Arts Forum SF

« Survey Response: Bevan Dufty: Incumbent, D8 | Main | Survey Response: Sophie Maxwell: Incumbent, D10 »

October 24, 2006

Survey Response: Alix Rosenthal: Candidate, D8

1. Have you ever served on the board of an arts agency or organization?
Yes. I currently serve in the advisory board of the Black Rock Arts Foundation, which installs and promotes temporary public art installations.

2. Describe your current arts activities as a patron, an audience member or worker, etc. What arts events have you participated in recently?
I have been a longtime supporter and patron on the San Francisco Film Festival. I am deeply involved in the Burning Man arts festival community, having been an active participant and patron for several years. I support many artists by way of throwing and attending fundraisers for such artists as David Best, the Flaming Lotus Girls, Michael Christian, Pepe Ozan, Dan DasMann and Karen Cusalito, Viajay, Syd Gris and many musicians and sound artists. I have been very active in the Black Rocks Art Foundation’s efforts to bring temporary artwork to San Francisco, having thrown the key fundraiser to bring “Flock” to Civic Center, and having negotiated the lease with the Port of Oakland for “Passage” at Pier 14, which is still in place. I am proud to have the endorsements of Larry Harvey, Maid Marian and Andie Grace of the Burning Man organization in my race.

3. Please list three arts organizations or working artists in your district. Do you know them personally?
Unfortunately, the cost of housing in District 8 is very expensive, and it only becoming more so - and thus the vast majority of my artist friends live outside the district. The artists I know personally who reside in my district include Tim Gaskin, Sean Boyle, Anna Moniuszko, and Viajay, as well as several of the Flaming Lotus Girls.

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 will not only display art by local artists in my office, I would like to hold regular art openings and receptions in my office, similar to those held by Matt Gonzalez and Ross Mirkarimi.

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?
The General Plan and the Arts Element of the General Plan are a blueprint for what our city is to become. Change is inevitable and we must prioritize creation of and support for new and creative spaces in which the arts can thrive. As a Deputy City Attorney, I currently negotiate with developers for community benefits for the right to develop. I will bring that experience to the Board of Supervisors and I will write legislation that will aggressively implement the aspects of the General Plan that relate to the arts.
There are several potential sites for infill development in the District, the largest of which is the S&C Ford showroom and garage. I would like to see a home for several of the LGBTQ arts and performing arts organizations as well as a state of the art theater to be a part of such a development.

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.)?
The arts have been seriously under-funded (and de-funded!) over the past several budget cycles. This erosion must be reversed. I am completely committed to restoration of Hotel Tax funds to their statutory allocation levels. This will likely take several budget cycles, but I am committed to seeing it happen.
Support of individual artists, Cultural Equity, and GFTA are paramount to rebuilding the arts infrastructure of the City and creating a climate that attracts new and innovative talent to the City.

7. What are your priorities for future or increased arts funding?
The Arts Task Force vision of the future of the arts in San Francisco is one I fully support. I personally plan to prioritize neighborhood and community-serving arts as we return City Arts spending to voter-mandated levels. We should capture the history of San Francisco’s neighborhood through murals, bronzes, statuary and other artistic capital utilizing local artists. Grants and commissions through competitive design competitions for San Francisco based artists will prime the pump of creativity and act as a draw to get artists to return to San Francisco. I would like to see many more temporary art installations all over the city like those we’ve seen at Hayes Green and other artworks placed by the Black Rock Arts Foundation.
I would also like to work on a comprehensive plan to provide affordable workspace to artists. One of the things that the City does well is provide space for its large performing arts institutions and the exhibition based institutions. We need to apply that same principle for artists’ studios, mid and small performing arts and other community-based organizations. I would like to see each district ultimately have at least one Community Arts Center (complementing an expanded Cultural Center program) that houses a variety of disciplines that reflect the nature and character of its immediate environs.
Building community, breaching cultural divides and uniting disparate populations are all possible through robust neighborhood and community-based arts programs. The history and culture of a people are reflected through their arts. Bringing that art to new audiences is an essential element of creating an urban environment that is livable and sustainable.
The arts are not a luxury.

8. Are you familiar with the recent report by the Arts Task Force?
Yes, and I applaud its results. I appreciate all the effort and time it took to produce a comprehensive look at the state to the City’s funding and administration of the arts.

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?
Given our recovering revenues, I would chart at least a three-year plan to restore the HTF funding and begin building a base of support to protect the funding stream. Constituencies that advocate for specific spending priorities are the most successful in protecting their budget priorities and the arts should be no different. The Mayor’s Office of Community Development should be tasked with assisting in this effort. The nexus between the arts and economic and community development is undeniable and deserves the City’s full attention.

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?
Absolutely.

12. If so, what would you do, as supervisor, to fulfill that promise?
Clearly, this is all about funding and fully staffing the agencies responsible for its implementation. I will press for CDBG funds to support staffing so that HTF funds can flow directly to programs.

13. Do you support the rest of the Arts Task Force recommendations?
Yes.

14. Do you find any of the other Arts Task Force recommendations to be particularly valuable to you and your district?
The prioritization of neighborhood arts to enrich the daily experience of our residents is especially compelling.

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)?
This is a basic function of Community Development. I will work with MOCD to develop programs that will facilitate communication amongst these groups and develop a forum through which these entities can communicate and keep in touch. Modeled on successful business networking enterprises, we can form a sort of “Chamber of Arts Commerce” to facilitate communications and foment collaborative opportunities amongst theses groups.

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?
I will use my experience in writing legislation and negotiating with developers to incentivize development of this kind of space especially in the mid-market area. The City is losing its artists at a rapid rate, and as a result, the City is becoming a less diverse, less interesting place.
I am committed to building a San Francisco where people of diverse means can afford to live. Many in our community can only afford to live here through affordable housing and first time buyer programs. I will continue to support both innovative and proven programs to preserve our diversity and stop the flight of our middle class, such as community land trusts and limited-equity cooperative housing.

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?
With the passage of Prop H, the city committed funds for this purpose. The most effective tool a Supervisor has is in applying political pressure through the hearing process to assure the funds are being spent as intended and also to highlight the successes of the program to attract more political, ergo financial, support.

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?
The Board can and should provide direction to the current Mayoral aide who is liaison to the Board of Education, to make sure that she coordinates arts education opportunities. If necessary, the Board should hold hearing to apply necessary pressure to both the Board of Education and the Mayor’s Office to ensure accountability and to make certain that these programs are prioritized. Too often, arts programs are the first to go when budget cuts happen – I will work hard to prevent this from happening. Arts education programs are not a luxury, but essential to our kids’ education.

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.
Halloween in the Castro promises to be a mess this year, and it is a great example of how we can use our creative resources to return the event to the safe, sane neighborhood event that it once was. The current plan intends to limit the venues to one stage (down from three), and to end at 10:30pm with the DPW water trucks and elevator music at 11 pm. My opponent has stated that he would like to make this year’s Halloween an unpleasant experience for all participants, so as to discourage attendance in subsequent years.
There is no clearer recipe for disaster. Even the police captain in charge of the event (Cpt. John Goldberg) has stated that an event must provide ample distractions and entertainment to keep the crowd from becoming volatile. If it doesn’t rain, the event will be even more dangerous and less fun than it has been in previous years, and I fear that the neighborhood will be the victim of retribution for making it an improperly managed event.
What is happening to Halloween is emblematic of what is happening to the City – it is becoming a less interesting and less welcoming place – due to a lack of creativity and foresight on behalf of our government officials. Rather than canceling Halloween or making it unpleasant, I envision a Halloween that celebrates the creative character of the Castro neighborhood, discourages gawkers without costumes, and employs proper event management tools. Our arts community has employed such tools in large-scale events all over the City, such as Burning Man’s Decompression, the How Weird Street Faire, the North Beach Jazz Fest, among others. I would love to see several venues for music and performance art, a well-publicized costume contest with good prizes, ending in some sort of spectacle of firearts or an exhibition by Dr. Megavolt (incredible tesla coil demonstration) to provide a specific ending point. Like at Decompression, we could use a lower donation amount and shorter lines for costume wearers, so as to encourage revelry, and discourage gawkers from coming.
The incumbent has failed to use any creative thought or even consider the tremendous innovative energy of the city to approach this problem. Instead, he has simply applied the usual bureaucratic response and announced plans to use the police to shut it down. We can do better.

Posted by at October 24, 2006 11:14 PM

Comments

Post a comment