Full_Commission
2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 MEETING OF THE FULL ARTS COMMISSION
Monday, December 1, 2008
3:00 p.m.
City Hall Room 416
Minutes
President Johnston called the meeting to order at 3:08 p.m.
- Roll Call
Commissioners Present
P.J. Johnston, President
Maya Draisin, Vice President
René Bihan
Nínive Calegari
John Calloway
Lorraine García-Nakata
Jeannene Przyblyski
Cass Calder Smith
Dede Wilsey
Sherri Young
Pop Zhao
Commissioners Absent
Topher Delaney
Alexander Lloyd
Sherene Melania
Christina Olague
- Approval of Minutes
The following Resolution was moved, seconded, and unanimously adopted:
RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-279: APPROVAL OF MINUTES ADOPTED
RESOLVED, that this Commission does hereby approve the Minutes of the Meeting of November 3, 2008.
NOTE: ALL ADOPTIONS ARE UNANIMOUS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.
- President’s Report
President Johnston referred Commissioners to the notes prepared by facilitator Chris Sutherland on the November 21 retreat. He said that the discussion highlighted the need to initiate a long-range planning process, even though “long-term” in this context may mean only one to three years. He expected an extremely difficult near-term budget.
President Johnston announced that Commissioner Smith will serve as Chair of the Civic Design Review Committee, and he thanked Commissioner Przyblyski for yeoman’s work in that post since the departure of Commissioner Cochran. At the retreat, members of the Committee discussed how they are reimagining the Committee’s functioning, both practically and creatively, in the best interests of the City. President Johnston was hopeful that a second architect would be appointed early in the new year to fill the seat recently vacated by Commissioner Kriken.
- Director’s Report
Mr. Cancel reported that the consensus at the retreat was that planning should be a more formal part of what the Commission does year-round. The Executive Committee will be a forum for that planning process, and will bring recommendations to the full Commission.
Mr. Cancel reported some good news, the recent tremendous success of the public art project by Brian Goggin and Dorka Keehn, Language of the Birds, whose dedication was featured above the fold on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle. This permanent public artwork at Broadway and Columbus, bordering North Beach and Chinatown, has had a strong element of one of the most ephemeral forms, performance art. The placement of the words imprinted into the pavement was determined by a performance event at SFMOMA where strips of the selected text were flung from the third-floor balcony. The dedication itself was a large performance event, including dancers, a marching band and poets. Mr. Cancel explained that the project had a relatively small amount of public support, which the artist team more than doubled by soliciting private donations. Mr. Cancel offered kudos to Public Art Program Director Jill Manton and Public Art Program Manager Tonia Macneil, who managed this project, along with the rest of the Public Art staff.
Mr. Cancel reported that a continuation of the spring Arts Town Hall would be held on November 4 in Oakland. He expected the event, called “Continue the Conversation,” to gather from the Bay Area’s cultural community both a sense of the impact of the current economic crisis and some ways to address what is now officially a recession.
Two days later, the San Francisco Examiner is hosting a panel at the Herbst Theatre, “Thriving in a Recession,” focused on the arts community and how the Examiner can help promote it. They have invited Mr. Cancel to speak at the event.
Mr. Cancel reported that the Mayor will soon announce the ShopSF campaign with the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau (“SFCVB”), promoting San Francisco throughout nine Bay Area counties as a regional destination for shopping, entertainment and hotels. The Arts Commission worked with the Mayor’s Office and SFCVB to include the San Francisco Art Dealers Association, representing more than fifty private art galleries, along with other cultural venues, in the promotion.
Mr. Cancel reported that at the Mayor’s department head meeting earlier in the day, he confirmed that in addition to the current midyear budget cut, a second midyear cut would be required, targeting General Fund expenditures. While the Mayor was not willing to give a specific number for the projected 2009-2010 budget deficit, it is expected to be substantially larger than this year’s. Mr. Cancel said that all agencies, including the Arts Commission will have to be creative, and must be prepared for staff reductions. He reported that he will be meeting with Department of Human Resources staff to conduct an analysis of the Arts Commission’s organization chart, and to review Civil Service rules as the agency considers how to restructure. He reiterated the intention to bring the potential scenarios to the Executive Committee in planning for the very serious budget cuts anticipated for next year.
Finally, Mr. Cancel reminded Commissioners of the reading by Sherman Alexie at the Herbst Theatre later that evening, celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of WritersCorps, and the fundraising reception at the Gallery. Mr. Cancel added that he had recently had the great pleasure of reading of Mr. Alexie’s work and was honored to have him associated with WritersCorps.
- Consent Calendar
Commissioner García-Nakata did not participate in the discussion and recused herself from voting on the Consent Calendar.
President Johnston severed item 5 from the Consent Calendar, regarding Cultural Equity Initiative Level Two Grants, for further discussion.
The Commission approved the remaining Consent Calendar as follows.
RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-280:
Approval: RESOLVED, that this Commission does hereby adopt the following items on the Consent Calendar and their related Resolutions:
Approval of Committee Minutes
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-281: Motion to approve the Executive Committee Meeting Minutes of October 27, 2008.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-282: Motion to approve the Street Artists Committee Meeting Minutes of November 12, 2008.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-283: Motion to approve the Community Arts, Education, and Grants Committee Meeting Minutes of November 13, 2008.
Community Arts, Education and Grants Committee Recommendations (October 14, 2008)
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-284: Motion to approve recommendations to award eight grants totaling $120,000 in the 2008-2009 cycle of Creative Space grants to the following organizations, and to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into grant agreements with each for the amounts listed:
509 Cultural Center/Luggage Store, $15,000
Chinese Historical Society, $13,500
CounterPulse, $18,000
Croatian American Cultural Center, $18,000
Dance Brigade, $15,000
Joe Goode Productions, $9,000
Southern Exposure, $18,000
Women’s Audio Mission, $13,500
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-285: Motion to approve the following individuals as grants application review panelists for Cultural Equity Grants:
Neela Banerjee, Writer and Youth Worker
Eugenie Chan, Playwright
Sarah Crowell, Program/Artistic Director, Destiny Arts Center
Daniel Gray Kontar, Writer, Youth Worker, Ph. D. student
John Jota Leanos, Professor of Social Practice and Community Arts, California College of the Arts
Jessica Mele, Program Director, Performing Arts Workshop
Indra Mungal, Community Program Manager, Oakland Museum of California
Sean Nash, Painter; Professor, California College of the Arts
Dr. Margaret Paloma Pavel, Executive Director, Earth House
David Perez, Literary and Performance Art Program Coordinator, Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana
Theo Rigby, Filmmaker
Gabriela Shiroma, Dancer; Choreographer; Teacher
Judy Young, Executive Director, Vietnamese Youth Development Center
Community Arts, Education, and Grants Committee Recommendations (November 13, 2008)
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-286: Motion to approve recommendations to award thirty-one grants totaling $260,440 in the 2008-2009 cycle of Individual Artist Commissions grants to the following individuals, and to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into grant agreements with each for the amounts listed:
Chrissy Anderson-Zavala, $7,500
Sona Avakian, $7,500
Tyson Ayers, $7,680
Stephanie Baker, $7,500
Brent Bishop, $7,500
Evan Bissell, $9,000
Ellen Bruno, $8,500
K. E. Da Silva, $10,000
Chris Carlsson, $10,000
Dina Ciraulo, $7,500
Tsering Dhompa, $8,500
Jacqueline Gordon, $8,000
Pablo Guardiola, $9,000
Perry Hallinan, $7,500
Leticia Hernandez, $8,500
Dee Hibbert-Jones, $8,500
Gigi Janchang, $8,000
Cherylene Lee, $8,500
Lynn Hershman Leeson, $9,000
Rudy Lemcke, $7,500
Jason Mateo, $7,500
Jerome Reyes, $10,000
Kevin Simmonds, $10,000
Annie Sprinkle, $9,000
Kirsten Stolle, $8,000
Candacy Taylor, $10,000
Michelle Tea, $10,000
Truong Tran, $9,000
Max Wolf Valerio, $8,500
Jack Walsh, $7,500
Lindsey Wolkin, $5,260
Civic Design Review Committee Recommendations (November 18, 2008)
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-287: Motion to approve Phase 1 of the San Antonio Pump Station Upgrade Project.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-288: Motion to approve Phase 3 of the Lake Merced Pump Station Upgrade Project with the contingency that the project team will notify the Arts Commission when the approved landscape has been planted.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-289: Motion to approve Phase 1 of the La Grande Pump Station Upgrade Project.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-290: Motion to approve Phase 1 of the Hayes Valley Playground and Clubhouse.
Visual Arts Committee Recommendations (November 19, 2008)
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-291: Motion to approve a mural by artist Mona Caron covering two walls of a building at 86-98 Golden Gate Avenue at Jones Street in collaboration with youth from the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco and the Community Arts Studio. The mural will depict the history of the neighborhood as well as the Southeast Asian community that currently resides in the area.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-292: Motion to approve the following artists as recommended by the Central Subway Artist Pool Selection Panel as additions to the Central Subway Artist Pool to be eligible candidates for Central Subway Public Art Program art opportunities:
Seyed Alavi
Tomie Arai
Lawrence Argent
Alice Aycock
Ron Baron
JD Beltran and Scott Minneman
Jonathan Bonner
Bill and Mary Buchen
Kendall Buster
Ed Carpenter
Chusien Chang
Jackie Chang
Jackie Ferrara
Bill Fontana
Karen Ganz
Cliff Garten
Brian Goggin
Douglas Hall
Nancy Hom
Yumei Hou and Cai Hong Zhao
Joyce Hsu
Michio Ihara
Yunfei Ji
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
Kenneth Lum
Wang Po Shu and Louise Bertelsen
Erwin Redl
Kent Roberts
John Roloff and Lewis deSoto
May Sun
Hank Thomas and Ryan Alexiev
Brian Tolle
Catherine Wagner
Flo Oy Wong
Rene Yung
Faye Zhang
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-293: Motion to approve the following artists as recommended by the Branch Library Improvement Program Artist Pool Selection Panel as part of the pre-qualified pool for projects at four branch libraries in San Francisco:
Susan Adame
Adeyinka Adeyemi
Seyed Alavi
Steven Allen
Susannah Bettag
Freddy Chandra
Mei-Chu Chang
Marion Coleman
Susan Felter
Sheila Ghidini
Todd Gilens
Mark Grieve
Gerald Heffernon
Joyce Hsu
Alexandre Koulouris
Dorothy Lenehan
Cork Marcheschi
Anita Margrill
Fran Martin and Jim Crowden
Patricia Montgomery
Elsa Murray
Ene Osteraas-Constable and Scott Constable
Johanna Poethig
Samantha Renko
Jim Rosenau
Catherine Schmid-Maybach
Kathryn Schnell
Les Seymour
Arthur Stern
Barbara Szerlip
Amy Trachtenberg
Ann Weber
Lena Wolff
Debey Zito
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-294: Motion to approve the inclusion of the following artists in a pre-qualified pool for projects at Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport:
Seyed Alavi
Terry Allen
Lawrence Argent
Dan Corson
Jim Hirshfield
Ray King
Sheila Klein
Michio Ihara
Anna Murch and Doug Hollis
George Peters and Melanie Walker
Jody Pinto
Charles Sowers
May Sun
Catherine Wagner
Nikolas Weinstein
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-295: Motion to approve the six final designs for the Art on Market Street Project by Briana Miller and Thien Pham titled The Mighty Defender and the Unsung Hero, to be reproduced and installed in 24 kiosks on Market Street from December 22, 2008 to March 19, 2009.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-296: Motion to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into an agreement with Janet Echelman for an amount not to exceed $244,000 for Phase I, conceptual design through construction documents, for an artwork at Terminal 2 of San Francisco International Airport.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-297: Motion to approve the selection of Charles Sowers to design an artwork(s) to be located in the “Kid’s Spot” locations in Terminal 2 of the San Francisco International Airport, and to authorize payment to Charles Sowers in the amount of $1,000 for a design proposal.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-298: Motion to approve the following list of artists and artist teams, who by virtue of the San Francisco General Hospital Selection Panel score will be considered first for commission opportunities in the new Acute Care Unit:
Rupert Garcia
Deborah Roundtree and Brian Crotty
Lena Wolf
Lorna Jordan
Lisa Levine
Paul Marioni and Ann Troutner
Joel Meyerowitz
Christian Moeller
Tom Otterness
Susan Schwartzenberg
Beliz Brother
Stephen Galloway
Cliff Garten
Paul Kos
Mike Mandel
Anna Murch and Doug Hollis
Masayuki Nagase
Mildred Howard
Julio Morales
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-299: Motion to approve the following artists as an additional pre-qualified pool for any additional opportunities identified at San Francisco General Hospital:
Johanna Poethig
John Roloff
Nita Winter
Ed Carpenter
John Wehrle
Suikang Zhao
Lynn Basa
James Carpenter
Michio Ihara
Joe Thurston and Sean Healy
Amy Trachtenberg
Seyed Alavi
Rob Badger
Kathy Bradford
Dana Zed
Tony Berlant
Nancy Blum
Chris Green
Henry Domke
Abhi Ganju
Merle Serlin
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-300: Motion to approve Rupert Garcia, by virtue of having received the highest score by the panel, as the lead artist for the entry lobby, and authorization to pay him an honorarium of $5,000 to develop preliminary design concepts.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-301: Motion to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into agreement with Patrick Dougherty for the installation of a temporary willow sapling sculpture in Civic Center Plaza for a total amount not to exceed $60,000 for the design, development, fabrication, transportation and installation of the artwork as well as identification plaques.
- Committee Reports and Committee Matters
- Executive Committee—P.J. Johnston, Chair
- President Johnston reported that the Committee had not met because its scheduled meeting date was just a few days after the retreat. The next meeting will be on December 22, and the Committee will discuss budgetary items. At the retreat, staff agreed to prepare various scenarios in light of the budget crisis. He reminded Commissioners that any of them, as well as the public, are welcome to attend.
President Johnston presented the following motion.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-302: Motion to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to modify the contract to Chris Sutherland for an additional amount of $1728.40 for costs related to the retreat.
- Civic Design Review Committee—Cass Calder Smith, Chair
- Commissioner Smith reported that the Committee reviewed several projects, looking at how to strengthen them conceptually as well as evaluating materials. The Committee was pleased with the Hayes Valley playground, and with branch library projects they reviewed. He specifically mentioned Bayview, citing it as a good improvement to a blighted corner, and a gem for the neighborhood.
- Community Arts, Education and Grants Committee—Maya Draisin, Chair
- Vice President Draisin began her report by thanking staff for the presentations by grant applicants at the Committee’s last meeting, and congratulating the Gallery and WritersCorps on their show. She reported that the Committee had seen presentations by the African American Arts and Culture Complex and SomArts, and met their new director, Lex Leifheit.
Commissioner García-Nakata recused herself from the following matter and did not participate in the discussion, nor did she vote.
Vice President Draisin then turned to Cultural Equity Initiative Level Two grants, severed from the Consent Calendar to allow for fuller discussion. The Committee originally recommended full funding of $100,000 for each of the three named grantees, but since budget cuts have become imperative, the proposal was to reduce each by seven percent. President Johnston pointed out that this was only part of a larger discussion about budget cutting. Mr. Cancel explained that the Mayor’s Budget Office has now mandated a cut of $85,000 in the current (FY2008-09) budget.
Commissioners expressed concern about the relative impact of cuts being taken from grants or from staff positions, or both, and how the agency can continue to do its work with less and less money.
In response to a question about why these particular areas were proposed for cuts, Mr. Cancel explained that the cuts must come from General Fund expenditures, the source of these grants. He explained that different programs under the Arts Commission’s jurisdiction have different funding sources, and the General Fund is where the current shortfall is. Staff also believe it is important to spare the Individual Artist Commissions, where cuts have a proportionally greater impact; the Native American grants program, newly created to address longstanding problems with the virtual Native American Cultural Center; and the Creative Space grants, which fund critical safety and/or accessibility upgrades to facilities used by the broad arts community.
Commissioners were deeply troubled by the foreseeable consequences of these and future cuts, but understood that if the Commission did not direct how the cuts were to be made, the Mayor’s Office would do so. Commissioners also discussed the difficulty of having a forthright discussion about making staff cuts in an open session and in the very short time frame called for.
President Johnston called for public comment.
Deborah Cullinan of Intersection for the Arts said that many others had wanted to speak. She argued that “staff or grants” was a false dichotomy, in that if grants to small organizations were cut, those organizations would have to cut their staffs. She urged “big-picture” thinking, asking how to get policymakers and the Board of Supervisors more interested and involved in these programs, and she suggested fundraising to make up the shortfall.
Sean San Jose of Campo Santo said that he was a proud native of San Francisco. He agreed with the decision to spare individual artists’ grants, and felt lucky to have received one. He asked why Cultural Equity Grants was a target for cuts, saying that $15,000 could have a great impact, and urging the Commission to find a way to “balance out” the cut. He added that many new people had come to Campo Santo’s recent show, and asked the Commission to sustain programs that currently exist rather than initiating new programs now.
Vice President Draisin clarified that cuts were proposed for four different areas, and that this was only the first. In response to a question from the Commission, Mr. Cancel said that the agency would not launch any new programs this year, including the proposed Cultural Voucher Youth Program, in the current budget climate.
The discussion returned to the fact that the Commission was focusing on Cultural Equity Grants (“CEG”) because it is funded by the General Fund, and that’s where the cuts must come from. Commissioners observed that the discussion at the retreat made it much clearer to them how little of the Arts Commission is funded by the General Fund—some, but not all, staffing, and some granting programs—and how little discretion there is to make these difficult choices.
Commissioners also made the point that in such a small agency, eliminating staff means eliminating programs, and that it is important to look at the long term as well as trying to make the best decision in the short term. Commissioners also said that when the economy improves, you may be able to get grant funds back, but you can’t always get the people back.
Commissioner Wilsey emphasized that if the Arts Commission doesn’t direct the cuts, the Mayor’s Office will, and she cited her experience with the Fine Arts Museums, which receives twenty percent of its budget from the City. She said that all of the Commissioners and staff care deeply about the people they serve, and all are working hard to find solutions. In reference to fundraising as an option to make up the shortfall, Commissioners noted that it is difficult to raise funds for the operation of a government program, and that the Commission does not wish to compete with its own grantees in seeking funds.
Mr. Cancel added that he and staff have argued vigorously to elected officials that the cultural sector is a net revenue generator for the City, and that San Francisco’s culture is part of its identity. He said that it is now incumbent on both the nonprofit and for-profit members of the cultural sector to convince elected officials why the cultural sector must be held harmless in the City’s budget.
He noted one small victory: the Art Dealers Association now understands the dire need for conservation of the Civic Art Collection, and is eager to “adopt” some public artworks and raise private funds for their conservation.
Commissioner Calegari was impressed by the work of CEG staff with grant applicants, and was confident that the grantees would be able to accomplish all of what they intended even with a seven percent cut in their grant.
President Johnston reminded the Commission that the forum for fuller discussion of the budget was the Executive Committee, and noted that there are few alternatives for meeting the required cuts. He said that the Committee and staff must have ongoing and forthright discussion about how to address future budget cuts, including staffing reductions, and that he would not support the launch of a new program for cultural vouchers, or any other new programs, in this budget climate.
There being no further discussion, Vice President Draisin presented the following motion. The motion was passed unanimously, with Commissioner García-Nakata abstaining.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-303: Motion to approve recommendations to award three grants totaling $279,000 in the 2008-2009 cycle of Cultural Equity Initiative Level Two grants to the following organizations, and to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into grant agreements with each for the amounts listed:
Fresh Meat Productions, $93,000
ABADA Capoeira San Francisco, $93,000
Dance Brigade, $93,000
- Street Artists Committee—Alexander Lloyd, Chair
- In the absence of Commissioner Lloyd, Commissioner Calloway reported that the Committee did not meet, and had no report. He presented the following motions.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-304: Motion to approve requests by former certificate-holders for priority issuance of certificate with waiver of re-screening of wares: Jose Loli, Katya Newman.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-305: Motion to approve honorarium payment of $300 plus cost of paint to Mario Hernandez for assisting Program Director in painting permanent spaces and temporary winter holiday spaces in the Downtown area.
- RESOLUTION NO. 1201-08-306: Motion to approve request by applicant for waiver of 15-day policy in obtaining certificate: Anthony Kolar.
- Visual Arts Committee—Jeannene Przyblyski, Chair
- Commissioner Przyblyski reported that the Committee had reviewed some eighteen items, noting that staff continued to work very hard, and that most of the Public Art Program staff positions are funded by bond money (Hetch Hetchy, Central Subway and others).
She reported that the Committee had a presentation by artist Janet Echelman via Skype videoconferencing. Commissioner Przyblyski explained that Ms. Echelman is an American artist of international reputation, and that it is important to have her work in the City’s collection, adding to its international stature. She predicted that public art funds will be more fiercely contested, and there will be more calls for them to be spent solely on local artists. She said that the Committee will need to discuss this issue and the argument that work with a larger, national and international context, is an economic multiplier.
Commissioner Przyblyski reported that the artwork by Brian Goggin and Dorka Keehn, discussed earlier by Mr. Cancel, was a success in many ways, that the artist gathered a lot of local support and private funds. This raises the question of whether to prioritize artists who can bring more money to a project, to prioritize works in neighborhoods that already have strong arts communities. She asked what this might mean for underserved areas; whether to move some of those funds to these areas, for example. She said that the Committee will need to puzzle out both the positive and negative sides of public-private partnerships.
President Johnston agreed that these were important questions, adding that as public art projects are funded by development, those funds take longer to show the impact of an economic downturn. Commissioner García-Nakata added that this is not a new issue, and that museums and other organizations must balance the appeal of lucrative blockbusters with their curatorial priorities and fundraising to acquire and maintain new and progressive work that might not otherwise be funded; these questions persist in good and bad times.
- New Business
President Johnston distributed the Commission’s meeting schedule for 2009, noting that it may need to be revised from time to time.
- Reports and Announcements
Commissioner Zhao reported that he had just returned from China, and distributed copies of the catalogue for his artwork created in connection with the Beijing Olympics.
- Public Comment
There was no further public comment.
- Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:33 p.m.
12/30/08 spr
