Dear Mayor Lee and Supervisors of San Francisco:

We stand together with Arts for a Better Bay Area to thank San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee for his historic Shared Prosperity package, a $7 million enhancement to arts funding in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 municipal budget. This represents a 14 percent growth over previous budgets for the San Francisco Arts Commission and Grants for the Arts. It includes a $2 million enhancement (a 50 percent increase) to the City’s groundbreaking Cultural Equity Endowment Fund as well as $1 million to Grants for the Arts to support small and mid-sized arts nonprofits, individual artists and historically underserved communities through grants and capacity building.

This effort constituted the largest arts increase by the city in over 20 years, something that was long overdue. The Mayor's investment is testament to San Francisco's commitment to celebrate its diversity and cultures thus ensuring that it remains a world-class city.

The road to this success could not have been made possible without the support of District Supervisors including Supervisors Breed, Mar, Kim, Avalos, Campos, Yee, Farrell, Weiner, Tang, Cohen, and Christensen.   

Arts for a Better Bay will continue to bring the community together to support our elected officials in recognizing, valuing, and investing in the arts essential to the well-being of Bay Area residents.

Thank you,

San Francisco arts community