oaklandia

Would admissions to pony rides be subject to the surcharge?

Because those lil tykes aren't pulling their weight.

The other bill to diversify funding for the California Arts Council uses a tax... no, an admission surcharge upon each patron of an entertainment venue. CAC gets the dough and gets back to the bidness of arts granting.

Just to be clear: in this bill race tracks and sporting events do not qualify as entertainment.

And we knew this: performances for the benefit of a nonprofit do not qualify as entertainment.

It's an ingenious plan, she said, grasping for the exempted revenue as it fell into an inky void while scanning yet another headline about how concert promotions anticipate another set of sad, sad, so sad and depressive summer profits not due to Morrisey (I'm sick.. and sad!) comebacks.

The summary from the CAC's don't-be-skeered newsletter:

Assembly Bill 655 (Leno)

This bill by Assemblyman Mark Leno will levy a one percent fee on admissions at all entertainment venues in the state, both private and non-profit. This one percent bill is estimated to generate upwards of $30 million to the Arts Council for distribution in grants, according to preliminary analysis from the Board of Equalization. This proposed revenue stream would stabilize arts funding and remove a great deal of pressure from the competition for General Fund dollars from all government sources that depend on it for their programs and operations.

The Leno bill, AB 655 will be heard on Tuesday in the Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media at 9 a.m. on April 19th.

The State Board of Equalization (you know... the TAX PEOPLE) analyzed the bill and raised interesting questions (like the ones I confront every day: is a professional wrestling event a sporting event?).

Mark Leno can be contacted here or via fax: (916) 319-2113.

Why Didn't We Whine About This Earlier?

Amy Kweskin sent this in, from the don't-quit newsletter of the California Arts Council:

Senate Bill 691 (Speier) Did you know that your personalized Arts License Plate purchase does not fully go to the California Arts Council, but results in a contribution to the Environmental License Plate (ELP) Fund as well?

For the past ten years purchasers of the Arts Plate have been contributing $40 of the $70 purchase price and $25 of the $40 renewal fee to the ELP Fund, with the remaining coming to the CAC to fund arts programs for children.

In the past, the revenue from the Arts License Plate was a small part of the overall CAC budget. Now, as a result of the greatly reduced Arts Council budget, the role of Arts License Plate fees to the CAC budget has became of greater importance. The bill SB 691 by Assemblywoman Jackie Speier would exempt the Arts Plate from contributing to the ELP Fund, and instead have the full amount go towards arts funding and distributed by the California Arts Council.

The Arts Plate is the most popular plate in the state. Seven million dollars have been generated for the arts since 1994. DMV reports $2.5 million have been contributed to the ELP Fund in the same period.

Senator Speier's new legislation aims at bringing fairness to the issue so that people who buy the Arts Plate can be assured that all the funds will be used to support local arts programs and arts education activities.

This bill will be heard initially in the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee on Tuesday, April 19 at 1:30 p.m. Read the Senator's Fact Sheet on SB 691 at http://www.cac.ca.gov/proposal/SB691factsheet2.rtf

Someone Is Looking Out For Our Featured City

Walked around just now, just to feel what a Featured City feels like.

Lori Zook sends this in:

Thanks to the lobbying of a few Bay Area artists organizations, the Contemporary Artists Center in North Adams, MA (CAC NAMA) has chosen to award a minimum 40% fellowship to all artists living or working in the SF Bay Area who apply for residencies by the summer (May 15) or fall (July 15) deadline.

Additionally we will provide one Bay Area artist with a 100% fellowship for a two-week artist residency. The artist will be chosen by LoBot Gallery Director, Adam Hatch, from among all the applications received at the CAC by the postmark date of May 15.

CAC NAMA focuses on emerging, professional contemporary artists. We seek artists who want to produce, explore, test new concepts and take an active role in making the CAC a new type of Research & Development art laboratory. CAC NAMA accepts artists for residencies who offer quality in their art and encourages diversity of style, medium and concepts.

Located in the Berkshire Mountains, CAC NAMA is part of one of the most important contemporary art regions outside of metropolitan cities. The nations largest contemporary visual and performing arts museum, MASS MoCA, is located here, as are the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Jacob's Pillow Dance, Berkshire Museum as well as other cultural venues.

The Beaver Mill, home of the CAC, is a 130,000 sq ft historic brick and stone mill situated on 27 acres of woodland and adjoining the Natural Bridge State Park. The CAC NAMA comprises 25,000 sq ft of the building and houses five galleries, a residency hall, and approximately 12,000 sq ft of studio space.
During a summer residency, artists also have the opportunity to participate in other CAC programs, including residency exhibitions, studio and museum visits, workshops, demonstrations and artist's lectures.

CAC NAMA provides merit, need based, or featured city awards to approximately 90% of Residents. Please apply by priority deadlines for consideration. Award amounts range from $50/wk to full cost.

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

Ring the Bell that Can Still Ring,

forget your perfect offering, there is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." Leonard Cohen

Cultural Affairs Commission Retreat today. It ended in a way no one anticipated, so the universe (via laughing squid) provided its explanation with a random calendar listing driven by the quote above.

Right before the agenda crashed, there was a screeching sound. The little red ball that rolled out in the street is stored out at spokes of a hub. Go get it and throw it back here.

We can get a few more up before it gets too dark to play.

And thanks to these folks for putting on a show that required laughing squid in the first place.

not on my watch

For months now I've had feeling that the City of Oakland's 2005-2007 budget preparations were going to pull the rug, and the floor, and the earth below out from under Oakland Arts. Staff seemed to carry the calm of the Routinely Doomed, but it wasn't until Thursday night a note came in over the transom:

Hey kids - Nothing is set yet, but due to continued City deficit the Cultural Funding Program is being asked to propose a series of cuts to the grant programs.  We may suffer anywhere from a 10% to 50% plus cut to our fund allocation. That means we would have to either greatly reduce and/or eliminate some of our grant opportunities. Proposals for reductions are due to the budget office next week. They'll put things together for reports to council, etc., for debate and consideration over the next few months before permanent reductions are put to a final vote with council at the end of June/early July. It may seem early, but now is the time to gather forces to keep funding for the arts if not intact, then with minimal reductions. I'm hoping you guys can help carry the torch and rally the forces. People can contact their councilmembers, attend council meetings to make open forum statements, lobby the mayor, etc.

I cast about like a flopping fish on Friday trying to get confirmation, sending out early warnings to the Spokes, Dan Fontes, a couple Commishees, Heather Tunis, who co-chairs the Oakland Arts Funding Advisory Committee, and Peter Brown, an artist with guts to whom I turn when when the issue, ostensibly about the arts, is actually about equity.

I mentioned to the Spokes that the Cultural Affairs Commission was finalizing its agenda for its Feb 2 Retreat, and there was talk of tabling the item to discuss the budget, and the role the Commissioners play (if any!) in its development and adoption. Some Spokes thought it might be a good idea to gather the outrage, bum rush the show on Feb 2 and demand the Commishees take the item up. This after Sanjiv reprimanded the Commission on Monday night for breaking Brown Act laws by conducting the retreat during the day, instead of the evenings and weekends when the public could reasonably be expected to have time to attend.

Established Spokes over at Tribe.net to take advantage of all the built-in networking and calendaring we'll need to mount an effective advocacy campaign. If we proceed correctly, and then maybe not even then, the budget that the Mayor and City Administrator present to City Council in May won't contain any cuts to the arts.

Right?

the difference between a proletariat and a proletarian

something more than a consonant.

http://www.proletariatbronze.org/

I only mention it because in a post that I forwarded on behalf of Spokes of a Hub, Proletariat Bronze was called out as Proletarian Bronze. I hate mispelling band names almost as much as I hate hearing band names mispronounced by KALX DJs when they read the calendar listings.

But yes, Oakland Arts, it's all up inside those references and here's why:

Spokes of a Hub is convening again:

• tuesday 25 may 2004 at 6pm
  at the new pro arts
  550 second st at clay
  oakland, california
• MEETING TOPIC:
  alliances, collaborations and advocacy
  a candid panel discussion with funders and collaborators

This is my first billing as a Moderator and I'm hoping it goes straight to my head. I'll spend Sunday morning watching the news shows to hone my skills.

seanthesean: back from oakland

seanthesean was here, earlier, scroll down, comments, like that.

what is the story behind the oaklandish reference?

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