A fund supported by Yerba Buena property owners is directing $193,000 to neighborhood museums, festivals and community groups this year, providing an unusual source of arts funding as cultural and arts organizations confront reductions and uncertainty in San Francisco’s grant allocations.
The Yerba Buena Partnership awarded its own grants in July to 18 organizations for murals, performances, exhibitions, workshops and family events. The nonprofit community benefit district, which uses assessments on properties to fund neighborhood services, says it is the only such district in San Francisco with a recurring competitive grant program for arts and community programming.
The awards come as seven San Francisco cultural centers got their city funding cut by 10 percent over the last fiscal year. Proposed Arts Commission rules on grant payments drew warnings that artists and smaller arts organizations could be forced to borrow money to complete city-funded work.
For some recipients, the Yerba Buena neighborhood money is helping fill funding gaps in the arts. Kultivate Labs, a SoMa nonprofit that supports Filipino arts, culture and economic development, had enough money to paint three murals in a Yerba Buena alley, but not enough to celebrate them with the community, according to Executive Director Desi Danganan. A grant of $10,000 from the Partnership will pay for a public unveiling of the murals later this year.
The grant comes as one of Kultivate Labs’ awards from the city’s Grants for the Arts program was cut in half.
“Times are tough right now,” Danganan said. “There’s just not enough resources to go around.”
Other Yerba Buena Partnership grant recipients this year include SFMOMA, the Museum of the African Diaspora, Litquake, the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, SCRAP and the Children’s Creativity Museum. The grants will support outdoor performances, literary events, art workshops and exhibitions featuring emerging artists.
Community benefit districts generally use additional property assessments on businesses and property owners for services such as sidewalk cleaning, safety ambassadors, beautification and neighborhood promotion. Yerba Buena dedicates about 5 percent of its resources for grants awarded directly to arts and cultural organizations in the neighborhood, more than $2.7 million since its founding in 2008.
That arrangement has been part of the district’s mandate since the beginning, according to Scott Rowitz, executive director of the Yerba Buena Partnership. Applications from nonprofits are reviewed by a panel representing residents, businesses, property owners and community organizations before the Board approves awards of up to $25,000 apiece.
Rowitz said the district decided it could have the greatest impact by supporting organizations already at work in the neighborhood. “We know we are a neighborhood based on so many amazing arts and cultural organizations,” Rowitz said.
One beneficiary of the grants is the Children’s Creativity Museum, which has received support nearly every year since at least 2019, said Katharine Greenbaum, its executive director. The latest grant will help the museum produce two free public events featuring music and storytelling.
Greenbaum said such programs bring families downtown, draw attention to the broad range of arts institutions in Yerba Buena, and help ensure that smaller organizations are not overlooked.
“We sometimes are a hidden gem here in San Francisco,” she said.
