Arts Commission 2002 Gender Analysis Update

Arts Commission

2002 Gender Analysis Update

 

The Arts Commission provided a report on its progress toward implementing the recommendations of the CEDAW Task Force on November 20, 2002. The following draws directly from the CEDAW Task Force Minutes of that meeting:

 

SF ARTS COMMISSION CEDAW PROGRESS REPORT:

Nancy Gonchar, Deputy Director and CEDAW Task Force liaison from the SF Arts Commission, gave a progress report.

 

1) THE ARTS COMMISSION WILL MAKE AN EFFORT TO EVALUATE ALL ITS PROGRAMS, SERVICES AND OPERATIONS, WHICH INCLUDE GENDER AS ONE OF THE FOCUSES. WE WILL CONSIDER HIRING A CONSULTANT TO HELP US ESTABLISH A MEANINGFUL EVALUATION PROCESS AS WELL AS A SURVEY TOOL FOR EACH OF OUR PROGRAMS. THE COMMUNITY WILL BE INVOLVED IN THIS EVALUATION PROCESS.

 

The Arts Commission has begun an evaluation of all its programs, however, they have not yet determined how gender issues will be evaluated. Discussion followed that gender is more than counting how many women there are in any given program. Gender analysis speaks to meeting the needs of women and girls throughoutSan Francisco including the different race/ethnicities and other characteristics in all of the Arts Commissions programs and services. Departmental staff spoke of the variety of Arts Commission programs, particularly the Cultural Centers that focus on different ethnic groups and the vast outreach that is done for all panels for the Cultural Equity Grants in particular and that the panels are always very diverse. Despite the board outreach, similar groups do tend to be recipients of grants and/or projects, in part, due their expertise in applying for city funds and projects. The Task Force discussed increasing training/mentoring opportunities, even requiring this of organizations who receive large projects. WILD and DOSW staff both offered to assist with developing criteria for gender to be utilized in evaluations.

Larger art project commissions that include a lot of engineering work did tend to go to men who make up the bulk of the individuals and groups with this type of experience. The Task Force recommended that recipients of commission be strongly encouraged to participate with local artists who would be interested in gaining this experience. The Arts Commission committed to exploring this recommendation.

 

2) THE ARTS COMMISSION WILL CONTINUE ITS PRACTICE OF OFFERING STAFF FLEXIBILITY AND CONSIDER OFFERING MORE OPTIONS SUCH AS JOB SHARING, PART-TIME (MOST STAFF ARE FULL-TIME), COMPRESSED WORK WEEK; FORMAL TELECOMMUTING WHERE FEASIBLE, AND OTHER WORK-LIFE RESOURCES (MOST LIKELY IN CONJUNCTION WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS) SUCH AS CHILDCARE AND ELDER INFORMATION OR REFERRALS, ETC.

 

The Arts Commission found it difficult to develop innovative and flexible policies in a small office when faced with the myriad of City, Department of Human Resources, Civil Service and Memoranda of Understanding.

 

3) THE CEDAW TASK FORCE SHOULD TAKE A LEADERSHIP ROLE IN RECOMMENDING CITYWIDE POLICIES REGARDING GENDER EQUITY, AS WELL AS EMPLOYMENT FLEXIBILITY POLICIES.

 

Given that staff reported that it has been difficult for the department to expand upon the current flexibility and programs in place, the CEDAW Task Force encouraged looking to other departments that had gone beyond the standard policies, such as the Board of Supervisors, Adult Probation, and Office of Citizens Complaints. Due to budget constraints, the need for flexibility was increasing in areas such as job sharing, part time and telecommuting, all of which can save in costs.

 

4) THE DEPARTMENT WILL ALSO LOOK INTO THE ISSUE OF THE STREET ARTIST LOTTERY AND THE IMPACT ON PARENTS.

 

The Arts Commission revised the guidelines of the Street Artists Lottery, to accommodate parents of school age children and to allow for in-persons proxies to at early morning lotteries for Street Artists space.

 

5) THE DEPARTMENT WILL ASSESS THE NEED TO INITIATE A STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS.

 

The Arts Department has begun to initiate a strategic planning process and will consider including gender in he process. Ann Lehman offered to assist in this endeavor.