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Dear Bay Area artists, culture bearers, arts administrators, arts advocates, and allies,
It’s been 16 days since our re-launch and Arts for a Better Bay Area has been busy!
A lot of municipal arts business that had been stagnant seems to be moving forward.
Today the San Francisco Mayor’s Office released the job announcement for the new Executive Director of Arts & Culture with a companion press release.
First and foremost, please distribute this announcement widely! As members of our arts community, you will have the best candidates in mind for this new position, so please circulate liberally to your networks and to individuals who might be a good fit for this new leadership role.
ABBA will be contacting the Mayor’s Office to suggest names for this position, along with a call to engage the community as much as possible in the process that will lead to the hire of the Executive Director.
The job description is out, so we cannot have input into its content, but we can and will lobby to have a reasonable number of Bay Area arts leaders be part of the interview process, while adhering to the City's HR policies. Since the job description calls for the hire to “serve as the Mayor’s Office principal liaison to the arts community, cultural organizations, philanthropic partners, and creative industry stakeholders,” the best way to gauge that competency is with authentic community engagement.
In other updates, Monday, February 2nd at 2pm in City Hall Room 416, the San Francisco Arts Commission has its monthly meeting. They will be discussing their draft budget for FYs 2027 and 2028, so if you want to attend and/or make public comment (in person or via video conferencing), check out this link for instructions. Also to note, the budget explanatory documents are not posted on line yet. Check back before joining the meeting to confirm it will be on the agenda as it is currently listed. It should be posted 72 hours in advance of the meeting.
The Charter Reform Working Group today announced their next meeting is Friday, January 30th at 2pm in City Hall Room 201. Charter Reform affects every San Franciscan, and the Charter cannot be amended without voter approval. As a reminder, the working group is looking at the elimation of set-asides, spending baselines that are an articulation of voter values expressed at the ballot box.This includes arts and culture, libraries, children and youth services, transit, open space, and more. The best way to have your voice heard is to attend these public meetings. In Bay Area updates, ABBA is working to re-establish and form new alliances across the region, and to that end, we have attended the Arts Education Alliance of the Bay Area’s most recent strategy meeting, as well as the Bay Area Arts and Culture Collaboration Summit. Plenty more work on regional connectivity ahead! If you are part of an arts advocacy group based outside San Francisco, please be sure to email [email protected] to alert us of upcoming meetings.
One last note: Things will be moving quickly in 2026, so in order to be sure you stay up to date on our arts advocacy efforts, please consider making a donation or becoming a member of ABBA. We truly are all in this together.
Thank you for all you do to support our Bay Area arts ecosystem!
Rachelle Axel
Director
ABBA Stewards
Sunny Angulo, Maria Jenson, Joen Madonna, Susie McKinnon, Vinay Patel, Ernesto Sopprani
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| If you think the arts are vital for the Bay Area - we ask you to join us - and help us build the network |
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Membership is more than just support
- We need each other in these times! Our typical economy applies tremendous pressures on our artist and nonprofit community. Now we face a battle to protect and preserve our sector. With your membership, you commit to DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
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- With a broader network of advocates and supporters, we will build a knowledge base, collaborative communications, and impact and influence policy and regional developments.
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Together We Can Create a Better Bay Area!
www.betterbayarea.org
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