Arts Forum SF

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October 24, 2006

Survey Response: Rob Black, Candidate, D6

1. Have you ever served on the board of an Arts agency or organization?
I have been a concert and music promoter, promoting performances from Ice-T and Ice Cube to Laurie Anderson and George Winston, to George Straight and Garth Brooks. I was a tour manager with Midnight Oil and Concerts for the Environment and was the Director of Special Projects, in charge of internal union organizing in preparation for contract negotiations with the motion picture studios and networks for The Screen Actors Guild, the largest union of artists and performers in the United States.

2. Describe your current arts activities as a patron, an audience member or worker, etc. What arts events have you participated in recently?
I drafted legislation sponsored by Supervisor Alioto-Pier and signed by Mayor Newsom that became the first Film and Television incentive program in the state of California. This effort came out of my past work with the Screen Actors Guild and my belief regarding the artistic and economic importance of the film and television industry to a community. Films provide jobs for our writers, artists, painters, sculptors, and crew members, as well as important opportunities for artistic expression. Some recent art events have I attended include the Film Arts Foundation showing of “Orozco – Man of Fire” and last months second Saturday at Root Division for the “It’s only Rock and Roll” photo exhibit and concert.

3. Please list three arts organizations or working artists in your district. Do you know them personally?
Root Division, Slobodan Dan Piach, Sandra Percival at New Langton Arts. I have had the good fortune to meet with and talk to these organizations and individuals about art and art policy in San Francisco, and where they would like to see the City to go moving forward.

4. If elected, will you commit to displaying art created by local artists in your office at City Hall and attend arts events in your district?
I commit to do that even if I am not elected, it is part of what makes San Francisco a great place to live. I currently have a wonderful street scene by Veerakeat Tongpaiboon on my wall, as well as a painting by Chloe Short, a recent transplant from England but now an emerging San Francisco artist. I will continue to collect, display and support our local artists and arts community. As for attending art, most of the best work and events on the West Coast happen in District 6, from open studios, to the Opera, to the Symphony, to the Fringe Festival – the District is the place to attend art events in San Francisco.

5. The City's General Plan spells out a vision for the arts in San Francisco: "San Francisco is nationally and internationally acclaimed as a cultural center where the arts are central to the essence and character of the City. It hosts a flourishing cultural environment in which a profusion of art is created, performed and exhibited in adventuresome, creative and often ground breaking ways. The breadth of artistic achievement in San Francisco encompasses many disciplines, cultures, individuals and organizations of all sizes."
What does that vision specifically mean to you, and your district?
District 6 is where art is made, displayed, bought, sold, and performed. It is home to some of our most prestigious institutions like the symphony, SF MOMO, and the Asian Art Museum, as well as our emerging artists who display their work with the help of innovative organizations like Red Ink Studios, Root Division, and the Fringe Festival. For the Arts community to thrive, we must keep this diversity in San Francisco and in District 6.
I believe one way to ensure that diversity would be to move forward with the mid-Market redevelopment plan. The plan has over $40,000,000 of arts funding and $100,000,000 in affordable housing. These two areas of funding are essential in maintaining a diverse arts community.

6. What is your evaluation of and commitment to current city funding for the arts, existing agencies and priorities (such as Grants for the Arts and the Arts Commission's Cultural Equity and Individual Artist Commission Programs, etc.)?
I support moving back to full funding of the arts portion of the hotel tax. As, well I would like to see the City working much more proactively in coordinating our existing resources, either with vacant government or commercial buildings, to promote studio and housing opportunities for artists. London’s Acme studios, as well as our own Red Ink Studios are good model’s that the City should look to promote. I also believe we need to more actively engage and coordinate with the SFUSD to ensure that their current and upcoming arts monies are used in ways that add benefit to our Neighborhood arts centers and local artists are able to become actively involved in their programs.

7. What are your priorities for future or increased arts funding?
I believe we need to restore the Hotel Tax funding for the arts. In addition, we need to create spaces for artist to both live and work in San Francisco. If we create space, both economically and physically for artists, their creativity and work will do the rest.
To ensure that artists can live and thrive in the City and especially in District 6, San Francisco can move forward by:
· Using current City agencies including the Redevelopment Agency, The Mayor's Office of Housing and the Art Commission to retain existing spaces for artists and create new ones.
· Conducting a city-wide survey of artists to measure housing and studio needs.
· Creating a city-wide database of artists who are currently looking for available housing and studio space. This database would provide artists regular updates on available space, homeownership workshops and other relevant information.

8. Are you familiar with the recent report by the Arts Task Force?
Yes. It is vital that the arts community continue to advise San Francisco City Government to guard our cultural heritage and our artistic future.

9. Do you support the Arts Task Force's recommendations to fully
restore the statutory Hotel Tax Fund contributions to arts and tourism?
Yes.

10. If so, what would you do in next year's budget cycle to fulfill that promise?
As stated in the report, restoration of the funding will likely be a multi-year process. However, I will make Arts funding and development a priority. I believe that in the long run, the social and economic benefits of a strong arts community – from cultural education, youth activities and crime reduction, to job creation and increased tourism – are worth that investment.

11. In past decades, a Neighborhood Arts Program was one of the largest recipients of funds from the City's Grants for the Arts; however, that program has been decimated in recent years, and many neighborhoods have limited access to arts and culture close to home. Do you support the Arts Task Force's recommendations to create a new and substantial Neighborhood Arts Program across the entire City?
I believe we should to more to develop our neighborhood Arts program. Because of new and additional funding, I think the City has a unique opportunity to partner with SFUSD and local community based Arts groups to create more neighborhood and culturally based Arts programs.

12. If so, what would you do, as supervisor, to fulfill that promise?
I believe working to restore funding from the Hotel Tax as well as working to promote better coordination among existing organizations, departments and agencies, perhaps through an Arts Liaison staff, will help support more Neighborhood Arts Programs.

13. Do you support the rest of the Arts Task Force recommendations?
Generally, I do support the recommendations of the Arts Task Force, in particular regarding the restoration of funding and working to increase the supply of affordable work and housing space for artists.

14. Do you find any of the other Arts Task Force recommendations to be
particularly valuable to you and your district?
We must address the availability of artist space in San Francisco because are hemorrhaging our art, our artists and our diversity. We must do more to ensure that we are creating space for artists to work and live in San Francisco and the redevelopment of mid-Market as an Arts district with affordable housing will go along way to help these policy goals.

15. As a supervisor, how will you work with artists and Arts organizations in your district to communicate the value of the work they do to other community-based constituencies, and to encourage and facilitate partnerships and alliances (e.g., merchants groups, neighborhood associations, trade unions, social service and healthcare non-profits)?
The Taskforce report lays out some very good ideas about how to integrate art into planning, housing and public spaces. I think we need to ensure that Art is always the part of the conversation when we are talking about anything from housing to public safety.

16. The City's General Plan lists artists and artisans as a population in special need of affordable housing policies and programs: "Artists have special housing needs for affordable accommodations that provide large wall space, high ceilings, lofts, lighting, and the ability to work at all hours of the day or night. There is high demand for such flexible space in the city, as many of San Francisco's artists live in apartment units not suitable for such activities. It was estimated that about 60% of San Francisco artists are lower income households, earning less than $25,500 a year in 1990." History has proven that the housing marketplace will not address these special needs on its own. How will you work to develop and maintain long-term affordable housing and studio space for individual artists and Arts organizations?
Creating a diversity of housing opportunities is essential to the well-being of our artistic community. Some ways to begin to address our housing problems include: Creating public / private partnerships with Arts community non-profits so we can create exciting cultural districts, affordable studio space and affordable housing opportunities, such as:
- London’s ACME Studios which has created a permanent and sustainable network of affordable, accessible and high-quality studios for artists in London.
- Boston’s Redevelopment Agency which has created an Artist Space Initiative that answered Mayor Thomas Menino's call to create both affordable housing and permanent artist housing.
- The Avenue of the Arts in Philadelphia. Located at a place where dilapidated buildings once stood, it is currently the premier entertainment and cultural district in Philadelphia. Avenue of the Arts is home to theaters, the University of the Arts, the Academy of Music and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
To ensure that artists can live and thrive in the City and especially in District 6, San Francisco can move forward by:
· Using current City agencies including the Redevelopment Agency, The Mayor’s Office of Housing and the Art Commission to retain existing spaces for artists and create new ones.
· Conduct a city-wide survey of artists to measure housing and studio needs.
· Create a city-wide database of artists who are currently looking for available housing and studio space. This database would provide artists regular updates on available space, homeownership workshops and other relevant information.
It is time for District 6 to have real leadership when it comes to the Arts Community. A strong voice is needed for artists who want to create, perform, exhibit and live in San Francisco.

17. The SFUSD recently created its first Arts Education Master Plan. As supervisor, how will you help the SFUSD find the resources to guarantee implementation of the plan?
One of the duties of the Board of Supervisors is to provide the funding and accountability needed to give the children of our City the well-rounded education that will not only prepare them for the professional world, but will help them grow as human beings. As Supervisor, I will fight for adequate funding for plans such as the AEMP, and for the necessary oversight to ensure that progress does not take a back seat to politics in our City's school system. As stated earlier, I will also work to make sure that we are coordinating with the School District so we are finding synergies with our existing artists and Neighborhood Art Programs.

18. How do you see the Board of Supervisors working in concert with the Board of Education, the Mayor's Office and the social service sector to provide expanded, coordinated Arts education opportunities for children and youth across the entire city, during school hours and after school?
All of these entities must work together constructively through the budget process to ensure that the City's artistic community is appropriately funded and that the School District's oversight provides useful feedback on how Arts programs can be refined to make them more accessible. An Arts Liaison staff could be very helpful in this regard.
In addition, for things that City funds cannot necessarily accomplish, community involvement can help. I hope to make my office a bridge between a school system in need of assistance from the artistic community and artists who wish to use their talents to broaden our students' horizons.

19. Please give an example of an urgent issue in your district and how
you would work with artists/Arts organizations to address that issue.
We need to provide more opportunities for artists to work and live. Moving forward with the mid-Market redevelopment plan would be a key issue for the district, again creating $100,000,000 in affordable housing and $40,000,000 in arts funding. However, in the interim, we should work to allow vacant buildings to be used on a temporary basis as either gallery spaces or studio space, keeping the buildings active and improving the neighborhood.

Posted by at October 24, 2006 11:01 PM

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