SAN DIEGO
San Diego officials are taking a comprehensive new look at how city arts funding is doled out with the goal of finding gaps in who gets the money, possible inequities and potentially troubling trends that need attention.
No one disputes that the city needs to heavily support its regional magnet venues, like downtown’s Civic Theatre and Balboa Park’s museums, because they serve everyone across San Diego. Balboa Park and downtown get nearly 70 percent of
$11.4 million the city annually contributes to arts and culture organizations.
But some say the stark differences in arts funding may indicate low-income neighborhoods are getting shortchanged, either because the city’s process of rewarding grants is biased or because leaders of arts groups in poor areas don’t understand or trust the process.
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Despite the challenges of social distancing, San Diego’s dance community is working to sustain its organizations while using film to inspire everyone from the grieving to the hopeful.
“Dancers and artists aren’t necessarily first responders,” explains Zaquia Mahler Salinas, artistic director of Disco Riot, the nonprofit that “exists to elevate a collaborative art culture.”
“But maybe they come in as second responders in terms of how different kinds of art can support people in finding lightness or ways of processing their experiences.”
Disco Riot is producing “A Year of DisDANCE,” a collection of six dance films by local choreographers that will be screened today at Cinema Under the Stars and Tuesday online.