Presentation: Art, Activism & Equity

Come take a deep dive into the how San Francisco’s BIPOC, Queer artists, activists and their allies, changed the narrative from exclusion to empowerment, transforming our city and the Country. This local arts history tells the untold stories of how some underdog outsider visionaries transformed the climate for arts funding during the 1960s through to the 1990s. Hosted by grant writing legend, Jeff Jones, with artist archivists, Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, there will be a slide show, discussion and a panel of artists whose archives are part of this important, fun and fascinating evolution. 

Fighting for Cultural Equity in the arts has been a long-term strategy for creating a multiracial,  democratic, sex-positive and gender-inclusive nation. Hear about the people that were rocking the racist and classist, homophobic funding boats, of how the San Francisco Arts Commission was pressured into creating the Cultural Equity Grants, there were the protests, how radical artists managed to wrangle more funding for their dance and theater pieces, art installations, performance art, and parades. How venues such as Theater Rhino, African American Art and  Cultural Center and SoMarts were created and funded. 

Jones, Stephens and Sprinkle have interviewed twenty elders. Some of these powerful, passionate, well-respected elders who shaped today’s social justice narratives in the arts will be on the panel and at the event. Questions to be asked are where are we now, where do we go from here, what needs to be done next, are identity politics still needed?  

This project was supported by a San Francisco Arts Commission Cultural Equity Grant and organizational and copy editing help from Sam MacGinnes.

Connect:

Beth Stephens - Twitter | Beth Stephens - Instagram 

Annie Sprinkle - Twitter | Annie Sprinkle - Instagram