The arts community asked the four leading San Francisco mayoral candidates - Angela Alioto, Supervisor London Breed, Supervisor Jane Kim, and Senator Mark Leno - their position on how to best support the arts in our city.

Tracy Camp, Actor & Educator (Advocacy/Activism)

Bio: Tracy Camp is an actor/singer and a tenured mathematics instructor at Laney College in Oakland. Mainly focusing on musical theater, she has performed all over the Bay Area as well as in Colorado and other parts of California.

Arts Enabler Awardee Spotlight - On April 12, 2018 at the inaugural State of the Arts event, we honored and recognized a few individuals and organizations in our arts community who go above and beyond. From 130 community-chosen nominees, 12 were selected to be honored as the 2018 Arts Enablers. These individuals and organizations represent movers and shakers in our community.

Barry Hessenius, Former Director of the California Arts Council, hosted a virtual forum with some of our esteemed local arts agency leaders.  Check out a highlight from each question, click through to read the whole forum on Barry's blog, and post your comments to participate!

By Shelley Trott, Director, Arts Strategy & Ventures, Kenneth Rainin Foundation

I’ve spent a good part of my life in the arts—as a dancer and choreographer, teacher, filmmaker, and now a funder with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. The Foundation invests in visionary artists and small to mid-size arts organizations in the Bay Area that push the boundaries of creative expression. So when we began seeing their work threatened by a volatile real estate market, we had to seek a solution.

By Demone Carter

Online Commons Contributor

Tension are high within the arts sector with the news of the Trump administration’s credible threat to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Both institutions were founded in 1965 as independent agencies of the federal government to ensure that millions of Americans would have access to arts and culture. Inherent within their creation is the belief that the arts and culture are important to civic life.

Both the NEA and NEH represent a tiny fraction of the federal budget, receiving only $148M in 2016, or 0.0003% of the overall federal budget. Therefore, their proposed elimination would not signify a significant savings for the government. Rather, the rationale for putting the NEA and NEH on the chopping block is grounded in the cynical ideology we have come to expect from the Trump administration.

As a result, the current political context brings to the forefront the need for artists to engage with politics. If we do not, we risk being steamrolled to the margins of American society. Simply put: it is time for arts professionals to engage deeply and in more meaningful ways with the political system that affects the work we do and the communities we serve. Advocacy is the order of the day.

 Urgent Letter from Theatre Bay Area to the theatre & arts community.

March 17, 2017

Dear Friends,

I am sure many of you have received the alarming, but not unexpected, news that the President’s budget proposes to eliminate the nation's cultural agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Institute for Museum and Library Services.

First, let me be clear: the cultural heartbeat of our nation is in crisis.

On Tuesday March 21st, in conjunction with the National Arts Advocacy Day (Americans for the Arts), Oakland artists and advocates are launching a campaign to implore Oakland City Council members and Mayor Schaaf to take a real stand for development without displacement by investing in arts as a cultural preservation strategy, starting with $3 million to increase the Cultural Funding Program (keeping artists creating, working, teaching in Oakland) and to develop a deep community leadership process for the 2017 Citywide Cultural Plan.

SF ARTS ADVOCACY 2017 MEDIA KIT

Join an all-day campaign to reach out to your local elected officials through social media to thank them for their continued public investment in arts and culture, to encourage them to increase resources to the arts across SF, and to remind them of the value of cultural and creative expression as core to San Francisco values and identity as a city.

The goal is to have every SF Supervisor hear from #ArtsDaySF advocates in all 11 Districts, from every corner of the city, representing a myriad of arts disciplines and project sizes!

ABBA is committed to providing non-partisan, well informed, and timely information on policies that impact the arts and cultural ecosystem in the bay area. We've compiled a few resources to share.

ABBA's endorsement of Proposition S (SF)  - explanatory essay "Vote S to Stabilize Artists and Homeless Families" by Rebecca Bowe

SF Candidate Questionnaire by ABBA

Voter's Edge - online tool for CA voter's, see your ballot online and track your choices AND see your options to submit your ballot

Ballot.FYI Solid, non-partisan summary of CA ballot measures 

SF Department of Elections' online voter guide 

San Francisco Public Press - Breaking down the ballot by theme

Alameda County - List of Measures 

Ballotpedia - lists Dept of Elections info along with news coverage

Advocacy & Nonprofits - Info on NP engaging in advocacy vs. lobbying activities