July 27, 2006

[Originally published in the 2005 Expo newspaper]

We are living in polarized times.

Across the country, authors from "blue" states publish bestsellers attempting to explain the benighted views held by yahoos in neighboring "red" states. In red states, howling preachers and pundits decry the wickedness of sinful, or even treasonous, blue states.

Here in bluer-than-blue San Francisco, Berlin Walls divide progressives, liberals and (our far-right) those simply left-of-center.

In our arts community, similar boundaries stand firm, splitting small and large arts organizations, separating disciplines and often keeping artists a chasm away form arts administrators and arts activists.

Arts Forum SF imagines another way.

Two summers ago, the arts community in San Francisco was reeling from a body blow thrown by politicians in Sacramento.

There, the legislature and Governor (both controlled by presumably pro-arts Democrats) slashed the budget for the California Arts Council (CAC) by 95 percent, wiping out grants by the agency, and scuttling California's public spending on the arts to dead last among the 50 states--less than three cents per person.

(Recent tabulations now place California at 47. Pity the poor wretches below us.)

For many in the local arts community, the move to virtually eliminate arts funding statewide delivered the disheartening message that in the view of California's politicians the arts were utterly expendable--nice, perhaps, when times were good, but easily dispensable when push came to shove.

Clearly, our public leaders were unconvinced as to the value of the arts and fully aware that no political price would be paid for even the most draconian actions.

In San Francisco, in that fall of 2003, a mayoral election loomed on the horizon. Half a dozen major candidates were battling for the job.

Could the arts community in San Francisco ensure that what had occurred in Sacramento--a devastating hit carried out by supposed friends of the arts--would not be repeated in City Hall? In that moment of crisis, Arts Forum SF was born.

An ad hoc group of arts professionals and supporters met in August and September to plan. They designated an evening where issues related to the San Francisco arts community could be discussed by the several mayoral candidates.

In the planning group were supporters of various mayoral contenders--Newsom, Gonzales, Ammiano, Leal, Alioto. Our agenda was not to position one politician above the others, but to educate all the candidates on the needs of the arts community and to hear their positions and proposed solutions.

The forum, moderated by San Francisco author Dave Eggers, was held September 26, in the Green Room of the War Memorial Performing Arts Center, in conjunction with Theatre Bay Area's annual conference. The event drew some 500 people, the best attended community forum of that fall's campaign.

Columnist David Wiegand of the Chronicle later described the evening as a "love fest," with each candidate vying to appear more supportive of the arts than the next. A nice position for the arts community to be in, but would sweet talk lead to enacted policies?

Arts Forum SF continued to convene, in part, to make sure supportive words were followed by concrete action. Our intent, though, was not just to be a watchdog, holding meetings where grievances could be aired, but to serve as a community think tank where ideas could be exchanged and solutions imagined.

To do this, we sensed that Arts Forum SF must continue to offer a neutral venue for dialogue, to provide a setting where all perspectives could be candidly and civilly expressed, a place where all of San Francisco's diverse and at times divergent arts constituencies could feel welcome.

Given a long history of division and infighting, the notion of creating an ongoing safe place for every point of view seemed anything but moderate or reasonable. The idea was radical. And it has worked.

Since the fall election of 2003, Arts Forum has hosted meetings around a number of topics. We've heard from and spoken to public policy makers. In May 2004, Arts Forum called on the newly-elected Mayor Newsom to report on his arts policies.

Some 300 people again crowded the Green Room for the event. A month later, when Newsom suggested merging the city's two arts agencies, Grants for the Arts and the Arts Commission, Arts Forum SF hastily convened a meeting, attended by 100 artists and representatives from arts organizations large and small, to discuss the potentially far-reaching proposal.

Days later, many of that evening's participants were testifying before the board of supervisors, passionately expressing their views, and calling for the creation of an Arts Task Force to study San Francisco's various arts programs and make recommendations on how the city might best support and utilize its dynamic arts community.

In the end, the mayor withdrew his proposal, and in December the board voted to create an Arts Task Force.

Last fall, half of the seats in San Francisco's Board of Supervisors were up for election. Arts Forum SF hosted supervisory candidates forums in two districts and created an arts issues questionnaire distributed to all the candidates.

Responses were posted on the Web to assist arts-interested voters in making their decision.

With the Arts Task Force at work, Arts Forum SF has convened meetings to inform the larger arts community on the work of the Task Force and to act as a resource for Task Force members, several of whom are regular participants in Arts Forum.

Does dialogue really matter?

Throughout its existence, Arts Forum SF has wrestled with the question of whether its mission of providing a neutral venue for discussing issues impacting the local arts community is enough.

To be truly effective, ought Arts Forum to choose sides, take stands, even endorse candidates, like a political club?

So far, we have seen the possibilities and value of the open forum, where candid but civil discourse is the hallmark, where opponents are heard and not demonized, where real differences are clearly expressed and sometimes better understood.

Here, the common ground is often found to be more spacious and fertile than any of us had imagined.

Brad Erickson is the Executive Director of Theatre Bay Area, and a founding member of Arts Forum San Francisco.