Culture Report: Jonathon Glus on Rents, City Budget Cuts and That Funding Formula

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Mayor Kevin Faulconer last month appointed a new director for the city’s Commission on Arts and Culture, a position vacant since January when former director Dana Springs stepped down. Jonathon Glus reported for work beginning in early November, after spending just under two years in a similar role in Sacramento, and before that, nine years in Houston.

Voice of San Diego recently spoke with Glus about the role of the commission, and the challenges and criticisms both the commission and the arts are facing. Glus said he considers his immediate role to be one of listening, and of gathering information from city officials (including the mayor), commissioners, artists and arts professionals.

“The Arts and Culture Commission, I think, is poised to do more cross-commission work, and by that I mean the work of commissions such as planning – the Planning Commission – and the arts and culture commission really do intersect, and so I hope to work with the commission to bring their knowledge and skillset to the work of the other commissions,” Glus said.

He specifically mentioned housing as a significant issue facing the arts and culture community in San Diego, and is proposing collaboration with other commissions in the city to tackle the problem.

“We need to make sure that artists can afford to live here, that creative businesses can afford commercial properties, that our arts and culture organizations can attract and retain talent,” Glus insisted, “and that all of these parts of the arts and culture ecosystem can afford to thrive here.”

Another key issue Glus will have to face is the commission’s archaic funding distribution system, which has recently faced scrutiny. The algorithm, adopted from the California Arts Council in the early ‘90s, favors the organizations with the largest budgets and reaches, awards significant funding to many of the same organizations repeatedly, and, according to critics, doesn’t account for the fledgling organizations, venues or collectives that currently produce important cultural work with miniscule budgets or without nonprofit status.

Glus cited “a little bit of a learning curve and ignorance” in regard to the process by which the commission distributes funds.

“With that said, I do understand that over the last year, year and half, the commission has gone through public review process of the procedures for the contracting process, and the algorithm. The office over the last year has put in place some refinements to the whole process to make it easier for the contractors,” he said.

In terms of restructuring the grants distribution process, Glus again stressed the importance of listening, and in particular, spending the time to perform a full review process.

“I’m absolutely on a listening tour right now. I’m meeting with as many people as I can in the community, certainly spending time with commissioners, contractors, our partners in the community across the city, just to learn history of the contracting process, the history of the way that the city has been able to invest in the community over the years. And, you know, that’ll take a few months,” Glus said. “What I’m very pleased about is that during that time, because the commission has gone through the year of refining the program, we seem to be in good shape.”

Recently proposed 3 percent budget cuts from the mayor’s office have all city departments scrambling to find ways to cut their budgets.

“The mayor has asked all departments to submit what the budget would look like if we would cut 3 percent. That’s an exercise that the entire city is going through, so it’s not specific to arts and culture. It’s specific to every department,” Glus said. “The mayor is very committed to keeping the grants program whole, so he is not asking us to look at 3 percent cuts to the grants program. So that’s very good news.”

Regarding the challenges the commission – and artists – face in the coming year, Glus is optimistic.

“I want to see us in a place where we are working in tandem with our individual creatives and artists in a much deeper, thoughtful way. That takes resources and it won’t happen overnight, but I’m convinced it’s going to, and this is the kind of work that I love,” he said. “You have to make sure that arts education is available, you need to make sure that artists and creatives have access to vendors and other resources, that there is media–like yours–that covers art and culture, and that there is an audience for the arts that is enthusiastic and interested.”

After five weeks in his role, Glus reflected on how the early stages of establishing his work as the director. “I knew that the first things that I needed to do were to be brought up to speed very quickly on the grants program.” And, he added, “of course, what is the cultural agenda of the mayor?”

• Read our full discussion with the city of San Diego’s new director of the Commission on Arts and Culture.
• Also last month, the city published its civic art collection portal. Virtually tour the city’s vast collection of civic art (over 1,000 individual pieces!), or study an interactive map.

The Fall of Rome, Comic Workshops, Petitions and More News for the Culture Crowd

• On Wednesday, KPBS and Little Fish Comic Studio host an all-ages introductory comic workshop at Amplified Ale Works, inspired by the One Book One San Diego selection, “MARCH: Book One.”
• Accordions are cool, right? The Museum of Making Music’s new accordion exhibition opens this weekend, with special programming, including Thursday’s accordion concert.
• Music, drinks and zookeeper mingling at the Zoo on Thursday’s Wild Night Out (21+). (Vanguard Culture)
• Golden Globe nominated “ROMA,” a new film by Alfonso Cuarón, opens this Friday at Digital Gym. The film is showing through Dec. 20.

• The Brown Building, a new-ish LGBTQ space and collective in City Heights, hosts an art show, donation drive and yard sale to benefit the Central American caravan, this Friday. (Reader)
• On Saturday, the Bazaar del Mundo shops in Old Town set the stage for a showcase of Laurel Burch-inspired textiles, curated by the San Diego Creative Stitchery Guild, which to be honest, is a cool name for a guild. (OSide News)
• On Friday and Saturday, Fallen Tree Exhibitions presents Hotels/Motels Unofficial Art Fair at the Lafayette Hotel, featuring art, dynamic theatrical performances and music, including Black Heart Procession’s Pall Jenkins.
• Burn All Books – a small press affiliated with Verbatim Books – hosts a risograph art show at Teros Gallery on Sunday, alongside Tijuana Zine Fest and San Diego Underground Film Festival. The risograph (or “riso” for those in the biz) is a large-scale affordable printing machine, which prints one color at a time and is popular for high-output posters and zine printing. The show, previously on exhibition in Tijuana, will coincide with Teros’ winter bazaar.
• You Belong Here is also hosting a holiday pop-up benefit and craft fair on Sunday, featuring local artists and artisans, and benefiting Bridge of Hope.
• And with that, the words “holiday pop-ups and maker fairs” have been written so many times now that they’ve taken on that dream-like meaninglessness of a foreign tongue. But don’t let that stop you! Shop local and shop weird!
• A new book penned by UCSD history professor Edward J. Watts explores the fall of Rome. “Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny,” is chock full of timely warnings, like “violent language, including threats, will lead to physical violence.” Great. (UCSD News)

• A petition circled last week among theater, arts and music academics and professionals in San Diego, requesting San Diego Theaters to reconsider hosting notorious professor and author Jordan Peterson (“The masculine spirit is under assault,” he told the New York Times) at the Balboa Theater in January. Several theater workers affiliated with the Balboa Theater reached out to UCSD faculty citing their frustration in having to staff a show that fundamentally invalidates trans and queer lives. The petition, which calls for a restructuring of the event as not a lecture but instead a public debate, was sent to San Diego Theaters on Monday. Similar petitions have previously seen spotty results, including one in San Antonio and one calling for Peterson’s outright ousting from his academic posting at the University of Toronto.
• In my young(er) years, I religiously watched “Malcolm in the Middle,” which means Jane Kaczmarek is basically my mom. I’m excited to know mom will be gracing the La Jolla Playhouse stage for the remainder of the month in “The Year to Come,” a new play by Lindsey Ferrentino. (Theater Mania)

Food, Booze, Beer and Cannabis News

• El Dorado, an East Village bar, is celebrating 10 years. CityBeat’s nightlife column features its history, including how it almost shut down, and dishes on the upcoming anniversary celebrations, starting Friday night.
• There’s a cookie spot open until 3 a.m. in Pacific Beach and of course it’s called Insomnia Cookies. Vegan and gluten-free options are available and if you’re near PB, yes, they deliver. (Eater)

• “The first season of legal cannabis gift giving is here and, boy, is it a doozy,” according to CityBeat’s cannabis gift guide. (CityBeat’s full gift guide is also out now, and is always a treat).
• You probably saw the Red Fox Room petition on Facebook, but do not despair, the owners have apparently secured a new lot across the street and plan to reopen. (Pacific)
• Beth Demmon wrote a bunch of beer-themed Christmas Carols and they’re so bonkers –and frankly a little transcendent. “Drinking beer, drinking beer / Drinking all damn day / Oh, what fun it is to slosh / Until puke starts to spray.” (CityBeat)