ARTS POSITIONS

Provided to the Arts Democratic Club

1.  What will you do to make the Arts a top priority of your administration?  Please name your specific initiatives.

  San Francisco’s reputation as a City that respects the arts has taken a nose-dive in recent years. Artists are no longer flocking to our shores, they are fleeing. A Mayor cannot be indifferent to such a trend, but must be an active proponent of the arts. I plan to be that Mayor.
  I will use the Office of the Mayor to raise funds to promote the arts through a special Foundation for San Francisco Arts that I will institute in the first 30 days of an Alioto administration. My door will always be open to the arts communities.

2.  What will you do to make SF a leading city in North America for cultural tourism?

  We need a renaissance of the arts.  
  As Mayor, I will revive the City's dormant spirit, launching an annual international festival as a showcase to promote San Francisco's authors, filmmakers and artists, and I will appoint Arts Commissioners who have the vision to fulfill that mission.
  An example is the film industry. The film industry provides San Francisco with the kind of publicity that money can’t buy. August Coppola and I met with many San Franciscans involved in the film industry when I authored the San Francisco Film and Video Arts Commission in (1989). Our goal for the Commission’s creation was to give Film and Video Arts a priority position in our City’s government for many diverse reasons. As Mayor, my door will always be open to the film industry, as it was when I was the supervisor who sponsored all of the film legislation. There is no other candidate in this race who has the background I have in the film industry. (In the ’70s I made an Italian-American joint venture with the most important Italian directors and producers at the time) and there is no other candidate that could do a better job promoting our beautiful city to the industry.

3.  What will you do to increase the percentage of funding for multicultural arts organizations, to more accurately reflect the City’s diverse populations?

   We are a City that celebrates diversity and our artists reflect that. There needs to be an active and vibrant arts office with an outreach program that encourages new artists from every part of our rich cultural mix to produce and market their artworks. The foundation that I will institute will specifically promote San Francisco’s artists and artistic productions.
   There is a critical need for funding for grant writers who can assist our local artists from various cultural perspectives to assure that our arts reflect our diversity and this should be a basic mission of the foundation.

4. What actions will you take to increase overall arts funding in the next four years, especially for small to mid-sized arts organizations?

  We need to preserve the current funding for the arts and find new ways to showcase our unparalleled artistic abilities. Our cable access bands could be better used to promote our artists, for example we could televise the artists’ Slide Registry that is maintained by the Arts Commission on public access television. Adopt-a-pet has been very successful in finding homes for animals and a similar feature could be used to sell our artists products just as successfully.

5.  What initiatives will you sponsor to increase the number of artists living and working in San Francisco?

  I would favor assisting artists with housing and workspaces, and if there is a silver lining in the current glut of office spaces it may be that they are conducive to conversion to real live-work spaces for artists.
  In the long term, however, we need to get the artists communities at the table to work out solutions. I believe creative people will find ways to deal with problems that bureaucrats would never imagine.

6.  As Mayor, what actions will you take to streamline the City’s cultural offices and to increase both the accountability and effectiveness of these offices?

  I have no confidence in the current Arts Commission. I think we can get more artists involved in a less formal advisory committee that will advise the other artists from the ground up rather than expect artists to deal with the Arts Commission. The artists that I know prefer to work out their own methods and produce their own promotions but often lack the resources to carry out a detailed plan. This problem could be greatly alleviated through a foundation that represents working artists and craftspeople.


7.  How will you use your position as Mayor to help art organizations secure state, national, and international opportunities?  Please list specific opportunities.

  We need to establish more cultural exchanges, such as the Loan Agreement between the Auckland City Art Gallery and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco that I instituted as a member of the Board of Supervisors in 1993. Such exchanges need not be as formal as that one which led to the exhibition  “Rembrandt to Renoir 300 Years of European Masterpieces from The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.”  Smaller exhibitions and exchanges of contemporary arts will promote San Francisco and its artists.
  A Foundation for San Francisco Arts will be tasked with promotions through the state, nation and internationally.

8.  What will you do to expand industrial arts and crafts in San Francisco in the next four years?  Please list specific industry objectives.

  I was the originator of the film commission, that opened the door for many artists working in the movie and TV industries, not only for performers, but also for stage, wardrobe, video and related arts.
  I successfully fought a move to require permits for poetry readings, ensuring the right of poets to freely congregate and create artistic works. I named Via Ferlinghetti and Beach Blanket Babylon Avenues to promote the arts.
  I have been a consistent supporter of arts programs from the City's hotel tax, and sponsored resolutions supporting art programs for youth in schools and City-owned facilities. I’ve been an advocate for the City's street artist program and made the San Francisco Fair an official showcase for creative arts.
  I have been active in the preservation of San Francisco's artistic and architectural treasures, such as the landmarking of the Columbo Building, Our Lady of Guadeloupe, Shrine of St. Francis, St. Brigit's. I favor restoration of our San Francisco spaces, including interiors, that will bring artists and related craftsmen employment.
  Artists and the arts are at the core of a healthy economy for San Francisco, and priceless to me personally.  Nothing is more important than  the renaissance of the San Francisco spirit, and it starts with our creative arts communities. I will find nothing more fulfilling than keeping this pledge to you that I will be the Mayor of a City of flourishing artistic creativity.