LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District

Proposition E is a local ballot measure that aims to restore funding for arts and culture in San Francisco through the Hotel Tax. It will allocate a portion of the projected revenue increase of the Hotel Tax to fund development of cultural equity programs for underserved communities, arts programming, and funding for Cultural Districts and Cultural Centers in San Francisco, benefiting ALL San Franciscans.

For information about Proposition E, and how you can get involved, please visit Arts For Everyone SF .  To volunteer to help contact voters about Prop E, click here.  Thanks!

UPDATE:

We are pleased to note that Proposition E was approved by the voters of San Francisco, 174,288 (74.23%) to 60,492 (25.77%), well above the 66⅔%+1 affirmative votes required.  We look forward to applying for and receiving funds under this new Hotel Tax allocation plan.  Thanks very much for your support!

 

Andrea Aiello, Executive Director of the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District, has updated us on the Harvey Milk Plaza project.  The plan has received great feedback and support, and generated lots of comment and discussion, as it was presented at its first SF Arts Commission hearing last week.

Anyone involved in the Leather & LGBTQ Cultural District — and anyone else — is invited to attend the 2nd Open House for The New Harvey Milk Plaza at the Castro Art Walk on Thursday, November 1, 2018 from 6 to 9 p.m., at 3989 17th Street (the old Wild Card building, next door to Orphan Andy’s).

You can view the renderings, and a special video animation of the new plaza design, showing off the significant community gathering spaces built into the design. The members of the planning group, Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza, will be available to answer any questions, and wine and cheese will be served.

Here’s a valuable tip for local artists:

Robynn Takayama, of the San Francisco Arts Commission, has let us know that the Commission is accepting applications from San Francisco residents who have lived in SF continuously for two years and have a project in visual art, literary art, or media art. These grants are for individual artists in literary arts, media arts, and visual arts. The application deadline is Nov. 8 at noon.

There will be a workshop to learn about applying one of these grants, courtesy of the SOMA Pilipinas cultural district.  Lian Ladia, the SFAC Ambassador in SOMA Pilipinas, is organizing a grant writing circle to support artists and arts organizations who are working on SFAC applications, both within SOMA Pilipinas and from the other Cultural Districts!

The “SFAC Grant Writing Circle” will review the SFAC application process and documentation, and will discuss helpful tips for your application-writing process.  The Circle will meet on Monday, October 22, 2018, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, at the BAYANIHAN Center, 1010 Mission.  Please RSVP to Lian at lian@plantingrice.com, as space is limited to 15 people.

Thank you SOMA Pilipinas for your leadership!

The resolution to create a Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District in the South of Market neighborhood passed its first reading by the Board of Supervisors unanimously, with some nice comments from Supervisors Kim and Ronen.  (Video here, 0:06:30 through 0:08:40).

There was extensive press coverage of this achievement, both locally and nationally:  Articles by Janie Har of the Associated Press (here and here) were both picked up widely, including by the Washington Post and the New York Times.

Reporting by Carolyn Tyler was shown on ABC 7 News on Tuesday evening and there was a follow-up story in the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday.  A story by Joshua Sabatini in the San Francisco Examiner is already receiving some thoughtful comments. There’s also a fun write-up in  Pink News (World Edition)., and another in London’s Gay Star News.  KTVU Fox News‘ Rob Roth did a report as well.  An article by Brock Keeling appeared in the “Curbed” Web site.   

After the resolution creating the District was was signed by the Mayor on May 9, 2018, there was additional coverage:  An article about Cultural Districts, including ours, appeared in the Chronicle on May 21, 2018, and can be viewed here.

Finally, a wonderful story on the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District was broadcast recently on KPIX 5, with great interviews and powerful comments.  Definitely worth viewing: find it here.