An Art Initiative subcommittee of the County Commission for
Arts and Culture has started a series of meeting to advise staff how the $2.75
million can be fairly distributed to the artist and arts community of San Diego
county.
As a reminder the County Board of supervisors voted to give
the following amounts
·
$1 million annually for direct artist
grants
·
$500,000 for affordable creative spaces
·
$250,000 for artist residencies within
County departments
·
$250,000 for binational arts investment in
the San Diego–Baja California region
·
A one-time $500,000 investment in the
Black Arts & Culture District
·
Creation of policy for Arts & Cultural Districts, with
no funding but hopes for money from private sources.
·
$250,000 for additional staffing to
support these programs. There is currently one full-time staff
member Christine Jones and the call for an intern position of $67K for one year.
An overall plan was presented by Ms. Jones with five
phases. Phase one is finished as that is directed by the supervisors. They are now in Phase 2 to sort out how the
all this will function. Phase 3 is agreeing and building out the programs
including Key Features of each one, Application and review process and Evaluation
Criteria and that should be completed in early fall. Phase 4 is to launch the
programs and phase 5 is evaluating as this is money for five years of fund.
($2.25 million per year through 2030)
They hope to launch the first three programs before the end
of the year. That includes:
Fieldwork: Practice Based Artist
funding $1 million
SPACE: Art Centered working studios and showing spaces $500K
SD AIR: Artist in Residence$250K
The one-time funding of $500K is an investment in the
Black Arts & Culture District which has its own board and plan and will simple be reporting back to
the County Commission. Binational
arts investment in the San Diego–Baja California region for $250K has not
been discussed yet.
In a first meeting, Ms. Jones researched best practices and
outlined why each of the seven buckets of funding was important and what could
be expected benefits to the county. Discussions were then opened in the second
meeting on the nuts of bolts of how these programs would role out. You
can listen to this meeting yourself on the county site.
It was a robust discussion with many viewpoints and a
healthy way to involve all members of this subcommittee as they work toward a
presentation to the full County Arts and Culture Commission. The important
questions that were raised and have to be sorted out are as follows:
What will really help
to keep artists of quality in San Diego?
How do you actually create a supportive community of
artists?
How can each application be tailored for each project and
still remain as simple as possible?
How do you judge the success of the project?
How do you define who is underserved?
Who selects who get the funding? Is it peer review or
hybrid of peer/random selection.
How much money goes to how many artists? Or residencies? Or
Space projects? Is there a cost per hour
expected? How many hours could be expected? Should funding be varied or set.
What is the cycle of the program? One year, 18 months to
allow for cross over or more?
How much of the total $2.75 million above the $250k
designed for admin goes to admin cost? National Endowment for the Arts allows
10%. Ms. Jones is suggestion $750k to go for additional services for artists,
county departments and organizations determined by the county. For example: What
exactly will technical assistance entail? How will final outcomes be shared? What
is the budget for that $750K?
It is still early days for programs of this scope, for a
newly appointed administrator and a commission that is only 3 years old. But so
far, the progress that is being made is impressive and the consideration that
all parties are showing to maximize the result is to be admired.
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