SAN FRANCISCO ARTS COMMISSION
COMMUNITY INVESTMENTS COMMITTEE

Tuesday, February 8, 2022
1 p.m.
Remote Meeting via video and teleconferencing

Minutes
 

Chair Collins called the meeting to order at 1:09 p.m.

1. Roll Call

Commissioners Present: 
Charles Collins, Chair
Roberto Ordeñana
Linda Parker Pennington
Marcus Shelby
Janine Shiota
Debra Walker

Commissioner Absent: 
Nabiel Musleh

Staff Present: 
Joanne Lee, Deputy Director of Programs
Denise Pate, Director of Community Investments
 

Chair Charles Collins announced the virtual meeting instructions.

Operations Manager Lorena Moreno announced the public comment instructions.

 

2. General Public Comment

Commissioner Collins called for public comment. There was no public comment.

 

3. Arts Impact Endowment, Arts Hub 

Deputy Director Lee introduced this agenda item, which supports the ongoing development and expansion of the Artist Power Center (APC). The APC is a digital platform that helps Bay Area artists and cultural workers, disproportionately impacted by Covid, identify critical resources and build long-term careers. The APC project was recommended by the Economic Recovery Taskforce to provide a central clearing house for San Francisco artists to find employment opportunities, grants and financing, and other resources for growing their practice and businesses. Deputy Director Lee went on to introduce Nasira Spells and Lauren Ruffin from Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) to provide an overview of the APC project that will publicly launch on Saturday, February 19, 2022.

Commissioner Parker Pennington gave thanks, expressed great excitement for this project, and committed to sharing this resource with artists in the Bayview-Hunters Point community where she resides. She also mentioned a potential partnership with her neighbor in the Shipyard community who works for Google and wants to create an application to locate all the public art in San Francisco. Commissioner Parker Pennington offered to make an introduction to facilitate this potential partnership. She also suggested Spells and Ruffin present this project to MegaBlack SF.

Commissioner Walker also gave thanks and expressed deep appreciation for this project, especially for the outreach and technical assistance components as well as the intergenerational focus. She asked how the project will connect with various City agencies across the country. She also wanted to know more about how YBCA is handling the launch of this project and suggested the project connect with the City’s Cultural Centers to support with outreach.

Ruffin confirmed that YBCA would like to continue conversations with the Arts Commission, and Deputy and Director Lee, about how to best tap into City agency networks in a consistent way. Ruffin also noted the desire to hire a Partnerships Manager to assist in this capacity.

Commissioner Shiota gave thanks to Spells and Ruffin for their hard work and expressed appreciation for the crowdfunding/artist lending aspects of the project. She asked if the APC project was mobile friendly, and Ruffin confirmed the application is web-based, but that it is mobile accessible and responsive.

Chair Collins also expressed thanks and asked to know more about the project’s language outreach. Ruffin noted there are two places where the project needs significant investment: 1) multiple language translation 2) accessibility and hopes to roll these elements out by the end of 2022. Chair Collins asked if YBCA has the resources to build these aspects out and Ruffin confirmed they currently do not have the resources to do so. Chair Collins also asked if the project has been in touch with The Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector Ruffin confirmed that, to her knowledge, YBCA has not been in touch with this office. Chair Collins offered to speak to Deputy Director Lee offline about the possibility of connecting the APC project with this person at The Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector to potentially bridge this economic gap.

Commissioner Shelby and Ordeñana echoed all the Commissioners and gave deep thanks to the APC project team and all their hard work. Commissioner Ordeñana offered to connect with Director of Cultural Affairs, Ralph Remington, to discuss opportunities to share this project with community members.

Commissioner Collins called for public comment. There was no public comment.


4. CIC Committee Meetings

Deputy Director Lee introduced this agenda item and explained that this change would allow staff more time to prepare agendas and supporting documents and to place these items on the Full Commission agenda in the following month. If approved at the March 2022 Full Commission meeting this change would go into effect in April 2022.

Commissioner Parker Pennington expressed that having Community Investments Committee meetings every other month isn’t enough time to cover the topics on agendas and that the timing can be difficult when decision making is often pushed to the Full Commission Committee meetings. She specifically noted she believes the Community Investments Committee does not spend enough time discussing the Cultural Centers. 

Chair Collins noted there is a huge administrative process on staff to prepare a single docket and encouraged Commissioners to attend a grant review panel to observe the process. Deputy Director Lee echoed Chair Collins’s sentiments and added that the change will help bring items to the Community Investments Committee rather than the Full Commission Committee meeting. 

Commissioner Ordeñana suggested that staff and leadership come together to assess how much time is being allotted to review each item, while ultimately taking the staff’s lead to determine the frequency of Committee meetings. He added that the purpose of the Committee’s is to have policy-level discussions.

Motion carried by Commissioner Ordeñana, seconded by Commissioner Walker moved to approve the motion, as presented:

Motion to change the regular meeting day for the Commission’s Community Investments Committee from the second Tuesday of the month to the third Tuesday of the month.

Commissioner Collins called for public comment. There was no public comment.

The motion carried unanimously by the following vote:
Ayes: Collins, Ordeñana, Parker Pennington, Shelby, Shiota, and Walker

5. Special Project Grants
Staff Presenter: Deputy Director Joanne Lee

Motion carried by Commissioner Parker Pennington, seconded by Commissioner Shiota moved to approve the motion, as presented:

Motion to approve recommendations to award thirteen (13) Special Project Grants, funded by District Supervisor Add-Backs and Mayoral enhancements to the following organizations and to authorize the Director of Cultural Affairs to enter into grant agreements with each organization for amounts not to exceed the following at this time:

1. District 1 – Clement Street Merchants Association (Fiscal Sponsor: Richmond District Neighborhood Center Inc.), $17,000 over two years to support a neighborhood and community-focused art walk in a District 1 commercial corridor.
2. District 2 and 3 – San Francisco Historical Society, $100,000 over one year to support the development of programs focused on the history of the City of San Francisco.
3. District 4 – ArtSpan, $30,000 over one year to support a new part-time staff member to develop community arts activities in the sunset neighborhood.
4. District 5 – Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association (Fiscal Sponsor: Intersection for the Arts), $42,500 over two years to support the administrative infrastructure and capacity building of the organization.
5. District 5 – Mission Art 415, Inc., $45,000 over one year to support creating art on exterior surfaces and dining parklets under a lead artist’s mentorship.
6. District 9 – San Francisco Latino Parity and Equity Coalition (Fiscal Sponsor: Galeria Studio 24), $300,000 over two years to support the hiring of four (4) fellows to develop partnerships with the San Francisco Latino Parity and Equity Coalition and the Latino Task Force Coalition.
7. District 9 – Galeria Studio 24, $225,000 over two years to support a mini-grant program to artists in the Mission.    
8. Citywide – Theatre Bay Area, $40,000 over two years to support arts services to artists and theatre organizations to assist the field in reopening.
9. Citywide – Arts for a Better Bay Area (Fiscal Sponsor: SOMArts), $40,000 over two years to support arts services and an annual convening for artists and arts organizations. 
10. Citywide – American Indian Film Institute, $42,500 over two years to support the production costs for the 47th annual American Indian Film Festival.
11. Citywide – The Cultural Conservancy Scared Land Foundation, $42,500 over two years to support the development of community arts, media, and resource sharing opportunities through Native arts exhibitions of Native artists.
12. Citywide – Uphill Arts (Fiscal Sponsor: Independent Arts & Media), $112,000 over two years to support an arts-based curriculum for youth to address issues and outcomes of illegal tagging and unsanctioned graffiti.
13. Citywide – Arts Education Alliance of the Bay Area (Fiscal Sponsor: Intersection for the Arts), $30,000 over one year to support organizational infrastructure and a half-day mini conference on promising practices in arts-based afterschool programming for youth.
     

Commissioner Collins called for public comment. There was no public comment.

The motion carried unanimously by the following vote:
Ayes: Collins, Ordeñana, Parker Pennington, Shelby, Shiota, and Walker
 

6. Staff Update

Director of Community Investments Denise Pate introduced this item. She gave several Community Investment staffing updates: 1) she gave public thanks to Robynn Takayama who resigned after 21 years of service 2) announced the hiring of two new Program Officers, Candace Eros Diaz and Jonell Molina 3) announced the job posting for a Senior Program Officer. She also noted that the Community Investments team is officially in grant review panel season, which began on January 13, 2022 and will end in late March 2022. Director Pate also announced that the virtual Annual Convening would take place on Tuesday, February 15, 2022.

Commissioner Shiota and Commissioner Parker Pennington gave thanks to Director Pate for her presentation and welcomed her the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Commissioner Collins called for public comment. There was no public comment.

 

7. New Business and Announcements

Commissioner Parker Pennington noted the many Black theater productions happening in the Bay Area and offered to send an email to those she knows who are interested in theater.

Commissioner Collins called for public comment. There was no public comment.

 

8. Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:36 p.m.

 

posted 2/22/2022, 7:11 p.m., CED
updated 3/10/2022, 10:24 a.m., CED
approved 3/7/22 CED