This is an historic moment.  Just now Supervisors Eric Mar, London Breed, John Avalos, and Mark Farrell voted unanimously to transfer the currently un-allocated $191,000 from GFTA to San Francisco Arts Commissions Cultural Equity Grants.  Because GFTA was not able to demonstrate follow through on their promise last year to fund ‘fragile’ arts organizations, the supervisors believed it was inappropriate to have any new money go towards GFTA.  No current GFTA grants will be affected.

The total new monies going to the SF Arts Commission will be $316,000 ($191,000 re-appropriated from GFTA plus the $125K already proposed).

Supervisors Mar and Breed led the way in getting to the root of the inequity at GFTA.  When it came to the vote, and without hesitation, Supervisor Avalos and Farrell voted in favor of the transfer.

While we celebrate incremental gains, our work is not done.  The ultimate goal of bringing both arts entity together under one roof, where both public entities share a common programmatic and civic vision, is still at hand.  There is a hearing set for July 16 regarding the San Francisco’s City Budget Analyst Report about the San Francisco Grants for the Arts. This hearing will lay the framework on how cultural equity will be moved forward.

Please  take a moment and thank all the Supervisors for their vision, leadership, and determination to see this through.

Eric.L.Mar@sfgov.org, John.Avalos@sfgov.org, London.Breed@sfgov.org, Mark.Farrell@sfgov.org