Yap Zone: The Civic Joy Fund Story, Director's Cut

Last week's piece on the Civic Joy Fund, written by the indomitable Emma Silvers, generated a lot of conversation — both inside San Francisco's embattled art scene and out in the public sphere. As always with a story like this, there were hours of interviews, pages of notes, and some really sharp thinking that landed on the cutting-room floor for reasons of space and structure, not quality. Below, you'll find more of what two key sources shared with Emma.

Note from Emma Silvers:

One response I kept hearing, in a few different forms, was this: We shouldn't push back on the Civic Joy Fund's role in the scene, because if they don't fund events we won't have any.

And to me, that's worth questioning.

To be clear: I don't want them to stop funding events that people can go to and have a good time, and I don't want them to stop creating opportunities for artists. They are absolutely funding good things, and I hate that the politics surrounding the CJF has made artists have to make tough calls on so many of these smaller, community-driven events.

"We are allowed to say: hey, street parties are awesome — and also what if you paid taxes and artists could afford health care as a result?"

Art has always been supported by philanthropy. But when the billionaires in question are also major political power players — actively working to get candidates in office who do not have working artists' best interests in mind, and simultaneously doing everything in their power to avoid paying their fair share into the social safety net — we do not have to genuflect and be grateful for whatever these people will give us, in whatever form they want.

The whole arts funding apparatus is broken, clearly, and that's not something we can overhaul overnight. But in the short term, we are allowed to ask these very rich people: What if alongside the block parties, you contributed direct financial assistance that musicians could use to pay rent, or buy food? These are things they could do. They have so much money and stability and power. We are allowed to ask for more.