Episode 11: ABBA Summit Highlights Part 1 - Transcription

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Part 1 of our Highlights Show from the Arts for a Better Bay Area 2023 Summit Transcription:

Eric Estrada: [00:00:00] Welcome to Voices of the Community. I'm your host, Eric Estrada. This episode is part one of a highlight compilation from season one of our special series where Arts Meet Impact and our co-production with Arts for a Better Bay Area, featuring interviews with summit attendees and presenters from our 2023.

Eric Estrada: The state of our arts and Culture Organization Summit. Join our summit roaming reporter Issa Nakazawa as we highlight the voices of panelists and discussions that happened during the summit workshops, which focused on rebuilding our communities through the arts.

Isa Nakazawa: I wanna thank you. 'cause I really feel like as an artist who's living in the Bay Area and has for so many years, like over 20 years, it felt like the passion and the fire that I feel like has been missing from the conversation you've like channeled.

Isa Nakazawa: For all of us. So I just wanna thank you. 'cause I feel like to your point that you were making that I want you to somewhat summarize about the power of [00:01:00] narrative. In the opposite direction. We're like, we are starting to internalize the doom loop in narrative as people living in San Francisco and perpetuating it.

Isa Nakazawa: So if you can kind of summarize that point around like what is something to be wary of around internalizing this narrative that the media's created and what is another narrative that we can kind of internalize or project out to combat that, or to at least talk back to it? Mm-hmm.

Maria Jenson: Yeah, that's a very, very deep question and I think it has to also do with.

Maria Jenson: How we are valuing artists and how we're valuing arts community and some of the smaller arts organizations. And so the, what I was trying to say here is that instead of us looking to tech or looking to some other corporate structure to find support and partnership, we need to recognize that we're the reason why these, you know, tech organizations and businesses wanna come to San Francisco.

Maria Jenson: So we are already here, we're the stakeholders of the community. And [00:02:00] if anything, the partnerships need to go kind of in a different direction where businesses and corporations are asking how they can participate with what's happening in arts and culture here. So how do we find our voice? How do we change that narrative?

Maria Jenson: And changing the narrative means we just need to go back and revisit San Francisco's history. Its actual history of art. And including like so many artists that have emanated from here who have gone on to worldwide recognition, they're all grassroots artists that started here. And so San Francisco has, um, this great ability to actually create a whole like generation after generation of incredible artists.

Maria Jenson: And these artists are what is changing the world because art leads to open minds. And if we want to further the ideals of democracy. One of the most important things that we can do is make sure that the artists who are literally helping us to interpret our lives and helping us to see other lives and helping us to understand these are [00:03:00] the people that we need to be funding first and foremost.

Maria Jenson: And we need to now get our business community to understand for capital, the, the biggest producer of, uh, you know, what's been happening locally. Surprisingly, the arts are a big, you know, big, you know, production of revenue.

Ralph Remington: If 2020 taught us nothing else, it taught us that there is no permanence in this world.

Ralph Remington: So, uh, just because an organization existed for 20 years doesn't mean it needs to exist for another 20 more. Just because an organization existed for 20 years doesn't mean that it shouldn't exist for 20 more. But I think those are questions that you should grapple with, not just because we existed, therefore, we should exist.

Ralph Remington: What are your existing for? Who are, who are you existing for? Who are you speaking to? Who are you speaking for? If it's just yourself and your board members who are well healed, then you probably shouldn't exist. Because if that's all you're here for is to pay salaries [00:04:00] and to express, uh, how your board particularly feels about a particular issue or the beauty that they particularly wanna see.

Ralph Remington: Maybe that's not what you are here to do any longer. Maybe it is, but I think these are things that we need to talk about. These are things that we need to grapple with. So the, the San Francisco Arts Commission is focused on highlighting and uplifting the voices, art, and stories of bipoc, marginalized and underrepresented artists and arts organizations, and remain committed to our core mission of cultural equity, lowering barriers, and improving access to our programs and resources in promoting the arts as a vehicle for positive social change.

Ralph Remington: We have four city owned facilities and three. Virtual cultural centers, we've increased the operating budgets for each cultural center by 10%. We are investing over $40 million towards seismic capital improvements at the Mission Cultural Center for [00:05:00] Latino Arts and the African American Arts and Culture complex.

Ralph Remington: We're ready to partner and provide. Support in recovery efforts. The Arts Commission is poised and ready to collaborate and partner with other arts agencies, other city arts agencies that are spearheading downtown recovery efforts, and we'll work with them to facilitate and create opportunities for artists and arts organizations.

Ralph Remington: We have to figure out a new way. Of engaging with our community and our patrons. The old way isn't coming back, so we can't keep kind of beckoning thinking about the way it used to be. Uh, but we have to think about what it will be. And, um, we need to have citywide festivals. I mean, we live in the Bay Area, right?

Ralph Remington: I mean, how is Austin, how is Austin getting an edge on us right now? They shouldn't, right? South by Southwest. Why wasn't that here? Yeah, but we need to have something like that here, an iconic festival [00:06:00] across the entire bay so that people come from all over the world to experience what we all know to be the rare jewel of San Francisco in the Bay Area is we have access to the world's greatest tech companies.

Ralph Remington: What the Covid Pandemic taught us was that we can't depend on one source of revenue stream to remain sustainable. In order for performing arts to remain stable, we must embrace technology just as sports had to do at one point in time. Now, technology and sports have been so interrelated. We don't even think that at one point in time they were separate entities.

Ralph Remington: But in that same way, if you think about the performing arts particularly that the way we engage in performing arts, uh, we've really, uh, not moved far beyond. How we were operating in the fifties or the forties or the thirties or the sixties, you know? And here we are in what, 2023 and we're still have the same mode.

Ralph Remington: We still want subscribers. We still want people to stand in line. We [00:07:00] still want people to come sit in a seat. I think those times we have to reexamine them. So I believe that the future will see a democratization of the, of democratization of the arts and culture sector. Uh, most live performing arts will be accessible on flat screens for the general public.

Ralph Remington: I think the live experience will become a premium experience. Some would argue that it already has. If you look at some of the prices that you have to pay to go to some of the big organizations, one, one could easily say that they've already locked out most of the people, so then the people can experience those art forms on anything.

Ralph Remington: Now, what if the people could experience those art forms on flat screens from the comfort of their living rooms on their couches for a digital subscription fee? I think that's the area where we need to move into. That's the area of growth. Uh, if the pandemic taught us anything, it taught us that there was a possibility there.

Ralph Remington: So these are the new ways we have to think. And it doesn't have to be an either or. It doesn't mean that our [00:08:00] theaters will be empty 'cause those theaters will be packed with people that wanna see the live experience. But it means that a greater number of people will be able to experience the art forms that they're not able to experience.

Ralph Remington: Now, a democratization, a literal democratization of the art form. Uh, so I think that what we, however, we, I think people will gladly purchase that experience. They'll gladly grab it. They will like it, and they'll believe in it. I firmly believe that this is something we can do. Um, and think about it. Who gets killed in a revolution first?

Ralph Remington: It's the artists. The artists, the philosophers, the poets, the dreamers, the people that reconstruct the society. We are the danger. We are the threat. So act like it. Act like you are the threat that you are. Because you really are, and they know it. And we can change, literally, we can shift the way that society thinks about itself through art and through our, through our messages.[00:09:00]

Ralph Remington: We have the ability to disrupt. So our task is to disrupt and rebuild. And while building disruption into our long-term strategic planning, here we are in an area that is made for disruption. It literally gained its fame from disruption. Don't let disruption lie in one sector. And that's tech. We have the ability to disrupt too.

Ralph Remington: So what I will leave you with today is let's take our values, take our philosophy, take our dreams, take our energy, take our spirit, and disrupt, disrupt, disrupt. Thank you.

Isa Nakazawa: Hi, this is Issa Naka and we're here with Voices of the Community at the Arts for a Better Bay Area Summit 2023. Thank you so much for talking to us.

Isa Nakazawa: Glad to be here. So you don't need an introduction, but can you tell the, for the folks who don't know who you are and why you're here today?

John Moscone: My name is Jonathan Moscone and I am the [00:10:00] executive director of the California Arts Council. And so I'm sort of here to provide what I know and see and hope for, for the future from a state perspective.

John Moscone: And, but I come from the city, so my heart is here.

Isa Nakazawa: Yeah, I just wanna say congratulations. That was an incredible keynote and thank you for speaking to us right after you got off stage. Oh, one of the things that I really was moved that you spoke about was just like the thriving creative economy, but also this idea of putting our artists to work.

Isa Nakazawa: Can you say a little bit for folks who didn't get to attend, like what was so essential about that point in your keynote today around connecting artists and. The idea of like putting them to work?

John Moscone: Well, I think a lot of it is about what we would call the taxonomy or the classification of artists. Yeah.

John Moscone: As super valuable and special and important, but not valued from an essential, from a language that is compared to a nurse or a teacher or someone who works in a grocery store. Right. These are people who actually work. Yes. Right. So we both need to change the narrative. Right. And, [00:11:00] and not just artists, but the people who actually support artists, cultural workers, and not just artists themselves, but culture bearers.

John Moscone: And that's one thing. But more importantly, what we need to do is to develop the pathways for them. Right. To actually have more sustained employment than say, a grant.

Isa Nakazawa: Yeah.

John Moscone: Right. Because grants are great.

Isa Nakazawa: Right. But, but they,

John Moscone: they're not a living, you cannot make a living off of that. And I, I work in the funding world now, and I don't know if I would.

John Moscone: Feel like I left this job in a good place if all I did was just make more grants.

Isa Nakazawa: It's not a connected, coherent life. That's right. It's just these like one-off atomized opportunities

John Moscone: and it feels like it's anxiety provoking. Yes. More than is assuring, you know, because you have to go for the next one and the next one and so, you know, there are so many pathways that we're not taking advantage of from the state perspective to support artists.

John Moscone: I look at teaching artists, which are probably the clearest indicator of like. A job that an artist has, right? And now that Prop 28 passed the billion dollars for teaching artists in this state, [00:12:00] that's pretty great. But what about artists in the health industry? There are so much data that proves that when artists are working in hospitals, they reduce the number of days that somebody stays in the hospital, which saves money for the hospital and insurance companies.

John Moscone: And if you pay people to do that, you're paying people to support the economy. Reduce costs. Absolutely. I know that doesn't sound sexy, but I'll tell you, this is our opportunity. I don't wanna rely on whether we have money in the budget or not to be able to support artists. Absolutely. So that's where I stand on it.

John Moscone: I know the governor supports this 'cause he believes very strongly in the creative economy, creative workforce the legislature does. So I think the time is right now, especially during a time of tough budget where we have to leverage resources, work with caltran. Work with Department of Health and Human Services, all of our colleagues, how do we bring arts to them to benefit their work and by doing so,

Eric Estrada: provide work for our artists.[00:13:00]

Eric Estrada: We're halfway through our powerful conversation at the 2023 State of our Arts and Cultural Organization Summit. You have heard from the voices of Maria Jensen, creative and executive Director of the Soma Arts Cultural Center, Ralph Remington, director of Cultural Affairs at the San Francisco Arts Commission, and Jonathan Moscone, executive Director of the California Arts Council.

Eric Estrada: Thank you to our incredible sponsors and to listeners like you for supporting voices of the Community. Stay with us. More highlights ahead. Voices of the community is made possible by generous support from the Zeller BCH Family Foundation dedicated to ensuring vibrant work is created. New voices are celebrated, and diverse communities have opportunities to thrive.

Eric Estrada: Learn more@zf.org. Voices of the community is also supported by the Peaceful World Foundation. Fostering a culture of global peace through hosted conversation and education. Discover more@peacefulworldfoundation.org. Welcome [00:14:00] back to Voices of the Community, where today's conversation at the 2023 State of our Arts and Culture Organizations Summit focuses on how arts organizations have bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eric Estrada: Let's continue the discussion.

Jenny Cohn: I, I had a friend the other day tell me that data is the language of the money. And I have not been able to stop thinking about that. Um, I know a lot of artists don't really like numbers. They don't really find use in data, but data is the language of the money. And I think that is really powerful to think about how you talk about your impact, how you talk about not only your money, but numbers of people, right?

Jenny Cohn: Numbers is how you get the grants, it's how you get the governmental support. It's how you get the funders, right? So, um, just one of the reasons why I'm kind of a, a proud data nerd is 'cause I think it's really powerful. Uh, there's more stuff in here about overall ticket revenue and donation revenue. I'm not gonna go through all of it in this moment.

Jenny Cohn: Um, but the other thing I wanna point out is TRG were really, really big, um, proponents of [00:15:00] customer topology. So that's looking at recency, frequency, monetary, and growth. Um. As far as how your relationship with your patrons, right? Are, how recently are they coming? How often are they coming? How much are they spending?

Jenny Cohn: And is their loyalty and their spend with you growing over time? Right? That's kind of t g's big thing. Um, we always joke that we're gonna get the patron loyalty ladder. We're all gonna get tattoos 'cause that's like our big thing. Um, but we like to look at all of that. And the interesting thing about where we are now.

Jenny Cohn: Is we're getting significantly more brand new customers than we've ever had. We, arts and culture nationwide. Right. Um, which is great. So whatever you're doing in marketing is working. It's getting new people in the door. I. The bummer flip side of that is the one time returning customer typology is significantly lower.

Jenny Cohn: So you're getting more first timers in the door, but even less people are coming back than they were in 2019. So that I think is a point of that. I'm gonna try [00:16:00] and hammer home, hammer home the rest of the day is that new customer retention is something I think we really are under utilizing and underfunding and other under resourcing at this time.

Jenny Cohn: Um, the, another positive thing at the moment is demographically we are seeing those new audiences make up more Gen Xers and more millennials than historically were coming, which is great. The bummer or flip side of that is that they're not coming in significantly enough percentages to make up for the decrease in the baby boomer generation.

Jenny Cohn: We've lost. About 25 to 30% of the baby boomers that just haven't come back since pandemic. Um, and unfortunately, if you look at that customer typology, most of those baby boomers are gonna be your loyalists, right? Your subscribers, your people that were coming recently, they were coming frequently. They were spending money and they were growing their, their support over time.

Jenny Cohn: Um, so that dip in percentage, um, of the baby boomer loss. Is, is really where I think we're all [00:17:00] feeling, um, the, the revenue strain at the moment. Um, but yes, there are Gen Xers and millennials are coming, so we need to make sure that they come back and we need to reach more of them. Um, one more thing about the Bay Area specific data that I thought was fascinating.

Jenny Cohn: Um, and like I said, you'll, you'll be able to look at all of this, um, and look at the specific numbers, but. Um, as far as ticket sales go, this has been, um, we had a really good holiday season, mostly for, um, for ticket sales. Uh, but the thing that kind of shines in the Bay Area data specifically for me is, uh, you had a really good march in April.

Jenny Cohn: I don't know what goes on here in March and April. Uh, but apparently a lot and a lot that sold tickets. Um, and that is a spike. I don't know if you can see the whole spike. Um, but that's a spike that I'm not seeing anywhere else. So that's very Bay Area specific. I live in Los Angeles, so I'm not far away, but I don't know what's [00:18:00] happening here in the early spring.

Jenny Cohn: But something exciting I wonder

Julie Baker: is SF travel in the room. I wonder if that's when they did their push. 'cause they've been doing a lot of pushes with. Anyway, it didn't start until April 21st. Stu, Brenda, I wanted you to just take the credit. I can

Jenny Cohn: claim it. Yeah, just own it. Um. Yes. And then the other, like I said, the other thing is that the average ticket price is a really interesting story.

Jenny Cohn: And if I look at all of our markets where we have data that we're collecting, the Bay Area is the only market where the average ticket price is so, such, so significantly lower than it was in 2019. So that anecdotally is telling me that there are audience outreach efforts happening and instead of skyrocketing a lot of tickets that there are, um, there are.

Jenny Cohn: Things happening in audience development. That would be my assumption. I would love to hear if that's the case. I'm curious. Um, but I think that's all I've got for

Jeff (guest): you, George. Hi, my name is Jeff Jones and, um, I am one of the co-founders of [00:19:00] the, uh, queer Cultural Center. And I was also the person that, uh, agitated for and successfully created the Cultural Equity Grants program and one of the.

Jeff (guest): Tendencies that's very clear is that the California Arts Council, which was really the, the uh, forerunner of multiculturalism in this state, has now become the captive of a bunch of arts bureaucrats, where now they're spending 25% on administrative costs, and that's money that used to go to artists. I think it's really different.

Jeff (guest): Jeff,

Jenny Cohn: I don't wanna interrupt you 'cause your experience is incredibly valid. We're gonna, can we bring it back to a question though? Did you have a question for the panel,

Jeff (guest): Mike? I did have a statement that we should understand that whatever people are saying here, uh, that there is this tendency now to fund arts administrators instead of [00:20:00] artists.

Jeff (guest): And, uh, also, I don't mean to burst your bubble, but you know, the reputation of YBCA in this town sucks.

Julie Baker: We know. We know, we know. It

Jeff (guest): always has. You've been around for 30 years. Thank you. And I hope you, I hope you could

Cary McClelland: do something. Can I answer just very, very responsively to this. Go ahead. Which, as a bureaucrat and an arts administrator, um, we are concerned, I mean, that new leadership at YBCA and I, we can't make any promises now about anything other than to say, one of the things we're concerned with is the ways we would, in the ways in which we sit between arts investment and the money that needs to be in community.

Cary McClelland: Let me say it again. We are not meant to be holders of funds that are best spent by artists themselves or in communities that know how to, how to put that money to better use. We're trying to model those practices through the programs and responsibilities we've taken on, and we're trying to look for the ways in which we can move that money as quickly as possible into community.

Cary McClelland: [00:21:00] Again, now, even within the programs that we have, um, I can't make, we are in an early assessment of all that work. Lawrence, come on in May. I, I came on around the same time. Um, so we represent an o an opportunity, uh, with Amy and Jodi and others in leadership of trying to figure out how to get out of the way of being a siphon of funds.

Cary McClelland: In this respect, I. Um, yeah, I'm with you. And I think if there are people in our programs who've been working on the Guaranteed income program directly and other programs who would say the same things that I'm saying in terms of what they've been learning, we're like months from being able to release some things that I think would be able to speak to the data from these programs and make a compelling argument for why we should get outta the way.

Cary McClelland: But it is to say we also are stewards of space. And are trying to figure out ways in which even that can be done through a position of solidarity and partnership, where we are in, in a different position with respect to how we program. [00:22:00] Um, this is not going to be, I, I, I don't wanna get into a divisive position right now on this at all because like in San Francisco, whether it's housing, homelessness, or the arts, we can get very divided quickly.

Cary McClelland: Um, but there is a big part of us sitting downtown alongside a bunch of other big cultural institutions holding space that many others could use just as well as we're trying to use it right now, that are trying to figure out how we open our doors and get out of the way of, of the scarcity that this feels as an artist to be alone in this community right now.

Cary McClelland: I have nothing to say to you with respect that's concrete at all, other than as a human being to agree with you entirely with respect to the challenge and that like what, uh, entirely respect the challenge. Thank you, Carrie.

Isa Nakazawa: And I know you were gonna speak at the art, the state of the art summit about prop E.

Isa Nakazawa: Mm-hmm. And I, you just kind of went into it, but like, what is the kind of the state of it right now? And I, I know you were gonna share a little bit more [00:23:00] in depth about it at the state of the art summit. Like is there anything. Left for you to share about it or where it stands.

Vallie Brown: Yeah, and I'm, I'm so sorry and, and disappointed I missed the state of the art summit because, but you would not have wanted me there.

Vallie Brown: I was sick. I didn't have a voice. Oh no. Uh oh. No voice. But I was a messy, I was a mess. And so I really was disappointed to miss it. A lot of my friends and colleagues were there and I heard it was great. But yes, prop E. So, you know, we're still not where we were. I am. And a lot of it's because of conventions and those things coming into town and staying at hotels we're better than we were a year ago.

Vallie Brown: Better than we were, especially better than we were two years ago. But we're still, we still don't have where we were in like 2019. I am. This year, the city had said to us, [00:24:00] you have to fund just on property. Because they had been giving us some general funds, you know, they gave us a huge chunk of general fund.

Vallie Brown: And then last year that we had some.

Isa Nakazawa: Mm.

Vallie Brown: But this year they're like, because of all the needs and things that are happening, they said you need to like live within your means kind of thing. And so you have this much money to grant out, which was about 14 million, which is a lot lower, but it's something that.

Vallie Brown: We have to do, there's just no way around it and Proppy. It still gives us that guarantee that as long as we don't have another catastrophe where we don't have visitors here going into hotels, it still gives us that guarantee we're gonna have funding, some kind of funding. Mm-hmm. But we have to prioritize.

Vallie Brown: Got it.

Isa Nakazawa: And can you speak to the Proposition E, the Arts Impact Endowment funding component That I know is informed by. A lot of the, you know, community arts folks, so like how do they get involved and informed in that process? [00:25:00]

Vallie Brown: Well, I think there's, there's different thing, there's different places to go for the, for us, I, for me and, and our department is, we're, you know, we keep.

Vallie Brown: A temperature on where the funding is on property, right. And what we need to do. I know that John Moscone and others have been really being activists to organize people, to get them to push for certain funding and push for priority funding for us. I am, you know, I am much more. I'm, I mean, as a city funder, I ha I, I, I step back a bit, but I also look for other ways that we can get funding, whether that is state funding, federal funding, all of those things that I think that would be really helpful.

Vallie Brown: And I know there's different groups and you can get online and look for those, that if people wanna get [00:26:00] involved in that mm-hmm. We always need people like. We had lined up people to speak when we were looking at getting fund, you know, trying to get the general fund for what was two years ago. And no one even had to speak because we all, the board of super advisors at that meeting, at the budget meeting said, yeah, let's do that.

Vallie Brown: But you have to get ready to be that activist, maybe go to the state to really like, you know, reach out to our. Our, our national, our federal leaders, you know, our Nancy Pelosi or, or Diane Feinstein, all of them to say, we really want you to push this initiative and funding. I think those are things that, that there are groups that are getting that together and making sure that people have that opportunity to, to put their voice in there because the arts.

Vallie Brown: Has always been a target and especially get certain, certain groups and certain political figures in that they'll, they take a swipe of the [00:27:00] arts, right. That thinks we're, you know, anybody that's involved in the arts are, you know, not the kind of people they wanna follow.

Isa Nakazawa: That's why it's so important that we do get involved.

Isa Nakazawa: Exactly. Exactly.

Eric Estrada: A special thanks to our summit attendees and our guests, Maria Jensen, Ralph Remington, Jonathan Moscone, Jenny Cone. Kerry McClelland and Vale Brown for their insights on arts advocacy. Visit voices of the community.com and go to season one of where Arts Meets Impact and explore about our guests and see their work.

Eric Estrada: While you're on our website, we invite you to visit season two with California for the Arts. Stay tuned for part two of our highlight compilation from our Season one Arts and Culture series. And stay tuned for our next series Making the Invisible Visible as we amplify the voices of our unhoused neighbors and the people and organizations that support them.

George Koster: Today's episode was made possible through our co-production partnership with Arts for Our Better Bay Area at their [00:28:00] 2023 State-of-the-Art Summit. Special thanks to our technical crew, audio and video Wizard, Eric Estrada and our co-production partner, bay Vac Media and their wonderful team, Paula Arni, Andy Konami, Shavan Giles, and Clay Go.

George Koster: Thanks to Casey Nance from Citron Studios for the graphics magic. A special thanks to our broadcast partners who help share these important conversations. K-S-F-P-L-P-F-M in San Francisco. K-P-C-A-L-P-F-M. And Petaluma. Petaluma Community Public Access tv. Bay Vac Media's, SF Commons, and PEG Media's Public Access TV exchange.

George Koster: Thank you for your commitment to amplifying diverse voices and perspectives. Please support these partners and our mission by tuning in and spreading the word. Voices of the community is made possible by generous support from the Zeak Family Foundation dedicated to ensuring vibrant work is created.

George Koster: New voices celebrated and diverse communities have opportunities to thrive. Learn [00:29:00] more@zf.org. Voices of the community is also supported by the Peaceful World Foundation, fostering a culture of global peace through hosted conversations. And education. Discover more@peacefulworldfoundation.org and we'd love your support to continue to make shows just like this one.

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