By Glenn McCoy Executive Director at San Francisco Ballet August 23, 2010
On August 17, San Francisco Ballet and more than 30 other San Francisco cultural organizations hostedArts Forum 2010: State of the Arts in San Francisco. The event was designed to engage candidates running for public office in the upcoming elections and to educate them about the significant impact the arts have on our city. Over 400 artists, arts managers, arts funders, and arts supporters attended along with 24 candidates. The candidates were encouraged to develop their own platform on the arts as part of their campaigns this fall.
The program, held in the Forum at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts featured a panel discussion by Kary Schulman, Director of San Francisco Grants for the Arts; Moy Eng, Interim Program Officer for Arts and Culture at the San Francisco Foundation; and Joe D’Alessandro, President & CEO of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. These experts offered facts about the history of arts funding in San Francisco, the tremendous reach of arts education programs offered by the city’s arts organizations, and the impressive economic impact the arts have on the area.
Randy Cohen, Vice President of Local Arts Advancement for American for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit advocacy organization for the arts, gave the keynote address. Armed with research data from mapping studies of the nation’s 680,000 arts establishments and employees, Randy painted a compelling picture for the positive impacts of the arts and culture industry and the wisdom of supporting it. Check back for more statistics from Randy’s speech in a later post.
In the meantime, allow me to share a few facts here about the value of San Francisco’s arts community. Did you know that . . .
Over 4 million people participate in and support the programs and activities offered by our arts organizations, with at least 1 million coming from outside the city. They are estimated to spend over $95 million while they are here.
San Francisco’s arts community provides jobs to over 4,500 artists, dancers, singers, musicians, writers, filmmakers, scientists, stage technicians, designers, clerical and administrative workers, and more. Over 1,700 of these workers live in the City of San Francisco and the other 2,500 commute daily, contributing to our economic and cultural vitality.
San Francisco’s arts community produces hundreds of free or low-cost community programs throughout the city’s diverse neighborhoods.
San Francisco’s arts community maintains a strong commitment to educational programs, offering high quality education programs serving almost every public school in the city. These programs reach over 700,000 young people each year.
What can you do to support this vital part of our community? Let the candidates running in your district know that you want them to make it a priority to support the arts in San Francisco.
Arts Forum 2010: State of the Arts in SF
Executive Director at San Francisco Ballet
August 23, 2010
On August 17, San Francisco Ballet and more than 30 other San Francisco cultural organizations hosted Arts Forum 2010: State of the Arts in San Francisco. The event was designed to engage candidates running for public office in the upcoming elections and to educate them about the significant impact the arts have on our city. Over 400 artists, arts managers, arts funders, and arts supporters attended along with 24 candidates. The candidates were encouraged to develop their own platform on the arts as part of their campaigns this fall.
The program, held in the Forum at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts featured a panel discussion by Kary Schulman, Director of San Francisco Grants for the Arts; Moy Eng, Interim Program Officer for Arts and Culture at the San Francisco Foundation; and Joe D’Alessandro, President & CEO of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. These experts offered facts about the history of arts funding in San Francisco, the tremendous reach of arts education programs offered by the city’s arts organizations, and the impressive economic impact the arts have on the area.
Randy Cohen, Vice President of Local Arts Advancement for American for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit advocacy organization for the arts, gave the keynote address. Armed with research data from mapping studies of the nation’s 680,000 arts establishments and employees, Randy painted a compelling picture for the positive impacts of the arts and culture industry and the wisdom of supporting it. Check back for more statistics from Randy’s speech in a later post.
In the meantime, allow me to share a few facts here about the value of San Francisco’s arts community. Did you know that . . .
What can you do to support this vital part of our community? Let the candidates running in your district know that you want them to make it a priority to support the arts in San Francisco.