San Francisco Awards More Than $10 Million to Artists, Arts Orgs

The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) on Tuesday announced a cumulative $10.4 million in grants to 145 artists and arts nonprofits and six cultural centers.

The grants include more than $7.5 million in funding for 98 individual artists and 47 arts nonprofit organizations to support performances, documentaries, exhibitions, sculpture, literature, workshops, albums, public events and more. A full list of grant recipients and their projects can be found here [PDF].

Nearly $3 million of the grant funding will be spread across six different cultural centers. Those include the African American Art and Culture Complex, the Ruth Williams Bayview Opera House, the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, and SOMArts, along with three “virtual cultural centers”: the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, the American Indian Cultural Center, and the Queer Cultural Center. 

The city received 533 grant applications, which were evaluated by 73 peer panelists between January and April of this year. The grants are funded by Proposition E, passed by voters in 2018, which mandates that 1.5% of San Francisco’s 14% hotel tax goes to fund arts and culture initiatives.

“Each grant awarded this cycle represents an investment in San Francisco’s vibrant cultural future. We are proud to support so many talented artists and organizations, especially for San Francisco artists whom nearly half are first-time grantees,” said Denise Pate, SFAC’s Director of Community Investments, referring to the grant category for individual artists.

The grants come as Mayor Daniel Lurie mounts a visible public comeback for San Francisco, utilizing its arts communities. Free downtown events with DJs and live music are now a regular occurrence, and Lurie has championed relaxed permit restrictions and the city’s new entertainment zones as engines for economic recovery. Lurie also recently announced a restructuring to place SFAC, Grants for the Arts (GFTA), and the San Francisco Film Commission under the same umbrella.

In a statement, Lurie said that “our arts community brings people from across the world to San Francisco — keeping our arts and cultural institutions strong and vibrant is critical to our economic recovery.”

In May, the Trump administration canceled National Endowment of the Arts grants nationwide, including grants for dozens of Bay Area artists and nonprofits. The month prior, the Trump administration canceled millions of dollars in National Endowment of the Humanities grants, which also affected many Bay Area artists.

Also in April, the city of San Francisco officially canceled $14.4 million in Dream Keeper Initiative grants to more than 30 San Francisco-based cultural organizations working in social services and the arts.