ARTS

Mayoral Candidates Comment on Future of Local Arts Funding

By Abbey Hayward
Guardsman News Editor

Governor Davis' 2002 budget cut The California Arts Council's budget by 96%, slashing funding from $16 million to $1 million for 2003-04. These cuts include 350 grants to San Francisco worth $4 million. Without financial support from Sacramento, the arts community is looking to forge a relationship with the next mayor of San Francisco.

Photo by Joen Madonna San Francisco mayoral candidate, Angela Alioto takes a turn addressing attendees at Arts Forum.

Intersection for the Arts and Theater Bay Area hosted Arts Forum 2003 in the Green Room of the War Memorial Performing Arts Center on Monday, September 29. In attendance were mayoral candidates: Angela Aliota (D), Tom Ammiano (D), Matt Gonzalez (G), Susan Leal (D), Gavin Newsom (D), and Tony Ribera (R).

Questions from the audience were posed to the candidates by mediators of the event, local author Dave Eggers, Executive Director of Theater Bay Area Brad Erickson, and Executive Director of Intersection of the Arts, Deborah Cullinan.

The timeframe of the event was strictly regimented, with candidates having less than one minute to respond. Quickly the forum degenerated into boisterous mayhem.

In his opening comments, Ribera remarked that he didn't know what was showing at the Legion of Honor and that he was not much of an arts fan. He followed up by stating his plan institute an Arts Commission to ensure the sustainability of the arts in San Francisco. Little did he know, The San Francisco Arts Commission has existed since 1932.

Alioto, endorsed by Lawrence Ferlighetti, beat- poet and owner of City Lights bookstore in North Beach, took the floor and declared, "Art is my life! Art is my passion. If I am elected mayor we will have an artistic renaissance that Spoleto will be jealous of! There is a fine line between sanity and insanity, and I should know; art has kept me sane the last few years!"

Alioto then informed Ribera of the exhibitions at SF MOMA and the Legion of Honor. But by the end of the evening, Alioto had to be shushed several times by the mediators for reminscing about her meetings with famous artists and beat poets.

Gonzalez, a long time supporter of the arts, who converted his office into an art gallery, had surprisingly little to say. He stuck to politics, and suggested a land trust model, where new and affordable housing could be built, with space earmarked for artist studios. He closed with a speech about how Paul Cezanne wasn't well-received in his time, and how future artists like him were sitting in the audience.

In the open spirit of the evening, Leal stated, "I'm coming out of the closet as an art lover."

Ammiano mingled jokes with politics, and talked twice as fast as anyone else. He also cited the need for a land trust, spoke of his "rainy day fund" initiative, his teaching experience (he was once an instructor at City College) and the necessity for more public art.

Newsom agreed with Ammiano that more public art is necessary and said, "I want to depoliticize public art; I champion public art; I love to hate public art, because at least I'm feeling something."

Newsom shared how he overcame severe dyslexia as a child through art programs and spoke of the need to continue those programs in schools. To gain funding he suggested reaching out to the private sector and estab-lishing a resource develop-ment office.

The evening ended when mayoral candidate Roger Schulke gave a performance piece. He walked in front of the stage and out of the audi-torium, holding a blank poster board high above his head, his mouth taped shut with black electrical tape. A silent comment on the fact that he had not been invited as a speaker.

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Form Follows Function As City College Cuts Back Its Arts Schedule

By Elizabeth Davis
Guardsman Staff Writer

California's budget crisis has resulted in major cuts aimed at arts programs at community colleges across the state.

According to Bruce Smith, City College's Dean of Liberal Arts and the Castro / Valencia Campus, the budget cuts have resulted in the cancellation of 15 arts classes this fall.

Classes with low enrollment histories were the first to be eliminated, which is why music and art studio classes, as well as art history and appreciation classes were not offered this fall.

While the budget cuts have taken a toll on some aspects of student life at City College, it seems that faculty and staff are doing everything they can to make the best of a bad situation.

The Department Chairs of the art programs at City College chose to implement a four-percent cut in classes from each program within the art department to adhere to the lower budget this year.

These 'across the board' cuts were a way to maintain diversity of classes in the schedule (the other option being cutting programs altogether), so that students have a broad range of subjects from which to choose.

Even though the arts program has been reduced, some arts classes may have experienced a slight increase in enrollment. According to Smith, this suggests that instructors have managed to accommodate students by taking more of them into their classes.

In addition to cut backs in the schedule of arts classes, funding for equipment has been almost entirely eliminated. Smith said that requests for replacement and new equipment this year, exceed the amount of available funding by three times.

Items that will be funded have not been determined; therefore, information on specific equipment needs is unavailable. Priority is given to items related to health and safety. What is left is allocated for items that are determined to be crucial to delivering instruction. Smith sees this as a problem.

"While a college can survive for a short period with very little money for equipment, these needs pile up and the quality of instruction will eventually be compromised because of our inability to replace broken equipment and purchase upgrades," Smith stated in a written interview.

Another major effect the budget cuts have had is a hiring freeze on classified staff, because there is no money in the budget to pay new employees.

In the art department alone, two vacant secretarial positions have not and will not be filled in the foreseeable future. A management position in the Dean's office has also remained vacant and will continue to be. Part-time staff jobs and hours have also been impacted.

Smith, who has worked in California's community colleges for almost 30 years, said "Though we have some educated estimates of what next year's funding may be like, with the state budget in its current condition and state politics so unpredictable, planning is very difficult."

Ironically, because of money from a 1997 bond initiative, a major remodel of the visual arts building on campus is nearing completion.

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A Mission Movie and a Movie's Mission
Local crew reveals the beauty of diversity in San Franciso's Mission District with production of new film

By Abbey Hayward & Rob Cruz

The word "diversity" conjures a broad spectrum of semantic imagery. When referring to cultural and racial diversity, the San Francisco Bay Area is home to one of the most varied populations in the nation.

Photo By Norma Perez-Brema Production crew members Robert and Charlie ask Director, Lise Swenson (right) and Assistant Director, Adriana Montenegro (middle) for advice on how to set up a scene for "Mission Movie."

Currently, ethnic diversity is the topic on the tip of many a Californian's tongue, with the recent recall election and Proposition 54, the contro-versial racial privacy initia-tive.

Often the best way to take a look at the bigger picture is by focusing in on the details, and that is what Lise Swenson is trying to do with her film, "Mission Movie".

"Mission Movie" is about the ethnically and economically diverse San Francisco neighborhood, the Mission, a neighborhood named after the birthplace of the city, Mission Dolores, the oldest building in San Francisco.

Written and directed by Swenson and co-authored by Richard Schrimpt, "Mission Movie" focuses on the sundry reality of the people and activists who live and work in the neigh-borhood.

"This movie is about life in the Mission, an under-repre-sented part of San Francisco in the media.

We are telling real stories about real lives and providing a cultural bridge," said Adriana Montenegro, Assistant Director and the Spanish language consultant to the movie, "It's about how we influence our space and how space influences us."

In order to gain a varied perspective about life in the Mission, Swenson and her crew invited members of the community to participate in an advisory group.

The group included corpo-rate retailers, homeowners, tech workers, historians, activists, writers, and native Mission dwellers. They met twice a month for six months, told their stories and shared experiences of their lives in the Mission.

"We wanted to include a wide breadth of perspectives and opinions which reflect things like economics, education, age, race, ethnicity, and sexual preference," Swenson said.

One of the most striking aspects of the movie is that it is not only a film about the community at large, but a collaborative effort by the members of the community that it represents.

Many of the scenes were shot with volunteer extras from the Bay Area, who responded to open casting calls.

The crew and actors are local to San Francisco, most of them from the Mission. The crew's production and audio manager, City College broadcast writing instructor Marla Leech, has lived in the Mission for 11 years.

"The film is about diversity and opportunity, and the lack of opportunity," Leech said. "Our crew reflects diversity. We have fourteen different nationalities on the set, and the movie is bilingual, which is what the Mission is all about."

For Leech, one of the most important aspects of working on the film has been "sharing information and making sure that a lot of people got to learn a lot of things, so they can go out and get work."

An ethos echoed by all involved in making the film is shared community involvement.

In fact, many of them met by way of a community out- reach program, TILT (Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools, a not-for-profit production­based literacy training program, specifically targeting economically- disadvantaged youth; a program officially started by Swenson in 1998.

The last week of September concluded six weeks of production and another chapter in the two-year film project. Much of the film has been edited, but finishing touches will be made over the next two months.

The crew is hoping for a community premiere in January, though no date has been set. What the crew really hopes for is for national distribution.

"Mission Movie" will be entered into a number of festivals, perhaps one of the most prominent film festivals known to the public. As Leech put it, "I hope it goes to Sundance."