Report from the California Arts Council 7/28/2022 Meeting
Last week’s California Arts Council (CAC) meeting marks the first official meeting helmed by its new Executive Director Jonathan Moscone, and that’s where this summary starts. Moscone opened the meeting with an introduction to what brought him to this role, and what his hopes and priorities are moving forward alongside the Council, partners, and constituents. In his remarks, Moscone details a commitment to transparency and expediency in relation to the general operations of the Council. You can read his full remarks here. Californians for the Arts (and our partner organization California Arts Advocates) is really looking forward to working to support the field alongside Moscone and Council in this fiscal year, especially through aligning on initiatives such as the California Creative Workforce Act - SB 628 (Allen).
Throughout the three-hour meeting there were several key takeaways from the discussion of agenda items and public comment:
California Arts Council is prioritizing adding staff to build their team in order to support their current and upcoming initiatives, especially as they relate to the recent budget allocations and to getting funding out the door faster.
The Council is taking up discussion around the role of Administering Organizations (AO) with several Council members weighing in on the matter. Discussion included: should the Council oversee all grants to the field and not use an AO model? Does this further capacity building and equity in grant making, and how much that is going to administrative fees for AO’s could be going directly to artists instead? On the other hand it was also discussed that local organizations could be better suited to regrant funds to their communities by knowing more directly who could benefit. Some key questions that came up, and that will be discussed by committee, are: How are AO’s tracked and supported by the CAC? How can you measure the success of the program? Would any of the current grants that require AO’s make more sense to be run by the CAC? What is the fiscal breakdown of monies between all AO grant programs broken down by administrative fees and regranted funds? Is there a hybrid solution? We would love to hear what you think. Please fill out this brief survey question below.
Many of the callers for public comment were in relation to not receiving needed funds from the Arts in Corrections program. Deputy Director Ayanna Kiburi presented on the program mainly as an overview to educate the Council to the program as it has traditionally not been under their governance. We would love to hear what you think about the Arts in Corrections grants programs? Fill out this brief survey question below.
Presentation by Katherin Canton on CAC’s participation in Government Alliance on Race and Equity and the Innovations in Government pilot program - announcements to made in August about grant cohort recipients and forthcoming workshops.
In his opening statement, Moscone mentioned that one approach to transparency and more inclusive decision making for the Council would be to have community members be a part of the committees. In general, Council members felt this could get messy and some enjoyed the opportunity to have private space to discuss business. It was suggested that one way it might work is to have the community members be “experts” or highly experienced in the committee areas and to have vetting procedures in place. It’s not clear where this decision will land, but creative solutions to breaking down what is often perceived as opaque governmental processes are always welcome, in our opinion. In addition, committee meetings are currently not done publicly. There was also discussion that since the committee meetings are where the work is done, should the public be able to attend and provide comment. This issue now goes back to Governance committee to make recommendations to the full council.
The next California Arts Council meeting is August 18, 2022 at 10am. More info.
*Administering Organizations are currently being used to regrant funds into communities for five grants. The total grant amount (listed below next to each grant) is generally divided into three allocations with one or multiple AOs: Program administration (~10-20%), Practitioner/Project funds (~50-80%), and, when applicable, additional project materials or administration funds for sub-grantee organizations (~20%).
More information:
Arts Administrators Pipeline Fellowship ($1,165,000)
Individual Artist Fellowships ($2,620,000, divided by 4 regions)
Folk and Traditional Arts ($1,000,000)
Arts and Accessibility ($500,000)
California Creative Corps ($59,400,000, $1-5m per AO)