Mapping Our Progress Towards DEAI:

February 2, 2023
News
by Christine Madrid French

San Francisco Heritage is committed to boosting diversity, equity, access, and inclusion (DEAI) across all of our work. We are tailoring activities and programs to meet this responsibility, and developing a framework to measure success and accountability.

For a look at ongoing activities, visit SFheritage.org/equity. SF Heritage is uniquely positioned to help San Francisco’s diverse communities safeguard their heritages and support architectural and cultural-preservation initiatives that help tell their full stories. SF Heritage is grateful to the partners who have helped re-center work around equity and acknowledges the focus and diligence required to achieve meaningful change.

This equity report card helps monitor our progress. Below are some highlights of actions taken in the recent past:

Supported the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District and the Castro Theatre Conservancy in raising awareness of the importance of prioritizing LGBTQ and film programming at the Castro Theatre and increasing capacities of local communities to provide public comments to the Historic Preservation Commission.
Supported placemaking and placekeeping in Bayview-Hunter’s Point by featuring the Bayview neighborhood as the focus of our Heritage in the Neighborhoods program for 2023, and partnered with the San Francisco African American Arts & Culture District to support the survey of historical and cultural resources and ensure broad community consultations in the finalization of their Historic Context Statement and Cultural History, Housing, and Economic Sustainability Strategies (CHHESS) Report, which serves as a roadmap of priorities and strategies for stabilizing the cultural community.
Supported the pursuit of landmarking for Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples at 2041 Larkin Street in Russian Hill, one of the first interracial, intercultural, and interdenominational churches in the U.S. The building also represents African American social, cultural, and intellectual life and the struggle for integration and civil rights.
Mobilized youth and new demographics interested in the mission of SF Heritage by partnering with the Office of Small Business Legacy Business program to organize no-host Heritage Happy Hours on the second Thursday of each month from 5pm to 7pm at a different legacy bar or cafe in San Francisco.
Collaborated with the American Indian Cultural District, the Japantown Cultural District, the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District, and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development to raise awareness of the 10 cultural districts in San Francisco by organizing a panel discussion and site visits on April 19th as part of the California Preservation Foundation annual preservation conference at Fort Mason Center.
Joined forces with CPF and LA Conservancy to support a new bill to create a legacy-business program for the State of California, which would recognize historic small businesses operating for over 50 years, promote and protect cultural diversity, and safeguard these pillars for placekeeping in California.
Featured the joint exhibition “March Vernal Equinox” at our Haight-Ashbury Gallery in March, which was produced by our Artists-in-Residence Calixto Robles and Ali Blum, whose paintings and prints are inspired by Meso-America and First National people’s culture as well as sacred imagery of ancient Eastern and Western cultures.
Focused on women muralists in San Francisco during our SF Conversations free webinar for Women’s History Month. Our featured guest speaker, Lucia Gonzalez Ippolito, is a Mexican-American muralist, painter, screen printer, and teacher who grew up in San Francisco’s Mission District and is now known internationally for her works focused on cultural and political themes as well as issues of wealth and displacement.

Supported the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District and the Castro Theatre Conservancy in raising awareness of the importance of prioritizing LGBTQ (and film) programming at the Castro Theatre and increasing capacities of local communities to provide public comments to the Historic Preservation Commission during their review of the historic landmark amendment for the Castro Theatre on February 1, 2023.
Supporting place-making and place-keeping in the Bayview Hunter’s Point by featuring the Bayview neighborhood as the focus of our Heritage in the Neighborhoods program for 2023, and partnering with the San Francisco African American Arts & Culture District (AAACD), whose mission is to advance, cultivate, enrich and advocate for African-American equity, cultural stability, vibrancy, and economic vitality in San Francisco. As part of this program, we are supporting the AAACD with their efforts to survey historical and cultural resources in the Bayview—including potential historic landmark buildings and legacy businesses—as well as their efforts to ensure broad community consultations in the finalization of their Historic Context Statement and Cultural History, Housing and Economic Sustainability Strategies (CHHESS) Report, which serves as a roadmap of priorities and strategies for stabilizing the cultural community.
Further raised awareness of the African American Arts & Culture District (AAACD) and our Heritage in the Neighborhoods: Bayview program for 2023 through a free, public webinar featuring Ericka Scott, Program Director of the AAACD, and Dale Cruse, a photographer who lives in the Bayview and documents the historic buildings, sites, and murals in the area. Access to this “SF Heritage Conversation” series was increased by making a recording of the webinar available to watch on our YouTube and Facebook channels.
Supported the African American Arts & Culture District in raising awareness of African-American artists from the Bayview and Fillmore neighborhoods in San Francisco through an exhibition of artworks curated by Honey Art Studio at our Gallery 1506 at Haight & Ashbury during Black History Month in February 2023.
Launched a three-part series of articles on historical and cultural resources in the Bayview Hunter’s Point as a feature article in our SF Heritage News spring edition.
Supported the third anniversary of the American Indian Cultural District (AICD) by participating in their town hall on March 24^th where we raised awareness of our close partnership with AICD on the Indigenize SF project, which includes a QR Scan Code project to allow visitors to use their phone to learn more about significant cultural sites in the cultural district, and prompt those on the virtual tour to shop and eat locally to increase tourism and awareness of American Indian traditions and culture, as well as the development of a Ramaytush Ohlone Waterfront Trail from the Exploratorium to Crissy Field to share the history of the Ramaytush Ohlone and elevate the story of urban American Indians in San Francisco, as well as other efforts to promote and document American Indian cultural sites and programs in the city.
Raised awareness and support for legacy bars and mobilized youth and new demographics interested in the mission of SF Heritage by joining forces with the Office of Small Business Legacy Business program to organize ‘no host’ Heritage Happy Hours on the second Thursday of each month from 5pm-7pm at a different legacy bar or cafe in San Francisco.
Collaborated with the American Indian Cultural District, the Japantown Cultural District, the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development to raise awareness of the 10 cultural districts in San Francisco by organizing a panel discussion and site visits on April 19^th as part of the California Preservation Foundation (CPF)’s annual conference at Fort Mason Center.
Joined forces with CPF and LA Conservancy to support a new bill to create a legacy business program for the State of California, which would recognize historic small businesses operating for over 50 years, promote and protect cultural diversity, and safeguard these pillars for placekeeping in California.
Featured the joint exhibition “March Vernal Equinox” at our Haight-Ashbury Gallery in March, which was produced by our Artists-in-Residence Calixto Robles and Ali Blum, whose paintings and prints are inspired by Meso-America and First National people’s culture as well as sacred imagery of ancient Eastern and Western cultures.
Focused on women muralists in San Francisco during our Women’s History Month free webinar on March 22. Our featured guest speaker, Lucia Gonzalez Ippolito, is Mexican-American muralist, painter, screen printer, and teacher who grew up in the San Francisco Mission District and is now known internationally for her works focused on cultural and political themes as well as issues of wealth and displacement.
Signed an agreement with Eye Zen Presents to showcase the queer history of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood during a series of performances at our Haight-Ashbury Gallery in summer 2023.
Ensured equitable hiring practices in the recruitment of a Communications & Program Manager by including salary transparency in the job description and advertising on a wide range of online platforms in order to diversify our candidate pipeline and strengthen the inclusiveness of our workplace.
The Heritage in the Neighborhoods-Bayview program launched on Feb. 23 at Gallery 1506, paired with a commemoration of Black History Month. The African American Arts & Culture District was represented by executive director Ericka Scott, who filled the gallery with artworks from Honey Art Studio and allied artists. (Feb. 2023)
Our free, SF Conversations for February focused on “Celebrating Black History Month & Heritage in the Neighborhoods: Bayview.” This free, public webinar featured Ericka Scott (Executive Director of the African American Arts & Cultural District), and Dale Cruse, a photographer who lives in Bayview and documents the historic buildings, sites, and murals in the area. A recording of the free public webinar is available to watch on our YouTube.
Castro Theatre in the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District. Karalyn Monteil (CEO & President), Christine Madrid French (Director of Advocacy), and Karen Kai (SF Heritage Board Member and resident of the Castro), provided comment and support at the Historic Preservation Commission review of the Landmark Amendment on Feb. 1. The HPC Committee recommended the amendment, recognizing that the Castro Theatre was significant “for its association with Eureka Valley commercial development, the film entertainment industry, and San Francisco LGBTQ history; as well as for its architectural merit.” Public comment for the meeting ran for more than 6 hours, with over 100 people expressing their opinions on the matter. (Feb. 2023)
SF Heritage was a media sponsor for the “Lunar New Year Celebration,” held on Jan. 29 in cooperation with the Sunset Chinese Cultural District and Sunset Mercantile. (Jan. 2023)
Castro Theatre Town Hall event. Christine Madrid French, SF Heritage Director of Advocacy, participated in a community town hall on with advocates from the Castro Theatre Coalition, including historian Gerard Koskovich and Stephen Torres (Executive Co-Chair of the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District). More than 100 members of the public attended the event in the Castro on Jan. 26. (Jan. 2023)
We held an intergenerational panel of American Indian leaders, in conjunction with the American Indian Cultural District, in celebration of American Indian Heritage Month in November. The panel discussed establishing a cultural center on Alcatraz, and building alliances within the Ramaytush Ohlone community. Panelists included Dr. LaNada War Jack, a Shoshone Bannock elder, author, and activist, Gregg Castro from the Association of Ramaytush Ohlone, and Paloma Flores, the Director of Community Development & Partnerships at the AICD. Sharaya Souza, SF Heritage Board member and Executive Director of the AICD, moderated the evening conversation. (November 2022)
SF Heritage testified in support of St. James Presbyterian Church (240 Leland Avenue) as a city landmark, which is meaningful its representation of Visitacion Valley’s long-established Filipino community. Landmarking St. James was the first preservation project of Heritage in the Neighborhoods: Visitacion Valley, and became the neighborhood’s first city landmark. (Fall 2022)
We supported the community celebration for Juana Alicia’s 1985 mural Para Las Rosas/For the Roses, located on the facade of the San Francisco Mime Troupe Building (855 Treat Avenue in the Calle 24 Latino Cultural District). (Fall 2022)
Recruitment of three highly qualified candidates with Argentinian, Mexican/Indigenous, and Japanese/African American heritage have helped make SF Heritage staff more representative of the diversity of San Francisco (Fall 2022)
SF Heritage Artist-in-Residence was award-winning African American poet and activist Tongo Eisen Martin, author of “Heaven is all Goodbyes,” and “Blood on the Fog.” (Sept./Oct. 2022)
We have made a concerted effort to increase the visibility of our land acknowledgement: it features prominently on our new website, and was added onto the masthead of our newsletter starting in July 2022. All staff reference it in our email signature lines, and we have included it as a regular part of our introductions at online and in-person meetings. With the guidance of our newest board member, Sharaya Souza, Executive Director of the American Indian Cultural District, we are looking at more ways to make our land acknowledgement more relevant, and are reviewing the wording to strengthen its impact.
We continued to advocate for the landmarking of Lincoln Park as a city landmark, which is meaningful in its representation of the immigrant communities who helped build the city of San Francisco.
We recognize the need for more consistency in our reference to preferred pronouns. All staff have added them to our email signatures and online profiles; however, we do not always include them on our website and in social media posts or newsletter articles. We are more likely to include them for “non-traditional” pronouns but do not regularly refer to them for cisgender pronouns. We are therefore making an effort to pay more attention to this in future communications, including job postings, in order to demonstrate our commitment to a more inclusive environment for all.
SFH staff continue to look for ways to increase our knowledge and capacities to put our DEAI commitment into action. Two of our staff, Moira Dowell and Ashley Wright, attended the 2022 Corporate Philanthropy Awards Summit on July 28, which emphasized that in forming partnerships and allocating grant funds, funders will be looking not just at mission and service delivery for evidence of inclusion and equity commitments, but also at representation within nonprofit boards and staff (to reflect and engage the communities served). Lessons learned from this experience will inform our collective efforts going forward.
Our efforts to develop an internship program for SF Heritage have included contacting a broad-range of academic institutions, including community colleges and the New Door Ventures, in order to reach diverse candidates. We also obtained funding from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to cover transportation and meals for our interns. We realize the importance of offering paid internships as part of our DEAI commitment; therefore, we are focusing on university partnerships for academic internships so that the students receive academic credit for their internships, and will partner with New Door Ventures which provides paid internships for high school interns. Moreover, we will develop a proposal for our internship program to attract corporate sponsorship, which would empower us to offer paid internships in the future.
We continue to engage artists of diverse backgrounds for our activities at the Doolan-Larson Building, including partnering with Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts on Hispanic Heritage Month at 1506 Haight Street and recruiting SF Poet Laureate Tongo-Eisen Martin and Dr. LaNada Warjack as our September-November artists-in-residence. Our partnerships with San Francisco’s cultural districts also help us make progress toward our commitment.
Recognizing the opportunity to demonstrate our DEAI commitment through our recruitment activity, we have done our best to ensure job postings are included on a broad range of employment platforms and offering easy access. We have included inclusive language is used in job descriptions, and made an effort to provide salary transparency in line with best practices.
Our House & Rentals Manager, Heather Kraft, added one BIPOC woman-owned caterer to the preferred vendors list. She also made contact with two female-owned bartending services, Manhattan Zodiac (LGBTQ owned and operated) and Bartending Babes.