Save oakland arts mtg moved to oakland art gallery at 150 frank ogawa plaza bottom floor. Thanks to Nicole, gallery director and Oakland Cultural Affairs Commissioner for emergency hosting. Some people actually brown-bagged.
notes [also in pdf here]:
The Oakland City Council begins their FY2010 & 2011 budget process in early January 2009. We are organizing, crafting our message to policy-makers, and activating the Oakland Art Community. Be part of the solution in this budgeting process!
Contact Group Leads to join a Task Group– see contact emails below.
Oakland Arts Advocacy: Next Steps Planning Meeting
Tuesday, December 16, 12-1:30pm
Relocated to Oakland Art Gallery, 199 Kahn’s Alley, Oakland, CA 94612
- Introductions
Representatives from Arts Organizations = 8
Individual Artists = 3
Arts Educators = 1
Journalist = 0
City Staff = 6
Business Leader= 1
Total Attendance= 19
A sign-in sheet was circulated. See contact emails below
(Meeting chaired by Margo Dunlap-Pro Arts, facilitation provided by Amy Kweskin – Arts Advocate) - Presentation from the Chamber – Karen Engle, Director of Business Development
- Oakland Partnership: Private/ Public Partnership setting Mayor’s Economic Development Platform; Creative Arts Industry identified as a key growth sector; Oakland Arts Advocacy Activities win/win to work with the Chamber within the Creative Arts Cluster;
- M.Dunlap-Pro Arts and Samee Roberts-City of Oakland, Cultural Arts & Marketing to serve as liaisons with the Chamber and Partnership
- Opportunity for Chamber to reconvene an independent Budget Advisory Committee to participate in City Budget Planning- to represent industry; Invitation to Oakland Arts Advocates to be part of that process;
- Chamber opposition in previous TOT increase initiative
- Recommendation to workout larger funding initiative with Chabot, Oakland Museum, Zoo- (a la Regional Assets Districts)
- Report from the City- Steve Huss, Cultural Arts Programs Coordinator, City of Oakland
- Measure OO-Council interest in blocking approved ballot measure.
- 1% on Private Development for public art- time is now to begin dialogue and prepare case to policy-makers;
- Working with Cultural Affairs Commission/ Lori Zook, Chair, Cultural Affairs Commission on identifying funding for Arts Councils, and Municipal arts programming- research for grant-writing;
- ‘Leadership in Tough Times’, Americans for the Arts tools and information on arts advocacy;
- City Council Retreat on budget planning scheduled for early January.
- Discussion Items:
- Cultural Data Project- Get the word out for Oakland Arts groups to participate to build a database of long-term information on Economic Impact of Oakland Arts
- Structure: Models- Berkeley Cultural Trust, others?- more next meeting
- Objectives for January-Meet in smaller task groups to plan activities- report back at January 13 meeting.
Meeting Schedule and Times
Encourage multiple conversations on activating the arts
From Suki O’Kane’s online correspondence
“… the conversation to build support of Oakland’s arts has to be taking place all over town as part of many agendas…. many moments inside many meetings to make many constituencies aware of the work and how to support it. Over time we can build the constituency that convenes with critical mass… the “work of the work”: small groups, research, drafting of legislation, forging of alliances with policymakers, usually happens outside of meetings……… Meetings can then function to create moments of accountability to the community this initiative serves……. If every arts organization in Oakland started developing an advocacy agenda, and we simply shared our resources for that message, that would be powerful.”
Communications- get the word out about meetings and task groups;
Breakout Task Groups: see contact emails below.
- Alt Funding:
Research and compile information on alternative funding mechanisms for arts programming; i.e, Ticket surcharges (Warriors Community Foundation [suggested by Suki O’Kane], TOT Tax – Transient Occupancy Tax (Researched by Councilmembers Nancy Nadel and Jean Quan’s Offices), Pittsburg Regional Asset District (50% to cultural arts from 1% sales tax), $$ from Community Benefit Districts or Business Improvement Districts??; Funding from Oakland Business community- Arts Champions- e.g Shorenstein;
Lead: Suki OKane, Artist
Participants: Steve Huss, Kathy Littles, other City of Oakland Staff - City Council Communications: Plan official communications strategy to communicate arts agenda to elected officials in budgeting process; Plan response, if any to January 12 Council Budget Retreat; timeline/response/content; Relationship building; letter-writing campaign? emails? constant drip or hammer, or coordinated effort over time utilizing multiple strategies;
Lead: Margo Dunlap- Pro Arts
Participants: Anyka Barber- ALICE Arts; Nicole Neditch-Oakland Art Gallery/Cultural Affairs Commissioner; Shawn Roland- Artist - Economic Impact White Paper: Research and compile specific information on economic impact of Oakland Arts; Prepare key talking points on the arts industry for distribution;
Lead: Lori Zook- Cultural Affairs Commissioner (From 11/18 Meeting)
Participants: Nicole Neditch-Oakland Art Gallery/Cultural Affairs Commissioner; Anyka Barber- ALICE Arts, Kristen Zaremba- City of Oakland-Public Art - Setting the Arts Agenda: Key messaging for budget campaign- “Maintain a healthy Oakland through the arts,” “Make a case for the cultural economy,” Demonstrate that the arts are a part of every successful solution for the City,” Make an institutionalized commitment to Cultural Equity,” “Arts and Cultural Diversity is embedded in the identity of Oakland.”; bring budget solutions to the table;
Lead: Margo Dunlap, Pro Arts
Participants: Mollie McFarland-AXIS; Sottol Weng-CUE (Children United by Experience/ Gregangelo and Velocity Circus); Nicole Neditch-Oakland Art Gallery/Cultural Affairs Commissioner; Jais Booth-Red Door Gallery& Collective;
For updates contact:
Margo Dunlap, Executive Director
Pro Arts
550 Second St. Oakland
margo@proartsgallery.org 510-763-9425, or ping the ArtVote blog
Notes from December 16, 2008 Meeting (.pdf Download)
Notes from November 18, 2008 Meeting (.pdf Download)
Note the upcoming meeting schedule:
Next Meeting: January 13, 2009
12-1:30pm
Conference Center, East Bay Community Foundation
Schedule of Meetings:
Tuesdays, 12-1:30pm at Conference Center, East Bay Community Foundation
January 13 | February 17 | March 17 | April 21 | May 19 | June 23
The Conference Center and other offices are at 353 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in the Dalziel Building, at the roundabout at the end of San Pablo Avenue.
Contact Emails for 12/16 Meeting
Name E-mail Organization / Affiliation
Janet Austin janet@filmoakland.com Oakland Film Office
Jais Booth jaisarte@yahoo.com Red Door Gallery & Collective
Shira Cion shira@kitka.org Kitka
Jody Collen jody.ollen@eastbayexpress.com East Bay Express
Margo Dunlap margo@proartsgallery.org Pro Arts
Karen Engel kengel@oaklandchamber.com Oakland Metro Chamber
Jeanne Fahey jmfahey@mindspring.com Oakland Inter Faith Gospel Choir
David Huff david@proartsgallery.org Pro Arts
Steven Huss shuss@oaklandnet.com City of Oakland
Jason M. Jong jjong@oaklandnet.com City of Oakland
Kathy Littles klittles@oaklandnet.com City of Oakland
Mollie McFarland mollie@axisdance.org Axis Dance
Nicole Neclitch nicole@oaklandartgallery.net Oakland Art Gallery
Suki O’Kane suki@illuminatedcorridor.com Illuminated Corridor
Matais Pouncil mataispouncil@aol.com
Shawn Rowland shawnrowland@sbcglobal.net Visual Artist
Arlene Shmaeff arlene@mocha.org Mocha
Sottol Weng sottol@cuekids.org CUE (Children United by Experience)
Kristen Zaremba kzaremba@oaklandnet.com City of Oakland
Ami Zins amizins@yahoo.com Oakland Film Office
Not in Attendance:
Lori Zook lorizook@comcast.net Chair, Cultural Affairs Commission