New City Arts Panel Officer Is Elected

Actress, administrator and activist Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson was elected vice chairwoman of the city’s Commission for Arts and Culture at the panel’s monthly meeting Friday.

Thompson, who is cultural affairs officer at the Educational Cultural Complex, was elected unanimously after the other candidate for the post, patron Darlene Shiley, withdrew her name from nomination. Later in the meeting, chairman Milton Fredman appointed Shiley to chair the commission’s new festival committee, which will have a role in planning the city’s triennial arts festival, scheduled to occur next in 1992.

Fredman also briefed members on the commission’s budget request for the 1991 fiscal year, when the commission, which awards grants to local arts organizations, will ask the city for the $3 million in transient occupancy tax funds that were last year dedicated to the Soviet arts festival. The commission will ask that the funds be added to the group’s current $5.2 million budget, which could be further enhanced by an increase in occupancy tax revenue.

When soliciting support in 1988 for the Soviet arts festival, Mayor Maureen O’Connor said the arts community would reap the occupancy tax windfall in non-festival years. However, Fredman warned that City Council must approve additional funds for the commission. Several council members, including newcomers John Hartley and Linda Bernhardt, opposed the city’s financing of the arts festival.

The commission also accepted a $5,000 grant from the Combined Arts and Education Council of San Diego, which raises private-sector money for the arts. The funds will be placed in a special projects grant fund. Application deadline is Feb. 5 for about $90,000. The commission is encouraging proposals that enhance tourism, reaching into under-served communities and utilizing artists of diverse ethnic backgrounds.