oaklandia

artship has moved to sf

A participant at the Oakland arts collaborative session inside Arts First Oakland tonight reported that the Artship has been moved to Shan Franshisky.

Must find it. I mean. How hard can that be?

call for proposals: city of oakland public art program

From: "Babcock, Roberta"
To: [email protected]
Subject: FW: Open Proposals RFP-City of Oakland
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 19:27:44 -0800

The Public Art Program has announced an Open Proposals call for artists. We
are accepting proposals from artists, community organizations and
neighborhood groups for the creation of public art projects throughout
Oakland. For full announcement go to web page www.oaklandculturalarts.org
under call for artists/ artists opportunities.

Proposal deadline: Friday April 30, 2004

Roberta Babcock
Acting Public ARt Coord.
Cultural Arts and Marketing Dept
City of Oakland
510-238-2155

I think it's tidal

You are invited to help create a vision for sustaining Oakland's vibrant arts and culture.

Gather around the table on March 29 from 6:45-8:15pm at
Arts First Oakland
at First Congregational Church of Oakland
2501 Harrison St at 27th Street in the Gallery. Room 20.
Light reception at 6:45pm.

See agenda below.

We are Six Women with an Idea:
Raissa De La Rosa
Amy Kweskin
Eve Lindi
Suki O‚Kane
Stephanie JT Russell
Elena Serrano

Our Goals:
1) Bring together arts and culture workers and introduce our vision and mission for alliance and
collaboration.
2) Encourage networking among participants.
3) Discuss a shared vision for vibrant and sustainable arts and culture in Oakland.
4) Create buzz – pass this email on to 5 more people!

Host and Facilitator Eve Lindi of Arts First Oakland

RSVP to Amy Kweskin at [email protected]
Eve Lindi at 510-444-8511 x15
[email protected]

If you can't attend let us know if you want to be on the email list.

AGENDA
6:45–7:05-People arrive, sign in, network, nibble,
share marketing collateral (tables in atrium)

7:05–7:15-Welcome, host introductions, and purpose of
meeting (Eve facilitator, Amy, Elena, Suki, Stephanie)

7:15–7:25-Introductions: name & organization

7:25–7:30-Introduce Small Group Discussion Questions:
--What is a collaboration – what does it mean to be an
ally?
--If arts service organizations, funders, business
partners, etc. were in the room with us right now,
what would we say to them about the unique strengths
and challenges of Oakland‚s arts and cultural
community?
--Looking at the following areas of interest, what can
we do better in collaboration (vs. within our own
existing organizations)? What differences would an
alliance make?

1) Professional Development & Learning
--management/business
--creative/artistic

2) Board Development

3) Resource Development
--Funding
--Technical (legal, fiscal, technology, skills bank,
marketing & PR)
--Facilities
--Advocacy

4) Public & Inter-Org Communication
--Audience development – demographics, geographic
focus
--Calendar
--Media support

5) Others?

7:30–7:50 Small Group Discussion

7:50–8:00 Re-gather and report back on areas
identified for collaboration

8:00–8:05 Next Steps – Announce next gathering in May
at Pro Arts and explain follow-up survey

8:05–8:10 Brief Evaluation (one-word feeling)

We look forward to seeing you there!

Vacancies

The new commissioner terms don't start until May 8, 2003, a Saturday.
GARY GLITTER WAS BORN ON THIS DAY IN 1944 | YIKES

I'm taking Paul Garrison's place, which he left in May of 2003.

So I rolled over to the Commission meeting on February 23 on a tip from Raissa to see what was up.

THE SNAKE EATS ITS TAIL
Newly appointed Commissioner Michael Liener was there, operating on the same instincts. Michael's taking Harold Lawrence's place. After Commission Hyland Baron walked us around the edges of the dais for introductions, we sat together in the City Council gallery and watched another quorum fail to establish, on one level, and watched a portion of Oakland's history unfold before us, on another.

• VACANCY
  Slobodan is gone, after years of always being there, somewhere, somehow, remaining above water much like his Artship in perpetually uncertain waters. The Artship has been sold for scrap and with it the street report that Slobodan has moved out of Oakland. I've been running into Slobodan on Oakland streets for over 10 years, and am quite accustomed to long, random intervals between each meeting. This absence struck me more as heartbreak, and I realized I'm going to have to learn the story in its entirety.
• VACANCY NOT VACANCY
  Dennis Power, was plucked from a Commissioner's seat when he was appointed Director of the Cultural Arts portion of Oakland's Cultural Arts and Marketing in the new fiscal year, then plunked down immediately to the left in the City Staff seat. Dennis is the Executive Director of the Oakland Museum of California. It crosses my mind to research examples of combined local arts agencies and collecting museums, and I will, but the idea makes my head hurt. I'd rather just interview Dennis here.
  Devin Satterfield just took Dennis' place. I think that's really cool.
• NOS VACANCES, PROVISOIRE ET PERMANENT
  This seems a hybrid of musical chairs and eerie ghost town, let's just say it. I can't immediately find a rational perspective on it. Under the disco ball in the City Hall Rotunda, I'm asking you how you know anyone is ever really here, after all, you know, acknowledging that elephant in the room with the big "Maybe We Don't Exist" message painted on its side?
  The Cultural Arts website lists seven vacancies but the City Clerk's seems all full up.
• THE BIGGEST GAP
  Only one citizen came to watch these proceedings.

My Day One Was Not The Same As Dusty Crevice's

I watched the City Council meeting on KTOP from the safety of MZ's couch, which came equipped with a never-ending bottle of Two Buck Chuck. My appointment to the Cultural Affairs Commission was the Item 31 of 33 items, and not on consent. Would there be objections from For The Record I'm Sanjiv Handa, East Bay News Service? None personal, but he did, and he was right to, point out how sorry Oakland boards and commissions are these days.

I think the assumption is that the Cultural Affairs Commission is irrelevant. To everyone. In every way.

From Dan Fontes:

5 different Directors in the last five years. Nobody wants to acknowledge that the Mayor has lost close to 30 cultural affairs commissioners over that period of time. His pattern of using arts folks is serious when contrasted with his "promise to celebrate the arts". This business of calling the Arts Department the "Arts and Marketing Department" is particularly galling given Oakland's constant fumbling of arts marketing. The lack of quorums has been going on now for close to three years! In fact, about the only area they haven't damaged is the Art & Soul festival.

Not so. I think budget cuts removed the leadership on Art & Soul as well. artandsouloakland.com is currently looping webserver foo from hell. I think it's a Saturday night thing.

In spite of all this, incidental remarks by Eddie Ytuarte at that same Council meeting made it easy to discount anxiety about the meaning of this civic appointment. I count Eddie among my One Hundred Or More Mentors who continue to inform Oaklandia with their principled action.