News

September 2011

Beyond Dynamic Adaptability

Technology is changing the way people engage with culture and the changing demographics of California are rewriting all the rules when it comes to building an audience. A revolution is happening across the arts sector as the walls between professional and amateur, audience and artist, curator and spectator start to crumble.

We invite you to take a day to stop, reflect, share, and learn with the whole Bay Area community as we navigate these changes together. The conference features radical thinkers, visionary artists, and distinguished innovators from the arts sector and beyond including:

• Dante Di Loreto, Executive Producer of Glee
• Linda Ronstadt, singer and arts advocate
• Funders Ben Cameron (Duke Foundation) and Josephine Ramirez (Irvine Foundation)
• Nina Simon, museum innovator and Executive Director of The Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz

The conference will include five community engaging discussions exploring issues of technology, civic dialogue, collaboration, audience engagement, and learning from existing structures and practices in communities of color. Participants will also have the opportunity to join The Art Bar, a space for informal exchange on and off stage with pop-up artists, musicians, dancers, poets and more.

Registration is now open for the conference. For more information, and to register, please visit the event website.

September 2011

Past Artists' Legacies of Generosity Embolden Emerging Artists

Since 1986, The San Francisco Foundation has administered the annual Jack K. and Gertrude Murphy Fellowships and the Edwin Anthony and Adelaide Boudreaux Cadogan Scholarships. The Murphy and Cadogan awards are emblematic of The San Francisco Foundation’s community of donors’ enduring legacy of generosity, foresight, and commitment to supporting succeeding generations of artistic, civic, and community innovation. This year’s exhibit, Frontrunners, is currently featured at the SOMArts Cultural Center, and culminates with a public awards ceremony and reception at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, September 16, 2011.

Edwin Anthony and Adelaide Boudreaux Cadogan both experienced financial difficulties while in art school and understood the great difference scholarships could make during this early phase in an artist’s career. Edwin was an alumnus of Berkeley High School, worked primarily in oil painting and stoneware pottery, and Adelaide devoted herself to painting and sculpture. They met while attending the San Francisco Art Institute and later were both active members of the Marin Society of Artists. Edwin went on to head the art department at College of Marin, where Cadogan Hall is named in his honor. The Cadogans never had children. In a handwritten letter to The San Francisco Foundation, Mrs. Cadogan wrote that she wanted "art students of the future to be our children."
 
After receiving news that she was selected for a Jack K. and Gertrude Murphy Fellowship, Sofia Sharpe was able to devote those precious, fleeting summer months between school years at Mills College to furthering her artistic exploration and practice. Ms. Sharpe and her fellow twenty-two 2011 awardees are living tributes to Jack K. and Gertrude Murphy’s and Edwin Anthony and Adelaide Boudreaux Cadogan’s love for the arts and the Bay Area.

View more photos of the Frontrunners exhibit online, and watch more of the awardees discussing their work here.

Many thanks to the Anne T. Kent California Room at the Marin County Free Library and the San Francisco History Center at the San Francisco Public Library for their generous research assistance.

March 2011

Leveraging Social Media Workshop Series Deadline is March 6th

Leveraging Social Media Workshop Series image

Once again, The San Francisco Foundation is pleased to participate in Leveraging Social Media: Becoming A Networked Nonprofit, an intimate, free mini-academy exploring development of effective social media strategies for arts and culture organizations led by social media expert and industry leader Beth Kanter. In addition to a social media master class offered on April 18, this year's workshop series offers two levels of learning, for novice and intermediate organizations, focused on integrating social media into current marking and audience development plans.

To apply for the free beginning or intermediate workshop series or to learn more about the social media master class, please visit Theatre Bay Area's website at theatrebayarea.org/socialmedia2011.

Leveraging Social Media is made possible by The San Francisco Foundation and Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund through support from The Wallace Foundation, along with the Koret Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

February 2011

Hear Shenson Fellow Arjun Verma at Marin Interfaith Council Concert on February 13th

Bay Area artists Arjun Verma will be one of the featured artists at Music of the Beloved, the Marin Interfaith Council's annual celebration of the arts and spirituality. The February 13th concert at San Rafael's Marin Showcase Theatre will include performances of contemplative, classical Indian and Tibetan music.

Arjun Verma, a 2007 recipient of the Foundation's Shenson Fellowship, is a 17-year student of North Indian Classical Music, most notably with Ustad Ali Akbar Khan at the Ali Akbar College of Music. In addition to advanced training with the sitar, Verma also studied Western Classical percussion and choral music. He has performed worldwide, including for the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

Visit the Marin Arts Council's website for ticket information.

May 2010

Studies Reveal Matching Commissions and Data-based Strategies Make the Difference: Bay Area Artists Raise $1.3 Million in Tough Economy

Fund For Artist grantee The Sangati Ensemble at a house concert. Photograph: Harsal Jawale

Bay Area artists raised more than $1.3 million since 2004 through the Fund For Artists Matching Commissions program. The resources and incentivizing power of the Matching Commissions bolstered local artists’ fundraising success. In addition, the announcement of Matching Commissions results coincides with the release of a study on the arts community and arts donors and a survey of how Bay Area artists are faring in the economic downturn. The study chronicles how artists and small- to mid-size arts groups found creative ways to engage new donors in supporting new work, and uncovers donors’ motivations to give. 

It’s Not About You…It’s About Them, A Research Report: What Motivates Bay Area Donors to Give to the Arts and Artists and the accompanying Field Reports from the Fund For Artists Matching Commissions Program: Unlocking the Potential of Individual Donors, released May 25th by The San Francisco Foundation and East Bay Community Foundation, reveal that despite the challenging economic environment, individual donors and local foundations jointly funded 181 Bay Area artists to support the creation of 116 new works. The study tells the stories of six artists and small to mid-size arts groups who leveraged the matching funds to generate resources for their artistic projects. The Fund For Artists Matching Commissions is a collaborative project between East Bay Community Foundation and The San Francisco Foundation that supports the development of new works by Bay Area artists and helps small- to mid-sized arts groups strengthen funding by attracting individual donors through a matching challenge grant.

Visit our Fund For Artists page for more information including:

• practical tools and tips to individual artists and small arts groups for raising funds for new artistic work;
• connection points with prospective donors that can increase the likelihood of giving; and
• links to download the reports.

PHOTO: Fund For Artist Matching Commissions grantee the Sangati Ensemble at a house concert. Photograph: Harsal Jawale