Episode 17: San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

Show Guests: John Caldon Managing Director of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center

Voices of the Community Introduction: Welcome to voices of the community which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members neighborhoods cities and our region. This is George Koster your host. 

Series Introduction: This episode is part of our series exploring COVID-19’s impact on nonprofits and small businesses in San Francisco. We started the series back in April 2020 during the height of the first phase of the Covid 19 pandemic and the Shelter In Place requirements. Over these past nine months, the Covid-19 pandemic and economic meltdown have wiped out millions of jobs in both the nonprofit and small business sectors as well as shuttered tens of thousands of small business operations.

The goal of the series is to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits, small businesses, and their staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability. The series of interviews we conducted features voices from a cross-section of organizations that make up the fabric of our community.  Each of them brings a unique perspective on how they and we are dealing with the issues facing our community during the global pandemic and economic depression.

Show Guest John: But, at the outset of this and ongoing, it's been people who are used to bringing people together who have been forced to keep people apart. Hospitality, workers, entertainers, we're the ones who have really had to come together and keep people safe by keeping them apart

Episode Intro - Show Host George: In this episode, our featured voice is John Caldon, the Managing Director San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center. The San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center opened in 1932 with the production of Tosca by the San Francisco Opera. The "War Memorial" name commemorates all the people who served in the First World War. It is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. It covers 7.5 acres in San Francisco's Civic Center Historic District and totals 7,500 seats among its multiple performance venues.

Show Host George: I'm joined remotely via zoom by John Caldon Managing Director of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center. Thanks for being here, John. I would like to begin by having, you share with us a little bit about the War Memorial and the Performing Arts Center.

I think for most San Francisco people, they walk by it, they're on McAllister and Van Ness It's across from city hall and they're like, Oh, that's a nice old building. So, it would be great if you can kind of share, War Memorial and how the War Memorial Performing Arts Center work with arts and cultural organizations in San Francisco?

Show Guest John: Oh, absolutely. Thanks for having us on George. I'm excited to be here today. the San Francisco war Memorial and Performing Arts Center is in the heart of San Francisco, right across Van Ness avenues from San Francisco City Hall. We have a number of performance venues here, including Davies Symphony Hall, the War Memorial Opera House, and then inside the Veterans Building, we have the Herbst Theater, the Wilsey Center for Opera, which hosts both the Taube Atrium Theater and the Bryan Education Studio. And we also have a really fabulous event space called the Green Room, all in all we can host over 7,000 patrons in a given evening, and pre-Covid would often do that with just the ballet performing alongside, the Symphony, San Francisco performances being in the Herbst Theater, all of that could happen in one night.

So, we're both at home for culture and art, in San Francisco, as well as a huge economic driver for the region. We've been here since 1932, our resident company is, the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Symphony and then San Francisco Performances of course, is a one of our primary users of the Herbst Theater.

And, we've had a long partnership with them as well. So, I think that we're one of the cornerstones of cultural activity in San Francisco and really proud to be a department of the City and County of San Francisco.

George: So, John, how has COVID-19, impacted the operations of the war Memorial, with regards to just hosting all of those organizations and, your staff, have as I understood have also ended up becoming an essential worker, outside of the building itself.

John Caldon: Yeah, that's true. well fun fact, the first venue, in the United States to have a public gathering canceled was at the Opera House. And that was on Saturday, March 7th, 2020. We had a 2:00 PM matinee of the San Francisco Ballets, a Midsummer night's dream scheduled for that day. And we found out the evening before on Friday the sixth that we'd have to cancel that as well as all other performances we had scheduled in the building.

Initially thinking that would be for just a few weeks period. And I think we all, we knew, we all thought this would be a lot shorter, then it was, and so obviously that's drawn out, but we were the first, venue to be dealing with cancellations in the United States. And it was shocking, I would say, you know, as I mentioned, the performing arts center opened in 1932, the first performance was a production of Tosca by the San Francisco opera on the stage of the opera house. And we've been in continuous operation ever since. So, people really, he couldn't believe it when, when the word came down, that we were closing the venues to prevent the spread of COVID. But clearly Mayor Breed was way ahead of the curve and, and her decisive action and bold action when people really weren't ready for it has saved countless lives.

And I. There's nowhere else in the world. I'd rather be than San Francisco. I feel safe and really proud of the Mayor's work and everything she's done. So, when we found out that we needed to cancel, we immediately notified all of our presenters and producers and anybody hosting events in the building and again It was just shocking to everybody, in the run up to it. Some of my staff had asked, so John, do you think we might get closed? And I had told them, well, if we do, we'll see it coming because we won't be the first, right? You never think you're never think you're going to be the first.

But as it turns out, we did not see it coming. So, how's it impacted us? Well, obviously the immediate effect was to put a lot of people out of work. Really unfortunate and really difficult, but you know, arts and culture worker and event workers and so many folks who work in hospitality are out of work and it's just hundreds and hundreds of people, out of work just based on the closure of these three blocks of arts and culture venues,  it's obvious, you know, looking at the performers, but you, a lot of folks don't think about the backstage crew, the front of house staff, the administrative staff and fundraising staff who work for these organizations event managers, security guards, and then there's the ripple effect through the community of restaurants and bars and hotel workers.

I mean, arts and culture really drive San Francisco. A lot of folks think of San Francisco as being a tech city, which we are. But the number one industry in San Francisco is tourism. And there would be no tourism in San Francisco if it weren't for arts and culture. So, we really are the economic driver of the region.

And I think that is becoming just so plainly known to everybody who didn't really think about it before. You know, one way to think about it is, everybody's at home listening to music and bingeing, Netflix, and watching the great online performances that, presenters are putting up and all the new and inventive ways of doing stage readings on zoom presenting previously recorded work, creating some new work, for viewing online. The Ballet has been doing some really incredible work. The San Francisco Symphony just launched its current series, which is available online.

And I think. Everybody's sitting at home and watching all of this art at home is being reminded of how, how much art really does drive the world and really also drive the economy. So, there's been a huge impact. I think just with that, the other thing is, as I mentioned, we're a department of City and County of San Francisco and under the leadership of Mayor Breed and the Board of Supervisors.

We've really flown into action to respond to COVID and to meet the needs of the community. And there's a lot of things people probably have read online or in the papers, but there's just so much work in so many, aah people hours that are going in too supporting response efforts to COVID, the City is setting up hotels for the unhoused so that those folks have a place, to quarantine themselves, and that's a huge effort.

Some of our staff have actually worked as site monitors, for some of those hotels, for the unhoused who had a quarantine themselves. We currently have, I think about 24 employees who have been deployed, since March as disaster service workers for almost 6,000 hours combined of work, at sites ranging from food banks to logistics support at the emergency operation center to providing additional staff support at San Francisco General Hospital. And as I mentioned, site monitors at the hotels for the unhoused. So, it’s really been an incredible feat to take all of these city employees and who are used to doing one kind of work and then have them doing another kind of work to support COVID. Also, here, we early on partnered with the American Red Cross to host blood drives. So, we've been hosting a number of blood drives. To date, we've hosted over 14 drives, collected almost 700 units of blood. And that will go to benefit about nineteen hundred patients, because the, blood system is really, under attack right now. So many folks have been concerned about going out obviously. And so, if you see a blood drive right in your area and you can attend it, please do.  The nation's really in native blood products, for patients. We're also right now at the War Memorial, we're hosting both the homeless outreach team.

So, we're providing logistic support to them in the form of parking, so they can get out there and work with the homeless populations in the Civic Center area. And we're working with Emergency Medical Services Agency, which is the City's, EMT provider essentially. And they built a specialty, to transfer COVID positive patients throughout the city.

So yeah, let's say you live in a facility, maybe it's a retirement home and you test positive for COVID and you need to be taken to the hospital. Well, it's really important that that's done safely. So, we're actually hosting them here, we have 15 paratransit vehicles in five ambulances that are parking in the horseshoe driveway that incircles, the Memorial Court between the Veterans Building and the Opera House. We also have their dispatch center here on the second floor, so that whole operation is being run out here. So, as a city department in a central area located facility, we're doing everything we can with our staff time, and our facilities to support the City's response efforts and we're very proud of that.

George: And John with the COVID-19 proverbial meltdown and so many trends both pandemic and economic, et cetera. What would you like to see as some of the positive things that can come out of the pandemic and the situation that San Francisco and California finds itself in?

John Caldon: Sure. Well, the first thing that it's really amazing, I think is that, so many of the performing arts companies are finding these ways to build new audiences and reach out to new audiences online. And right now, under the current health orders, we are allowed to use the performance venues for creating products, without having an audience, on site.

So, my one hope that I have is that the performance companies find ways to reach new audiences. I mean, obviously theater, classical performing arts, concerts, all of those things are, so often best experienced live. And that's what we do here is we bring people together, the arts, both convene and create communities.

We create communities, we bring them together. And so that's first and foremost, what we'll always do. But if an outgrowth of this is that, performing arts companies are able to take their products worldwide. You know, it'd be at a concert streaming or a dance performance or anything and have a sort of hybridized audience where people are coming in to see it live.

But if you want to enjoy San Francisco Performances or the ballet opera, or symphony that you could do that from anywhere in the world. I think that would be a really, great outgrowth of this. I also think it's really highlighting how important all workers are really, I mean, it’s been talked about a lot, but at the outset, we were, the frontline workers really at the beginning, you have your hospital folks and your nurses and everything who are doing just absolutely incredible work.

But, at the outset of this and ongoing, it's been people who are used to bringing people together who have been forced to keep people apart, hospitality, workers, entertainers, we're the ones who have really had to come together and keep people safe by keeping them apart, which really does run counter to what it is that we're actually trained to do and what we designed to do and why we all chose this profession.

So, I think really, realizing the value of people's work, no matter what it is, is something that I think people are becoming acutely aware of, and I hope that that continues. I've also found that people are being much more vulnerable with each other. Prior to COVID people were really, I think, hesitant to talk about how they were doing emotionally in the workspace.

I think people were hesitant to talk about how vulnerable they were feeling or their fears or what was going on at home, if things were negative. And amongst my staff here and amongst us, some of our resident companies who I speak with constantly, people are really open about, their own fears around COVID about if they've lost a loved one or a friend.

About just feeling stressed out or over tasks and asking for help. So, I hope that we keep that vulnerability, open and that people are able to talk about that honestly, going forward. I think that would really be a great outgrowth of this. It also is amazing to me how many people, you know, San Francisco obviously has a, really big homeless problem, and it's amazing to me, how many folks have been housed in such a short period of time. So, there are solutions to a lot of problems that when, we're up against the wall, we can work together and find the will, and the resources to do that. And I think that, it's an important thing to know is that we are, community of people who can solve big problems, when everybody's focused on them and working together. I hope that collaboration continues.

George: Thank you John. That was great. And I see it and its wonderful. As I was saying to Melanie, before we came on, the pandemic has really put, the proverbial x-ray on, all of our systems, our cultural and art systems, and how important they are. I didn't realize all of the incredible essential work the War Memorial was doing today. That was great and please stay safe out there.

John Caldon: Likewise George

Episode Outro - Show Host George: That’s it for this episode of voices of the community. You have been listening to the voice of John Caldon, the Managing Director San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center. To find out more about the San Francisco War Memorial & Performing Arts Center along with the performance venues and organizations that make up the complex go to sf war memorial dot org.

Series Outro: We hope that you enjoy the insights, points of view, and personal stories from the voices of change-makers and their nonprofits and small businesses featured in this series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofits, small businesses and staff members, featured in this series please go to my web site george koster dot com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to the extended versions of these interviews and to listen to the entire series. After listening to these stories we hope that you will consider making a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members.

Series Credits: I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada, along with Mel, Michael, and Lila at the San Francisco Public Press and KSFP. To listen to our next episode in this series and to our archived past shows which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities, please go to george koster dot com. While you are on our website please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one. Please subscribe to Voices of the Community on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or where ever you get your podcasts. Follow us on twitter @georgekoster and please email us with feedback and show ideas at george@georgekoster.com. I'm George Koster in San Francisco and thank you for listening.

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