez is part of SomArts. He said it was obvious that Commissioner Cuellar was inspired by the Alcatraz event organized by Mr. Gonzales. He asked that the Commissioners consider the AIM proposal. He added that the $96,000 is not enough money; what any organization really needs is a building. For example, he said that Galeria de la Raza spends much of their funds on rent. He urged the Commission to look for a building for the Native community and other cultural groups that benefit from San Francisco's culture.
   
   Commissioner Young thanked the public for their comments. She said she would prefer to do things correctly and asked the community to have patience.
   
   Commissioner Melania said this issue was delicate and she won't rush into anything.
   
   Ms. Robertson asked if the funds had released. Ms. Nemzoff said the funds would be held until the best way to distribute the money into the community is determined.
   
   Commissioner Draisin said it was the Committee's priority to distribute the funds to the Native community. She understood that money has not been in the community for some time.
   
   Ms Antoine asked what the timeline was. Commissioner Draisin said the Commissioners and staff will develop a plan. Ms. Nemzoff said there would be a series of community meetings and the other Cultural Centers would be brought to the table as well.
   
   
5. Cultural Center Report
   Ms. Nemzoff summarized the facilities' primary issues that Building and Grounds Superintendent Tom Petersen is addressing. The Commission submitted a grant on behalf of BVOH to the Mayor's Office of Community Development to support renovation of the building.
   
   Ms. Nemzoff informed the committee that BVOH didn't make a presentation at this meeting as initially planned because of staff error. Their presentation is rescheduled for the Executive Committee on January 15, 2008. Commissioner Young asked for material in advance of the meeting.
   
   Commissioner Melania asked for a plan on addressing the Native arts item discussed today. Ms. Nemzoff said she had been working with Ms. Wong to develop a plan. She hoped to distribute the funds before the close of the fiscal year.
   
   Commissioner Draisin asked if the Cultural Centers were to serve artists or community. Ms. Nemzoff said the Cultural Center legislation refers to community cultural centers that support the cultural life of the City.
   
   Ms. Wu said that each Cultural Center constituency has a life of its own and that self-determination is important.
   
   She also suggested the funds for Native artists could be distributed as mini-grants directly to artists.
   
   
6. Adjournment
   As there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.
   
   

1/30/08 RT