San Diego County supervisors announced a sweeping new arts and culture proposal on Wednesday, pledging up to $2.75 million in the first year to support artists and cultural organizations across the county’s 3.3 million residents. The plan, unveiled by Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer and Vice Chair Monica Montgomery Steppe at the County Administration Center, represents the first time the county has stepped forward with a dedicated public investment in the arts. Children from the Mainly Mozart Youth Orchestra played violin pieces and break dancers performed gymnastic moves to mark the occasion.
“We believe this will be transformative,” Lawson-Remer said. “It is the first time the county is stepping forward to provide public investment in arts and culture for the entire county.”
The proposal, which the five-member board is scheduled to vote on May 5, would allocate $1 million in grants for individual artists living in areas with limited cultural resources, and $500,000 each to improve access to creative spaces and to support the existing Black Arts and Culture District in the Encanto neighborhood. An additional $250,000 would go toward binational arts and cultural collaboration in the San Diego-Baja region, and another $250,000 would fund an artist-in-residence program that places local artists inside county departments to help devise creative solutions to public challenges.
“This means that communities where San Diegans have been underserved in, marginalized in the arts for too long, will have support and resources,” Lawson-Remer said, speaking at a podium adorned with a plush Mozart figure presented by the youth orchestra. “We’re expanding opportunities for artists, increasing public access and cultural experiences and strengthening connections across our entire diverse, incredible region.”
The county program has been in development for a year, the supervisors said, but its rollout arrives at a moment when other government funders are retreating. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria is proposing to eliminate an $11.8 million art grant program as part of a plan to close a $146 million city budget deficit. Those cuts would slash city arts funding by 85% and also reduce spending on libraries and recreation centers.
Montgomery Steppe said the county initiative was not a direct response to the city’s budget decisions, but acknowledged the broader climate. “We’ve all witnessed the resilience of our artists and cultural workers over the past years, as their livelihood has been challenged through pandemic shutdowns and shifting public priorities,” she said. “But today, we are also facing a new challenge of society stepping back from its long-standing commitment to the arts.”
At the federal level, the Trump administration last year revoked money that the National Endowment for the Arts had previously awarded to local nonprofits. Jared Osoria, a principal dancer with the San Diego Ballet, said his organization lost $10,000 that the NEA appropriated and then clawed back. The county funding, he said, could help the ballet buy new audio-visual equipment for rehearsal studios, cover supplies, and offer free classes to students in San Ysidro and City Heights.
“This puts shoes on our dancers’ feet,” Osoria said. “It gives us a better budget for props for our main stage productions. It ensures that our Nutcracker continues year after year.”
Alex Villafuerte, executive director of the Pacific Arts Movement, which produces the San Diego Asian Film Festival, said the NEA awarded his organization $25,000 last year but then rescinded the money without explanation. “Last year was the first year that it had been rescinded with no explanation and no chance for us to take a rebuttal or have them reconsider, and we assume it’s largely because of the executive orders around diversity,” he said. The festival then lost an additional $50,000 from sponsors who told organizers they feared the donations would violate federal restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. As a result, the organization brought in fewer filmmakers for its main festival and scaled back its spring showcase from seven days to three, Villafuerte said.
Ramel Wallace, founder and CEO of the Holyfield, an organization supporting storytelling, music and education, called the county’s contribution a good start but said artist communities must become more self-sufficient through grassroots financial structures such as rotating savings and credit associations.
“Right now, people are going to have to create solidarity economics, microeconomics in our individual communities, because we can’t always look to the powers that be,” Wallace said.
Arts advocates pushed back against the idea that arts funding is a luxury. “The arts are not a luxury; they are a public good,” said Gaidi Finnie, executive director of the San Diego African-American Museum of Fine Art. “They’re jobs, they’re small businesses, they’re education, they’re mental health.”