by Patricia Frischer
$2.75 million
$4.55 million
Up to $400,000
Potential combined amount: $7.7 million
Here are the details: I have been following discussion at the County Commission for Arts and Culture and so let's start there.
The Board of Supervisors approved the Investing in San Diego County Arts and Culture Initiative, sponsored by Supervisors Terra Lawson-Remer and Monica Montgomery Steppe.
The package totals $2.75 million, divided into ongoing annual investments and a one-time investment. It is mainly directed to individual artists.
Program | Funding | Type |
|---|---|---|
Direct grants to artists | $1,000,000 | Annual |
Affordable creative spaces | $500,000 | Annual |
Artist residencies within County departments | $250,000 | Annual |
Binational arts investment, San Diego–Baja California | $250,000 | Annual |
Black Arts and Culture District | $500,000 | One-time |
Administration and staffing | $250,000 | Annual |
Total | $2,750,000 |
An important clarification: the four ongoing program investments total $2.5 million annually. . The remaining $500,000 is a one-time investment in the Black Arts and Culture District.
There is also a proposed County Arts and Cultural District Designation Program. This is intended to recognize culturally significant neighborhoods and help attract philanthropic, private-sector and other investment. It does not have a separate funding allocation in this package.
This is a second and separate initiative, titled Protecting San Diego's Cultural Assets and Activating Arts Across Communities. It is particularly important because it moves beyond grants to individual artists and provides substantial support for established arts and cultural organizations.
The November 17 letter of instructions identifies the following:
Proposed investment | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
Arts and cultural organizations | $3,000,000 | $1.5 million annually for two years |
Arts Under the Stars, Balboa Park | $500,000 | Six-month pilot |
Fleet Science Center | $450,000 | $150,000 annually for three years |
WorldBeat Cultural Center | $100,000 | Operations, facilities and programming |
Subtotal $4,050,000 |
The idea is to make Balboa Park more accessible and vibrant in the evenings, rather than simply supporting individual institutions. So, The $500,000 for Arts Under the Stars would be divided as follows: $350,000 for the Balboa Park Cultural Partnership: To coordinate extended museum hours, programming and operating grants to participating cultural institutions. $150,000 for Forever Balboa Park: To activate outdoor public spaces with performances, local artists and cultural activities.
Two additional allocations that should not be overlooked and are missing from the $4.05 million calculation.
1. San Diego Museum of Art – $500,000. This is proposed as $250,000 annually for two years to plan and develop an accessible Community Resilience Center at Balboa Park. The funding is identified within the County's Unlocked Reserves Framework.
2. Conrad Prebys Foundation – up to $400,000. This is a proposed grant to the County to help pay for the third-party funding administrator and/or arts and culture consulting costs.
This means the November agenda actually identifies:
$4.95 million but not all of that is new funding.
Under the May 5 initiative, the San Diego County Arts and Culture Commission was designated as an advisory body for implementation, including program design, funding criteria and community engagement.
The November 17 proposal would substantially change that responsibility.
Instead, the Commission would:
Receive quarterly updates on County arts and cultural programs and investments.
Focus on outreach and public awareness.
Encourage community engagement.
Connect artists and cultural organizations with County opportunities.
No longer serve as the advisory body for funding decisions.
In other words, the Commission would move from helping shape and advise on funding programs to serving primarily as a community outreach and information resource.
The $2.75 would be managed singularly by the County Arts Administrator Christine Jones and her staff unless further instructions come from the Supervisors.
The Nov proposed $3 million organizational funding program would instead be distributed through a separately contracted third-party administrator. That administrator would work with the Conrad Prebys Foundation, in consultation with the County, to establish criteria and select recipients.
This raises some important questions about transparency. The county commission is covered by the Brown Act and all procedures are published. But we know nothing yet about the third-party administrator and Prebys is a private foundation.
4. What happens to the original artist and space grants (affordable artist spaces)?
The November proposal does not say that the original $2.75 million initiative is being cancelled. In fact, the agenda specifically references the May 5 action and proposes an amendment only to the Artist Space Grant Program. The original program prioritized access to County-owned and underutilized public spaces. The new language would allow the program to support public-facing arts and cultural opportunities both on and off County-owned property.
This is a potentially positive change. It means that the program could support exhibitions, performances, installations and other free public arts experiences throughout the region, rather than being restricted to County facilities.
San Diego County appears to be moving toward a new model of arts funding: a combination of direct artist support, institutional investment, public-private partnerships, cultural district development and regional cultural programming. That could be very good news for San Diego.
But more money does not automatically mean more opportunity for artists. The real test will be how much reaches working artists, small arts organizations and underserved communities, how transparent the distribution is, and whether the entire arts community has a meaningful voice in the process.
We also need to move forward with percentage for the arts programs. We need to make sure all cities have arts administrations. We need affordable live work spaces for artists. We applaud Canada for instigating a tax break on the first $45k of income from working artists. The state could do that! We could pay visual artist to exhibit their work. We could take the million dollars for individual artists grants and give them out to all artists who qualify using a random draw...wouldn't that be fun and unexpected.
That, to me, is the story worth telling.
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