Community Arts, Education and Grants Committee - March 11, 2014 - Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

2:00 p.m.

25 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 70

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The meeting was called to order at 2:08 p.m.

 

Sherene Melania, Chair

Abby Sadin Schnair

Janine Shiota

 

Charles Collins

Marcus Shelby

 

Staff Present: Tom DeCaigny, Judy Nemzoff, Lucy Lin, Weston Teruya, Tyese Wortham, Cristal Fiel

 

It was reported that the San Francisco Unified School District’s youth arts festival would be held March 20, 6 p.m. at the Asian Arts Museum on the same date as the Third on 3rd Mardi Gras event. Director of Cultural Affairs Tom DeCaigny will receive an award and speak at the event. Mr. DeCaigny, the mayor and the superintendent will announce the festival on Monday, March 17 at City Hall. Youth performers will participate. 

 

Interim Cultural Equity Grants Program Director (“CEG”) Lucy Lin reported that the review panel process for Organization Project Grants (“OPG”) had concluded. Ms. Lin presented an overview of the OPG applicant pool, criteria and award amount of $15,000. 

 

She noted that four applications were ineligible due to either application incompleteness or the receipt of a fiscal year (“FY”) 2014 Cultural Equity Initiatives (“CEI”) award. This year over fifty percent of the total applicant pool was recommended for funding. The applications were reviewed in three different categories by unique panels.

 

Ms. Lin presented the project locations of the recommended applicants and explained that a majority of this funding must go towards organizations that represent historically underserved communities. She noted that the Native American Arts and Cultural Traditions (“NAACT”) grant program, which directly funds Native American projects, will be coming to the committee for review next month. 

 

Commissioners and staff discussed panelist policy concerns, including the value of artistic excellence in determining overall scores, the eligibility of arts education programming and the use of the term “professional” in determining eligibility. 

 

Mr. DeCaigny stated that, currently, artistic excellence is less than fifty percent of all scoring criteria and must be looked at in concert with other criteria in order to strike the appropriate balance. 

 

Mr. DeCaigny next addressed policy that directs funding towards “professional” work. The use of the term “professional” in grant guidelines to define non-student work made it challenging for panelists to evaluate the eligibility between professional arts organizations wishing to fund arts education programs and professional arts education organizations that produce high quality programming.

 

 

Motion to approve recommendations to award 48 grants totaling $650,000 in the 2013-2014 cycle of Organization Project Grants (“OPG”) to the following organizations, and to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into grant agreements with each organization for the amounts listed:

 

3rd i South Asian Independent Film Festival,  $15,000 

Adobe Books Backroom Gallery,  $5,000 

African & African American Performing Arts Coalition,  $10,500 

AfroSolo Theatre Company,  $15,000 

Bindlestiff Studio,  $15,000 

Capacitor Performance,  $15,000 

Chinese Historical Society of America,  $15,000 

Chrysalis Studio,  $13,000 

Circuit Network,  $15,000 

Clerestory,  $11,130 

CounterPULSE,  $15,000 

Crowded Fire Theatre Company,  $6,000 

CubaCaribe,  $15,000 

Cultural Oddyssey,  $15,000 

Cutting Ball Theatre Company,  $15,000 

Dandelion Dance,  $15,000 

Epiphany Productions,  $15,000 

EXIT Theater,  $15,000 

Fresh Meat Productions,  $15,000 

Girl Talk,  $12,250 

Jess Curtis/Gravity,  $15,000 

Kulintang Arts Inc.,  $15,000 

Left Coast Chamber Ensemble/Chamber Music Partnership Inc.,  $15,000 

Melody of China, Inc.,  $15,000 

Mugwumpin,  $15,000 

Mural Music & Arts Project,  $15,000 

Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu,  $15,000 

Playwrights Foundation,  $15,000 

Queer Rebel Productions,  $15,000 

Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project,  $15,000 

Radar Productions,  $15,000 

RAWdance,  $12,000 

Root Division,  $15,000 

SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts,  $12,480 

San Francisco Camerawork,  $15,000 

San Francisco Cinematheque,  $8,000 

San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music,  $15,000 

San Francisco Hip Hop DanceFest,  $15,000 

San Francisco Independent Film Festival,  $14,000 

San Francisco Mime Troupe,  $15,000 

San Francisco Shakespeare Festival,  $15,000 

San Francisco Silent Film Festival,  $15,000 

Scott Wells and Dancers,  $15,000 

Shadowlight Productions,  $15,000 

Southern Exposure,  $15,000 

Still Here,  $1,865 

Theater Flamenco,  $15,000 

Writers Among Artists,  $3,775 

 

Moved: Schnair/Shiota

Public Comment: None. 

 

Mr. DeCaigny stated that the Commission is being asked by the Sunshine Task Force to announce the motions in the verbal record now. He explained that it was a new emerging practice and committees are required to say verbally if a motion has passed unanimously for the record. If a motion did not pass unanimously, committees are required to state verbally who voted “yay” or “nay”. Mr. DeCaigny requested that all Commissioners remember to use this new practice. 

 

Program Associates Tyese Wortham and Weston Teruya reported on the Arts & Communities: Innovative Partnerships (“ACIP”) application review and the recommended applicants. The ACIP grant supports partnerships between arts and non-arts sectors to engage communities in art-driven social change projects. Projects may be awarded up to $10,000 as Exploration Grants and up to $25,000 as Realization Grants.

 

This grant asks applicants to combine multiple components. Its specificity, eligibility requirements and complex scoring criteria make it challenging to compare to other CEG grants, and are only appropriate for a limited number of CEG applicants. 

 

Mr. Teruya presented a map illustrating the locations of the recommended projects. He stated that the natural clusters of activities demonstrate the benefit of an ACIP convening that could connect grantees working in close proximity in order to leverage resources and discuss best practices. 

 

Staff reported that the ACIP grant was unique, because it is centered on arts, neighborhoods and social justice. It is not bound by the Cultural Equity Endowment Fund legislation; therefore, organizations may receive this grant in addition to other CEG grants. Staff concluded that ACIP would benefit from a thorough assessment of its benefits and the resulting organizational outcomes.

 

Commissioner Melania expressed concern around the equity of organizations being able to receive multiple grants. 

 

Mr. DeCaigny responded that the current funding strategy, which is on a per project basis, has resulted in de-centralized, piece-meal funding that lacks depth. He explained that shifting to a multi-year funding strategy would allow for deeper investments in core constituents and more accountability. 

 

 

Motion to approve recommendations to award sixteen grants totaling $250,000 in the 2013-2014 cycle of Arts & Communities: Innovative Partnerships (“ACIP”) grants to the following individuals and organizations, and to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into grant agreements with each individual and organization for the amounts listed:

 

ABD Productions,  $15,000 

Asian American Women Artists Assoc.,  $25,000 

Au Co Vietnamese Cultural Center,  $10,000 

Chinese Culture Foundation,  $10,000 

Chinese Progressive Association,  $10,000 

CounterPULSE,  $10,000 

Elizabeth Gjelten,  $10,000 

Emelle Sonh,  $10,000 

Hospitality House,  $25,000 

Jerome Reyes,  $10,000 

Kulintang Arts,  $25,000 

Navarette x Kajiyama,  $10,000 

Out of Site: Center for Arts Education,  $25,000 

Queer Cultural Center,  $25,000 

Root Division,  $20,000 

Small Press Traffic Literary Arts Center,  $10,000

 

Moved: Schnair/Shiota

Public Comment: None. 

 

Community Arts and Education (“CAE”) Program Director Judy Nemzoff and Ms. Lin explained the current grant appeals process to commissioners and shared its recent update. The process now covers CAE grants and includes a new grant appeals form. 

 

Ms. Nemzoff added that this was the first step towards CEG and CAE aligning common practices between similar programmatic activities.

 

Director DeCaigny noted a typo at the end of the document. 

 

Commissioner Schnair asked when notifications went out to panelists.

 

Ms. Lin explained that CEG displayed initial rankings at the panel with a disclaimer that official notification would be announced pending approvals. Applicants may submit an appeal up to 30 days after an official Full Commission approval. CAE and CEG are working to align their notification procedures. 

 

 

Motion to approve the grants appeals process for Cultural Equity and Community Arts and Education Grants.

 

Moved: Schnair/Shiota

Public Comment: None. 

The motion was unanimously approved.

 

Ms. Nemzoff said there was a Citywide Nonprofit Fiscal and Compliance Monitoring program that comes out of the Controller’s Office in their Department of Performance Measures. The program focused on monitoring compliance of nonprofit organizations that receive funding from more than two City agencies at a time and that play a key role in their communities. The African American Art & Culture Complex (“AAACC”) and the Bayview Opera House, Inc. (“BVOH, Inc.”) were in the program and in the future all the Centers will participate. There is a steering committee comprised of City departments that award grants and contracts; they are responsible for doing site visits to the nonprofit organizations to review their fiscal, compliance, and governance procedures,. Ms. Nemzoff said that the intent of the program was not punitive. Rather, it was meant to strengthen the organizations being awarded to do important community work. The program has partnered with CompassPoint to offer free technical assistance to nonprofits a part of the program. 

 

Ms. Nemzoff said that she and CAE Program Manager Robynn Takayama have been participating in trainings to conduct site visits, and Ms. Takayama led the team when it reviewed AAACC. Ms. Nemzoff said the program presented a new set of criteria for the Cultural Centers, separate from the Management and Programing Plan, based on the monitoring form developed by the Fiscal and Compliance Monitoring steering committee. Ms. Nemzoff expressed her excitement for using a tool to assess the Cultural Centers that has been developed by the Controller’s office based on best practices in the nonprofit field. Participation in the program will include discussions about how the Cultural Centers’ participation in the program would shift reporting at the Arts Commission. Historically, the Cultural Centers were audited every four years by the Controller’s Office. The Compliance Monitoring program is an opportunity for the Cultural Centers to be reviewed annually by multiple City departments. With Ms. Nemzoff and Ms. Takayama in the steering committee, they would be able to provide more context to the other City departments in reviewing the Cultural Centers. 

 

Commissioner Melania commented that the Cultural Centers’ participation in the program would help them move toward a model of excellence and capacity building. 

 

Mr. DeCaigny said that this shift into the program came from a place of wanting to elevate the Arts Commission’s investments. He said that the Cultural Centers were a critical investment to communities and he believed accountability measured value. He hoped that participation in the compliance monitoring program with other City departments will raise the value from the City perspective. Mr. DeCaigny said that the Fiscal and Compliance Monitoring checklist was introduced to the Cultural Center directors to take back to their boards and staff. He said that participation in the program would also make the Cultural Centers more competitive in receiving other City funding. 

 

Commissioner Melania said that the Commission had seen a lot of development with the Cultural Centers in terms of board development and fund development. She asked whether participation in the compliance monitoring programing was building a new community around the Cultural Centers. Ms. Nemzoff said that they were exposing other City departments to the Cultural Centers. 

 

Commissioner Shiota agreed that this compliance monitoring program would help get the story of the Cultural Centers out to a broader audience. She asked whether the virtual centers were impacted by this as well. Ms. Nemzoff said the intent was to involve the virtual centers as well. 

 

Commissioner Melania asked whether this would impact granting for current and future applicants. Ms. Nemzoff said that what they were learning through the compliance monitoring program would influence the reporting of the Cultural Centers. Commissioner Melania said there was a huge shift toward accountability and she was wondering if some of the criteria the compliance monitoring team was assessing should be included in the Arts Commission's granting guidelines, to make sure that the Commission was funding best practices. 

 

Ms. Nemzoff said that for fiscal year 2013-2014 the Cultural Centers reports already included monitoring from the compliance check list, such as an annual review of the executive director. The current reporting requirements may lighten because of their participation in the compliance monitoring program. She said that in the current fiscal year they had already cut out the midyear report. 

 

Mr. DeCaigny added that the goal was to streamline and build efficiency and to make sure that there was a focus on benchmarks that mattered. He said that the reports might lighten up on the program narrative, but that might also mean that they would formalize site visits. 

 

Commissioner Shiota asked where the accountability lied if the Cultural Center grants were noncompetitive and the compliance monitoring was not punitive.

 

Mr. DeCaigny said that they were still in discussion about the corrective action and what role the Arts Commission plays if the Cultural Centers did not meet its benchmarks. He commented that the Arts Commission had to make the case every year to the mayor’s budget director that Cultural Center funding was the right investment, which required that they show impact and accountability. In the past when there was failure of governance of the Cultural Center, the process of the City getting involved has been messy. Mr. DeCaigny reiterated that they would have to discuss what would happen. 

 

Commissioner Melania said that there were a couple of extreme incidences in the past where the Arts Commission had to withhold funding from a Cultural Center.

 

Ms. Nemzoff said that she discussed this at great length with the steering committee of the compliance monitoring team. She said the Department of Public Health (“DPH”) struggled with the same issues. Ms. Nemzoff stated that one of the discussions was around whether participation in the compliance monitoring program would give the Arts Commission more leverage to change should there be an underperforming Center. In the end, the steering committee felt that each City department should determine for itself whether to continue to fund or defund a nonprofit that continued to have findings or did not respond to the recommendations established by the compliance team. She said that there was a new director of the compliance monitoring program that came from the nonprofit world whose goal is to make sure that City dollars were being invested properly and that the organizations receiving them were strong.

 

Ms. Nemzoff moved on to other updates from Community Arts and Education (“CAE”). She said that the arts education program manager position had been posted and that they received 298 applicants. She and other staff were in the process of reviewing applications and setting up interviews with candidates. The call for WritersCorps teaching artists would be released soon, with applications due in May. Where Art Lives had started and the teaching artists were working in twelve sites around the city, serving over 150 youth. Where Art Lives was going through a restructuring and the lead teacher, Todd Berman, was rewriting the curriculum so that it met Common Core standards. They have increased the art-making component of the program and the youth will have more opportunity to create public art. Lastly, the Arts Commission would break ground at the Bayview Opera House on Wednesday, March 12 at 9:30 a.m. with the Mayor, Supervisor Malia Cohen, and other dignitaries to begin renovation construction.

 

Public Comment: None.

 

Mr. DeCaigny gave a brief update on the Nonprofit Displacement Working Group. He reported that both he and Supervisor Jane Kim had been appointed to the Nonprofit Displacement Working Group along with other local leaders, which addresses displacement of nonprofit and arts and culture organizations as a result of increasing prices citywide. He stated that the group was drafting a document with recommendations, and it would be sent out to the Full Commission and nonprofits for comment. Supervisor John Avalos would provide $2 million as a supplemental for the arts and the working group would propose $2.515 million for a total of $4.515 million. Mr. DeCaigny reported that $2.515 million would go to the Mayor’s Office of Community Housing and Development and $2 million to the Arts Commission. Director DeCaigny commented that they were examining the Community Arts Stabilization Trust (“CAST”) model to determine if they would be interested in expanding their programming and services citywide. He added that the goal was to have the final recommendations to the Board of Supervisors by the first week of April.

 

Commissioner Schnair asked if the working group was part of 950 Market. Mr. DeCaigny responded that 950 Market is legislation that is working in tandem. 

 

Mr. DeCaigny stated that the Board of Supervisors would like to see the funds distributed in the fastest, most effective way possible. He continued to state that Director of Communications Kate Patterson was tracking any displacement notices, concerns, articles, etc. the Arts Commission receives to account for impact. He instructed Commissioners to direct any organizations threatened by displacement to contact Ms. Patterson at kate.patterson@sfgov.org.

 

Commissioner Melania asked if the $2 million allocation to the Arts Commission is earmarked for a specific district or is it citywide.

 

Mr. DeCaigny reported that the Arts Commission $2 million funds would be distributed citywide for nonprofit arts and culture organizations. The working group was still flushing out the criteria, which could include a suite of technical assistant services, such as pro bono legal or real estate services; a space-sharing, master lease model that CAST was using with the KUNST-OFF space; or acquisitions for long-term use.

 

Public Comment: None

 

There was no public comment.

 

There was no new business.

 

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 4:19 p.m.

 

CF 3/31/14 draft minutes posted

CF 4/7/14 minutes adopted

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Translated written materials and interpretation services are available to you at no cost. For assistance, please notify Program Associate Cristal Fiel, 415-252-3145, cristal.fiel@sfgov.org.

 

我們將為閣下提供免費的書面翻譯資料和口譯服務。如需協助 Program Associate Cristal, 415-252-3145, cristal.fiel@sfgov.org.

 

Materiales traducidos y servicios de interpretación están disponibles para usted de manera gratuita. Para asistencia, notifique a Program Associate Cristal Fiel, 415-252-3145, cristal.fiel@sfgov.org.