oaklandia

Item 7!

Don't miss this!

Cultural Affairs Commission
Regular Meeting
Monday, March 28, 2005
5:30 - 7:30pm
City Council Chambers
Oakland City Hall
One Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, 3rd Floor

7. Informational Item
Oral Presentation - Report on 2005-07 Departmental Budget Proposal
Raissa de la Rosa, Cultural Funding Program Coordinator and Steven Husss, Public Art Program Coordinator

I think this is where we will learn that all hell is about to break loose. The Cultural Funding Program just concluded its panel reviews of hundreds of applications for funding from individual artists and arts organizations. Panels recommended over a million in awards... which could be sliced in half if the City's budget for the arts is adopted by City Council.

Hear it with someone you love.

but I didn't even wish for it

Got a call from Steve Huss, the city liaison to the Cultural Affairs Commission, and he informed me that I had been appointed Chair, was I aware?

No.

Uncertain whether this represents an apex or a nadir in the Mayor's engagement in the arts.

Results of ego-check
some cross between three things:

1. Outrage. Surely ensuring proper leadership of Oakland's local arts agency would require more than a perfunctory note to staff. Coincidentally the current Harpers has a great re-visit of the monkey-typewriter-shakespeare contemplation, so maybe that's where we're at now. It hardly matters who is on the dais for this body because it's highly unlikely anything will come of our exercising. Unfortunately, I don't know if we're playing the role of the monkey or the role of the typewriter. It's appropriate to the think the Mayor might play the role of Shakespeare.
2. Forehead Slapping Irony. Leadership appointments are the least of our worries in light of the amputating cuts to arts funding the City is gearing up to implement. But if we can hang with the subject a bit longer: I had numerous conversations with staff and commishees about what the Commission's resolution's guidelines were for replacing Chris Johnson, the Chair who termed out of the Commission this month. Staff had a recommendation for the Mayor which included a Vice Chair, but that position is elected annually by the Commission itself, something it hasn't thought of doing for several years. Who would want to be chair, I repeatedly wrote and said, when s/he would have to preside over the dismantling of the arts agency and the death of the commission itself? How could I be chair, I thought to myself, when my conflicts of interest have led to repeated losses of quorum?
3. Diabolical Delight. For a wee moment, there is a perception of authority, however restricted, about as close to my persona as is likely to occur ever. As a situationist and a freak, I feel this appointment is a liberation, albeit a liberation to live an Evelyn Waugh book, or a Terry Gilliam movie.
   
   The future of Oakland Arts is quite horrible from a bureaucratic standpoint, but a thousand flowers continue to bloom. Importantly, it looks as though no one is really paying attention. Since most good things happen when the hall monitor is looking the other way...

Let's get started.

Studio One Public Art Commission

Had I known this (I was at the meeting! Nothing was mentioned!) I'd-a shouted a lettle earlier:

Please help us announce a great opportunity for lovers of Oakland and the arts. We're making one last big push to distribute this Call for Artists. It's been out now since mid-January and the deadline is a few weeks away (March 15). This is a major public art project, open to artists nationally, for the City of Oakland's own Studio One Art Center. You can assist by passing on the RFQ (attached as a .pdf file) to any artists who might be interested. You can also refer people to the RFQ posted on the Web at: http://www.oaklandculturalarts.org/main/documents/Studio1RFQfinal.pdf

The Studio One public art project is one of the Measure DD projects approved in the annual public art plan. In January the RFQ was mailed to our database of 1200 artists and posted on numerous websites; we've had a lot of interest from artists already. For more information on the project, prospective applicants can contact Christin Hablewitz, Measure DD Public Art Project Manager, at (510) 238-2105.

Thank you,
Steven Huss
Public Art Coordinator
City of Oakland Cultural Arts Department
1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, 9th Floor
Oakland, CA 94612
phone 510.238.4949 fax 510.238.6341
[email protected]
www.oaklandculturalarts.org