November 13, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO ARTS COMMISSION
COMMUNITY ARTS, EDUCATION, AND GRANTS COMMITTEE
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
2:30 p.m.
25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 70
________________________________________

MINUTES
 

The meeting was called to order at 2:39 p.m.

1. Roll Call
Present:
John Calloway
Sherene Melania, Chair
Roberto Ordeñana

Absent:
Charles Collins

Staff Present: Tom DeCaigny, Judy Nemzoff, Lucy Seena K. Lin, Robynn Takayama, Weston Teruya, Tyese Wortham, Cristal Fiel

2. Cultural Equity Grants Program Director Report
Interim Cultural Equity Grants Director Lucy Lin updated the committee on personnel and staff changes. She introduced Tyese Wortham, Cultural Equity Grants (“CEG”) new temporary program associate. Ms. Wortham has been working with CEG for the past month. She felt the position offered a great learning experience and is glad to contribute to the staff. She comes from a folk and traditional dance background. She has danced with a number of companies and has worked in the past for the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival.

Ms. Lin passed around a document with the calendar of CEG motions, as a structure for planning topical conversations in the coming year. She hopes that the outlined schedule will help staff anticipate any potential questions from commissioners and provide them with a proposal of relevant informational topics. Most presentation focus areas are tied to policy for CEG or the grant motions that CEG would be presenting for approval. She explained that motions would usually be scheduled a month after the conclusion of panel(s) to allow staff time to prepare supplemental documents for commissioner review. The months without motions would be used to have brief presentations and discussions reflecting on topics of interest amongst staff or the commissioners or field-wide conversations in which funders, grantees and/or applicants participate. She explained that presentations could involve reading and discussions of reports, presentations from leaders in the community, past grantees, panelists, other funders and/or staff that touch on CEG related issues. Ms. Lin is working with Community Arts and Education Program (“CAE”) Director Judy Nemzoff, to identify policy areas where the two programs overlap, propose a joint calendar and discuss how the presentations may tie into the strategic plan, while being mindful of not overwhelming the commissioners.

With no motion in December, and in preparation for the Cultural Equity Initiatives motion in January, the discussion topic will focus on capitalization for arts organizations. CEG will provide an article that will serve as a jumping off point for a discussion that includes the current state of arts organizations, how to continue supporting them and what are considered successful models. This topic is also tied to the discussion of breadth versus depth within the CEG program.

Director of Cultural Affairs Tom DeCaigny explained the he and Ms. Lin have discussed this structure as a means of preparing for strategic planning. He acknowledged that CEG must continue moving forward with grantmaking and distributing awards and that discussion on how to move forward in the next fiscal year are critical for the future of the program. This infusion of a planning ethos provides an opportunity to talk about core tensions such as: breadth vs. depth; larger grants vs. smaller grants; implications about capitalization; ongoing challenges in the field; and new grantees. It is important to look at these frameworks in the context of strategic planning.

Ms. Lin added that it is important to consider how CEG resources will be impacted. That how staff outreaches or provides support to the community and applicants and engages in capacity building efforts is tied directly to workflow and staff time. Ms. Lin plans on doing a more in depth analysis around these issues and how to leverage support so we can continue to serve more strategically.

Commissioner Calloway agreed that these issues were important. He add that it is important to look at the demographic question: not just racial, but the age of the grantees and getting in younger applicants.

Ms. Lin explained that January’s discussion would include data analysis of panel recommendations from the Cultural Equity Initiatives (CEI’s), CEG’s program with the largest grant awards. CEG will also be moving forward motions to approve grant recommendations for Art in Communities: Innovative Partnerships (“ACIP”) and Arts for Neighborhood Vitality (“ANV”). Both grants will undergo staff reviews this year. In February, CEG will present a motion to approve grant recommendations for the Individual Artist Commission and the discussion topic will focus on individual artists in San Francisco. Past grantees could be invited to talk about the impact of this award.

Commissioner Melania asked if new grantees as well as past grantees, could speak.

Ms. Lin responded that current grantees have been invited to present in the past. In an effort look at the status of individual artists more broadly, CEG is switching strategies in order to talk about completed projects and the impact of the projects on the artist and community. New grantees are at the beginning of the process. CEG is interested in completing the feedback loop and evaluating the impact of the grant.

Director DeCaigny explained the challenges of having the recommended grantees coming forward. He stated that it advantages some grantees over others. He articulated that to have grantees come before the commission when there’s going to be a vote raises the stakes. Presenting past grantees allows for lessons learned to be communicated and deepens the data analysis of the grant docket. Instead of hearing from recommended applicants, the committee can see a suite of recommendations with the additional information and its implications. He acknowledged that there are pros and cons to both and that the intention is to focus the conversations but remains open to suggestions.

Ms. Lin added that they are considering different strategies to inform the process. One such strategy could include inviting panelists to give a richer overview of the process and share what they’ve seen in the pool and field.

A discussion under consideration for the March meeting is constructed to provide information on the Bay Area funder ecology; who is funding in the Bay Area; what is being funded; what strategies being employed; and what may be changing.

Commissioner Melania asked if a national ecology could be included to understand how CEG fits into the larger picture.

The April discussion will center on the Organization Project Grant (“OPG”) and the Native American Arts and Cultural Traditions (“NAACT”) grants, along with analysis of the grantee pool and a combination of speakers and materials. In May, the discussion could address the arts ecology as a whole in relation to the City using data provided from tools like the Bay Area Cultural Asset Map (“BACAM”) and the California Cultural Data Project (“CCDP”). CEG now has six years of information from the CCDP that can be used to analyze different sets of data from infrastructure and project grants. The CCDP also provides marketing, facility, financial and audience numbers for organizations. June’s meeting is scheduled to address ideas of cultural equity and the strategic plan.

Commissioner Melania stated that the plan was thoughtful and covered a wide range of topics. She wanted to know why June’s presentation on Cultural Equity was last the discussion and not the first.

Ms. Lin responded that it had initially been scheduled earlier but because the grant cycle is already mid stream for this year and as there was no meeting last month, the topic was moved in order to set the stage for the next years upcoming grant cycle.

Director DeCaigny explained the topic will resonate throughout conversations with the community, with in CEG and moreover in how it crosses over into other programs. The thought being that as the Agency narrows in on the strategic plan, it will be useful in looking at the year ahead.

Commissioner Calloway added that it would be useful to see how the conversation of cultural equity evolves over a number of months.

Director DeCaigny responded that a pretext might be discussing the CEG legislation language in the next meeting. He continued to say that a discussion regarding national studies, and the specific legislation could help root future conversations in the legislative mandate.

Commissioner Ordeñana appreciated the work in planning out the calendar. He felt, it gave him a sense of what mindset he should have when coming to committee meetings. He felt the approach was strategic and planned. He asked if staff intended to share this with grantees and the community get their feedback and perspectives on these issues.

Director DeCaigny appreciated the suggestion and expressed a desire to announce to existing grantees, speculating that it could be possible to invite particular speakers. He thought the public comment would be helpful and shared the potential of including it in the CEG newsletter, so people could mark it in their calendars and plan to attend accordingly.

Ms. Lin added that it is important to focus the discussion and also to inform constituents of the discussions happening nationally and amongst funders.

Commissioner Calloway noted that it is important to have practical takeaways in order to balance the time and to not get bogged down in one aspect.

Ms. Lin highlighted that as part of the larger agency strategic planning process, CEG is will be engaging the community in focus groups, which may to help inform the discussions at committee meetings. The focus groups provide other opportunities to hear community voice in larger discussions.

Ms. Nemzoff reminded commissioners the density of committee meetings, the amount of critical information to address in 2.5 hours, and the need to be cognizant of making room in the agenda for both programs agenda items.

Director DeCaigny closed the discussion in agreement, adding that the structure of the committee meetings prevents effective community dialogue; the dialogue needs to happen in deliberately planned dialogue sessions. He noted that if the conversation topics were publicly noticed, there should be other structures for actual conversation and dialogue to take place.

Commissioner Melania called for public comment. There was none made.

3. Cultural Equity Grants Review Panelists
Ms. Lin presented the motion for grant review panelists. She added Ms. Pickens has had experience working with the Queer Cultural Center (“QCC”) and Radar as well as Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Ms. Mesbah is a specialist in experimental media.

Commissioner Melania gave the following motion:

Motion to approve the following individuals as grants application review panelists for Cultural Equity Grants:
Beth Pickens, Senior Program Manager, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Targol Mesbah, Adjunct Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies

Moved: Ordeñana/Calloway

Commissioner Melania called for public comment. There was none made.

The motion was approved unanimously.

4. Community Arts and Education Program Director Report
Ms. Nemzoff, presented a draft calendar of CAE program activities and agenda topics for the committee meeting. She stated that she did not want to plug in specific agenda topics until the agency went into strategic planning. She stated that CAE was currently in negotiation with the new arts and educational initiatives analyst for the Public Utilities Commission (“PUC”), Laura Page. Ms. Nemzoff would go before the committee with a three to five year strategy for arts enrichment programs through PUC funds in the coming months. She hoped for the San Francisco Unified School District’s (“SFUSD”) Visual and Performing Arts (“VAPA”) department and a representative of the Public Education Enrichment Fund (“PEEF”) to present the committee with an analysis of the Arts Education Master Plan (“AEMP”) and Prop H funds in March or April of 2013.

Director DeCaigny said that since a lot of the AEMP is funded through Prop H, he thought it would be valuable for VAPA and PEEF to present together. He stated that as the City looked to renew Prop H funding, he believed the spring would be perfect timing to have a policy conversation about how Prop H was working and to discuss the future of the relationship between the SFAC and the SFUSD.

Ms. Nemzoff stated that there were two new murals painted recently through the StreetSmARTS program—one at Ocean Avenue by artist Meagan Spendlove and another in the Excelsior district by artist Cameron Moberg. She said that the mural at Ocean Avenue was a special request from the Mayor’s Office, and it was the first time that the Mayor had recognized the StreetSmARTS program.

Ms. Nemzoff said that the Arts Education program has secured seven of twelve sites for Where Art Lives including: Everett Middle School, Bayview YMCA, Tenderloin Boys and Girls Club, Gateway Middle School, Horace Mann Middle School Afterschool Collaborative –ExCEL, John Muir Elementary School, Visitation Valley Middle School, Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, El Dorado Elementary School, and June Jordan High School. Senay Dennis, Josue Rojas, and Eli Lippert were returning teaching artists this year; and Meagan Spendlove would be a new teaching artist for the program.

Commissioner Melania called for public comment. There was none made.

5. Cultural Centers Report
CAE Program Manager, Robynn Takayama, reminded the committee that at September’s meeting CAE introduced the idea of providing a consultant to support the Cultural Centers in articulating their impact and providing the SFAC with the best tools to represent the Cultural Centers to the Mayor’s Office, Controller’s Office, Board of Supervisors, and the broader community. Following the committee meeting, CAE held a Cultural Center directors meeting where they took feedback from the directors. Ms. Takayama stated that one part of the strategic planning process would be to look at revising the Cultural Center reports so that the reports would ask the most thoughtful questions, while still holding the Centers accountable to legislative mandates.

Ms. Takayama said that at the same time, CAE wanted to continue to offer technical assistance to the Centers starting with one-on-one consultation with Marie Beichert, a development specialist with a focus on nonprofits, governments, and businesses. Ms. Beichert had 30 years of service in nonprofit, educational, and governmental administration, and was once assistant director of the SFAC’s Neighborhood Arts Program where she administered the Cultural Center program under the Moscone administration. Ms. Beichert had been familiarizing herself with the Cultural Centers by reviewing the FY2011-2012 reports, as well as the FY2012-2013 Management and Programming Plans (“MPP”) and budgets. Ms. Takayama stated that Ms. Beichert would talk with the Cultural Centers about local and national funding trends, improve awareness of highly fundable projects, and enhance understanding of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Time-related) objectives.

Ms. Takayama said that the intended outcomes were to develop language about the Centers’ impact, mission, and vision that could be applied to the Cultural Center reports and other grant opportunities; and for the Cultural Centers to have clearer reporting objectives so that the SFAC can properly oversee grants and report back to the City Controller and Mayor’s Office. Ms. Takayama stated that the revisions to the FY2012-2013 MPP were due on December 3 for review at the December 11 CAEG Committee meeting.

Director DeCaigny asked if the 1.9 percent cost of living allocation increase to grants would be applied only this year, or if it would continue in the future.

Ms. Takayama stated that this year, it would be a 1.9 percent increase and next year would be a 2 percent increase, but she was unsure of the years after that.

Director DeCaigny said that it would be good for the commissioners and community to know and that there was a question regarding how the increase would be funded.

Ms. Takayama believed that the increase would be funded by the Mayor’s budget and the Board of Supervisors’ budget, but that Deputy Director Rebekah Krell would have the full details.

Director DeCaigny clarified to the committee that this increase was part of broader lobbying efforts by the nonprofit sector. He said that it would affect grantees across different areas, including the CEG program.

Ms. Nemzoff added that the technical assistance would be part of a long term strategy to support the Cultural Centers. She stated that the Cultural Centers were required by legislation to raise a minimum of 20 percent of the organizations’ total revenue including the Hotel Tax Fund (“HTF”). Ms. Nemzoff said that this was part of technical assistance toward improving the fundraising, development, and infrastructure of the Centers.

Ms. Takayama said that two years ago, the SFAC hired a consultant who offered trainings in creating individual donor campaigns.

Commissioner Melania called for public comment. There was none made.

6. Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center FY2011-2012 Final Report and FY2012-2013 MPP and Budget

Ms. Takayama gave an overview of Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center’s (“APICC”) FY2011-2012 final report. She stated that last year, APICC focused on partnerships with other API organizations like Camp Unity, which worked with Pacific Islander youth; Vietnamese Youth Development Center; and 3rd i South Asian Independent Film. APICC sponsored an event with each organization. Their annual festival featured one premier, five visual art exhibits, five theater events, two artist talks, one dance performance, five literary events, one film, one outdoor festival and one commission of musician Francis Wong. APICC was not able to do the second commission of Melody Takata, which was supposed to take place at the Bayview Opera House. For technical services, APICC’s mentoring program, they planned on serving five organizations or artists, but only served two because of limited staff capacity. In terms of fund development, APICC reached 50 percent of their intended goal of $5,000 in their individual donor campaign. They received the very prestigious Creative Work Fund grant for a commissioning by musician Marcus Shelby. Ms. Takayama said that the organization planned to increase the amount for a grant writer in FY2012-2013 and address building capacity for board fundraising.

Ms. Takayama moved on to review APICC’s FY2012-2013 MPP. She reported that APICC was undergoing staff restructuring: the organization released the program manager and would hire a part-time artistic director, a quarter-time program assistant, and a quarter-time operations and communications person. The organization would hire four consultants to help with the technical assistance program, three curators for the festival, a consultant to work year-round on marketing, and a consultant to develop a new long-range plan. However, there would only be a $7,000 increase in budget for professional fees, some of which would be addressed with a Cultural Equity Initiatives (“CEI”) grant.

Ms. Takayama continued that APICC’s major programming has been in May with the United States of Asian America Festival. This year, APICC established a theme for the festival, “Passing Along Traditions,” and would also initiate an application process for artists who wished to be included in the festival. Ms. Takayama noted a typo in the MPP where it said that Marcus Shelby’s new composition on the childhood story of Ed Wong would be in July 2013. Ms. Takayama said that it would actually be presented in June 2013. Ms. Takayama commented that while the organization’s fund development relies heavily on grant writing, they do plan to launch an individual donor campaign to fund raise for the gallery exhibition of artist Flo Oy Wong in FY2013-2014.

Commissioner Calloway added that he liked the diversity of programming of APICC events in other Cultural Centers. He wondered about the capacity issue for hiring consultants if there were not a lot of resources coming in for APICC.

Commissioner Melania commented that there were certain recurring themes in the Cultural Center reports. She noted that in the past, APICC had different plans for restructuring the organization and now there was a long list of hiring consultants. She wanted to know when the organization would emerge from restructuring and move forward to a permanent staff structure. She added that she was concerned that the executive director was only part-time, and that there was no staff position that was full-time. She believed this would disrupt the flow of the organization if there were no full-time staff positions.

Vinay Patel, executive director of APICC, said that APICC had addressed the concern regarding part-time staff. He said that this would not be the first year that APICC would have part-time staff. He clarified that the pay rate of the executive director was part-time, but that he put in more hours than that. Mr. Patel said that the board had spent the last six to eight months looking at a long range plan, which included restructuring the staff. He said that the board felt the organization was in need of an artistic director because it was the bread and butter of the organization. The board also thought of bringing on an operations person so that the artistic director would not have to focus so much on the administrative side of programming.

Commissioner Calloway stated that he was not concerned with the budget because the grant allocation was so small. He thought that the staff was probably putting in more time than what was allotted in the staff chart.

Commissioner Melania believed that their grant allocation was not small and that she had concerns with the hiring and training of new staff. She said that she did not see that the organization had clear, focused outcomes for the community.

Mr. Patel said that APICC was creating and commissioning new works. He said the organization was dedicating its time and resources to curating and developing projects. He added that in the previous year, APICC did a lot of co-presenting, but that the organization would focus on creating and commissioning new works specific to APICC to have stronger branding. Mr. Patel commented that the organization planned on bringing in an artistic director to push that agenda forward. He said that it was currently the executive director’s role to commission work, but hoped that the artistic director would relieve some of his work load so he can focus on fund development and grant writing.

Director DeCaigny added that he could see the challenge of finding dollars to pay for the executive director’s salary. He believed it was a topic of interest because of the importance of succession. He believed that though the Cultural Centers were being run by talented people, there would be life instances where people would be taken from their roles. He said this was true across staff positions and not just the executive director. He thought it was important to look at diversification of capitalization.

Mr. Patel said that the organization was working to bring staff positions up to full-time. He believed it was important to bring on an artistic director at the present, even if the organization did not currently have the funding to hire full-time.

Ms. Nemzoff added that some of APICC’s goals were shaped by the commissioners in previous years, such as expanding from a month-long festival to year-round programming. She wanted to thank Vinay and APICC for beginning to put that in place.

Director DeCaigny commented that the discussion was a great precursor to next month’s committee meeting. The committee would review capitalization across the nonprofit arts field and observe the behaviors of organizations with certain budget sizes. He said that it was a great conversation for both the CAE and CEG programs, to look at wealth distribution across the arts ecosystem. He commented that it had been valuable to look at the Cultural Center reports in terms of what would be expected and reasonable growth in the present arts ecosystem. Lastly, he thanked APICC for its increase in board giving and ticket sales in this difficult financial climate.

Commissioner Melania gave the following motion:

Motion to approve the proposed 2012-2013 Management and Program Plan (“MPP”) and budget for sub-grantee Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center for a grant to SOMArts Cultural Center not to exceed $682,864 (including $584,357 to SOMArts Cultural Center and $98,507 to sub-grantee Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center), contingent upon completion of revisions to the MPP.

Moved: Calloway/Ordeñana

Commissioner Melania called for public comment. There was none made.

The motion was unanimously approved.

7. Public Comment
Tamika Chenier, program manager of the African American Art and Culture Complex, introduced herself to the committee and stated that she had been filling in the past five weeks as interim executive director of the African American Art and Culture Complex (“AAACC”) while London Breed was campaigning.

8. Old Business
There was no old business.

9. New Business and Announcements
Director DeCaigny congratulated Ms. Breed for being voted in as the next supervisor of district five. He said it was a landmark moment for the arts and the SFAC because he believed it was the first time an arts administrator would sit on the Board of Supervisors. He said he looked forward to working with Ms. Breed in her new role.

10. Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.

BT 11/30/12
CF 12/19/12
Minutes Adopted 01/04/13
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For assistance, please notify Beatrice Thomas at beatrice.thomas@sfgov.org.

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如需協助，Beatrice Thomas at beatrice.thomas@sfgov.org. 

Materiales traducidos y servicios de interpretación están disponibles para usted de manera gratuita.

Para asistencia, notifique a Beatrice Thomas at beatrice.thomas@sfgov.org.