TONIGHT: "$56 Million & Where's the Art?"

[expo at lists.artsandmedia.net]

Join the Expo for the Artist & Musician tonight at CounterPulse for the 
season debut of Shaping San Francisco's FALL TALKS 2007!

We are honored to partner with Shaping SF for this auspicious event. 
Their Spring, Fall & Winter Talks are among  the most lively, 
inclusive, thought-provoking and important public dialogue events you 
can find in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

In keeping with the Expo's focus on independent culture and community, 
we are excited to bring you what we hope is a breakthrough dialogue on 
the arts funding crisis in San Francisco today:


      "$56 Million & Where's the Art?"
      TONIGHT -- Wednesday, September 12, 7:30pm
      CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission @ 9th St.

      With: Frances Phillips (Haas Foundation), John Kilacky (SF 
Foundation),
      San San Wong (SF Arts Commission), Krissy Keefer (Dance Brigade),
      Colleen Marlow (Art Head)

      A panel and audience-led dialogue focusing on SOLUTIONS,
      tonight's event that starts with the question: What can San
      Francisco do to better leverage the abundant community support
      for the arts?

      We all know how passionate folks are on the topic, and how
      extraordinarily challenging it is for both funders and fund-
      seekers.

      This is further complicated by the fact that we are working
      within a society and culture that devalues the arts in favor
      of commerce-driven entertainment.

      The resulting cognitive dissonance can be painful indeed.

      However, we all have the same desire -- to create and support
      a thriving arts sector in SF, the Bay Area and beyond.

      Although the title of the event, "$56 Million and Where's the
      Art?", is a provocative, it is NOT our intention to start
      arguments or propagate kvetching and griping. That's boring
      and counterproductive.

      Rather, we are focusing on looking for imaginative and positive
      solutions to the current arts funding crisis.

      Though the topic is challenging, to avoid the challenges would
      see us do a disservice to everything we, as arts and culture
      workers, collectively aspire towards: free-speech, civil society,
      cultural engagement, all the good stuff.

      Our goal is productive dialogue that can change the world for
      the better. That requires confronting the issue with honesty,
      intelligence and grace.


PANELIST BIOGRAPHIES:

While attending the University of Oregon, KRISSY KEEFER co-founded the 
Wallflower Order, the nation's first feminist dance company, in 1975. 
Wallflower toured the nation for almost a decade, and staged many of 
Keefer's original pieces before large, enthusiastic and predominantly 
feminist audiences. In 1980 at age 27 Keefer received her first NEA 
Choreographers Fellowship. In 1981 the Wallflower Order and Grupo Raiz 
toured the United States, Canada, and Europe to raise consciousness and 
resources for the peoples struggles of Nicuaragua, Chile and El 
Salvador. In 1984 she co-founded the Dance Brigade in Oakland to 
continue her explorations of dance-theater that addressed women's 
issues and concerns.  Keefer has received numerous grants and awards, 
including three NEA Choreographers' Fellowships, San Francisco 
Magazine's 1998 Arts Achievement Award for Dance, two Individual Artist 
Commissions from the San Francisco Cultural Equity Grants Program, a 
1997 "Goldie" Award from the Bay Guardian, Isadora Duncan Awards in 
1995, 1998 and 2000 and the East Bay Express' "Artists Who Make A 
Difference" Award in 1993. Since 1999, Keefer has been the executive 
director of Dance Mission Theater, a dance school and performance 
center at 24th and Mission.

JOHN R. KILLACKY, Program Officer for Arts and Culture, joined The San 
Francisco Foundation in March 2003. Previously, he served as Executive 
Director of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for six years and Curator 
of Performing Arts for the Walker Art Center for eight years. Other 
past positions include Program Officer at the Pew Charitable Trusts, 
General Manager of PepsiCo SUMMERFARE, and Managing Director of the 
Trisha Brown and Laura Dean dance companies. He received the First Bank 
Award Sally Ordway Irvine Award in Artistic Vision; the William Dawson 
Award for Programming Excellence from the Association of Performing 
Arts Presenters; Dance USA's Earnie Award as an "unsung hero;" a 
Gerbode Foundation Professional Development Fellowship; a scholarship 
to Harvard Business School's summer intensive; and in 2004, the Fan 
Taylor Distinguished Service Award for Exemplary Service to the Field 
of Professional Presenting from the Association of Performing Arts 
Presenters. Mr. Killacky has served as a panelist, lecturer, and 
consultant for a broad range of arts and funding organizations.  He has 
written numerous publications on the arts, and written and directed 
several award winning short films and videos.

COLLEEN MARLOW is the Director of Operations for Springboard Schools, a 
nonprofit school reform organization serving the state of California. 
Her background is in Arts Management, and she has worked for a variety 
of nonprofit arts organizations including  Northwest Film Forum in 
Seattle, Seattle Opera, and the San Francisco Opera. She's also 
volunteered locally for Litquake, Expo for the Artist & Musician, SF 
Zinefest, and the Art Deco Society. She also publishes the literary 
'zine called  Little Elegy, and dances with the Deco Belles! Art Head 
is her "micro-philanthropy for the arts" project that connects local 
artists and grassroots arts organizations to members of the community 
through an online network that provides tools for outreach and 
fundraising. The site is not live yet, but you can read a little about 
the vision on her blog,  Give Small, Give Often.

FRANCES PHILLIPS is senior program officer for the arts at the Walter
and Elise Haas Fund and director of The Creative Work Fund.  Previously
she was executive director of Intersection for the Arts (1986-94) and
director of the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San
Francisco State University (1983-86).  She is a book reviewer, co-editor
(of the Grantmakers in the Arts Reader), and poet who has published
three small press books.

JESSICA ROBINSON is the Executive Director of CounterPULSE, a nonprofit 
that provides support and resources for emerging artists. She ushered 
CounterPULSE through an organizational merger and relocation, tripling 
the budget of the organization during her tenure as director. She has 
also served as guest curator for organizations such as Yerba Buena 
Center for the Arts and the San Francisco International Arts Festival. 
She is a writer, performer and political activist and her dance writing 
has been published in In Dance and on CriticalDance.com. Jessica is an 
adjunct faculty member at the New College of California, and serves on 
the Arts Advisory Board of the Oakland Noodle Factory, the steering 
committee for San Francisco Arts Forum, and the Executive Committee of 
the Board of Directors of Alternate ROOTS, a service and granting 
organization for community-based artists and organizations in the 
Southeastern United States.  She has been the recipient of awards and 
scholarships from Dance/USA and the Bill T. Shannon Leadership 
Institute.

E. SAN SAN WONG, Program Director, Cultural Equity Grants, San 
Francisco Arts Commission, has over 20+ years of working in the arts.  
Prior to joining SFAC, she was a consultant focused on the exploration 
of new aesthetics, the impact of changing demographics and increased 
internationalism on arts and cultural practice, and strengthening 
support systems for bringing artists and communities together.  Her 
clients have included: The Ford Foundation, The Doris Duke Charitable 
Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, Leveraging Investments 
in Creativity, Fund for Folk Culture, The Asia Society, among others.  
She has worked throughout the United States, and in the Asia Pacifica 
region.  Wong's other institutional experience includes as Executive 
Director of the National Performance Network, and before that, Director 
of Development and Special Initiatives at Theater Artaud (San 
Francisco).