Culture Commission Chosen to Approve, Distribute $5 Million in City Arts Grants

A once-fragmented arts allocation process was centralized Monday when the City Council approved a plan under which the 15-member San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture will evaluate all applications for city arts grants.

The vote pertained to all but one element of a comprehensive evaluation procedure. That element--whether the arts commission’s funding recommendations go directly to the full council or are first considered by the Public Services and Safety Committee--will be voted on in two weeks.

Last year the city doled out about $4.8 million in hotel-motel tax revenues to about 70 cultural institutions. With about $5 million in city grants at stake, the commission has already received 115 letters of intent from arts groups planning to file applications requesting a total of $11.2 million.

Deputy City Manager Jack McGrory told the council members he is “confident of the quality of the funding recommendations” they will receive from the plan the commission hammered out over the past six months.

Multiple Dips Into City Funds

Until last year, arts groups could apply for city funds either through the city manager, the City Council or the Combined Arts and Education Council of San Diego County (COMBO). Under the old procedures, arts groups sometimes double- and triple-dipped from city funds, council member Abbe Wolfsheimer said.

The new plan provides for a four-point ranking system that will be applied to applications. The plan divides applicants into three main categories chiefly on the basis of budget size. A fourth category was established for one-time-only projects, such as a special event.

Institutions with budgets larger than $2 million will be in Category I. Category II applies to groups with budgets between $100,000 and $2 million, and Category III includes cultural bodies with budgets of less than $100,000.

Panels made up of commissioners and appointees will evaluate applications and send the scores, based on objective criteria, to a funding committee. The funding committee, made of commission members only, will recommend an amount to be funded, which will be voted on by the entire commission.

All applicants must be nonprofit corporations that have been in business for more than one year.

Before voting unanimously in favor of the new process, City Council members expressed various concerns to arts commission chairman Milton (Mickey) Fredman. Councilwoman Gloria McColl cautioned him to “guard” the process closely and not delegate it outside of the commission.

Don’t Overlook Neighborhoods

Mayor Maureen O’Connor wanted to be assured that the commission will send music, dance and theater into the neighborhoods, institutionalize the city’s triennial arts festival and provide special programs with the increased funding available in non-festival years to draw tourists.

When asked about the commission’s public-art program, Fredman told the council that the city funding of that budget is declining and needs to be looked at. “We have very little funds in the public-arts budget,” Fredman said. “Artists of national repute wouldn’t be interested in coming into San Diego for this type of money.”

Councilman Ron Roberts said that, while he too is concerned about creating programs that attract tourists, “even more important criteria in your evaluation are what this will do for the quality of life of the people who live here.” He said he hopes San Diego will commission art in public places that “we will not be embarrassed by but be proud of.”

Fredman responded with a pointed reference to the council: “With public art, the main thing is the maturity of the people who are going to make the final vote.”