A longtime arts leader is Oakland’s new cultural affairs manager

A longtime arts chief will be part of the town of Oakland in March as its new cultural affairs supervisor.

Lyz Lucasa cultural advocate with twenty years of expertise within the discipline, who most lately served as director of Living jazzan Oakland-based arts and schooling group was chosen from a pool of greater than 200 candidates. Luke will begin in her new function on March 2.

Luke is a member of the board of administrators of California for the artsa statewide arts advocacy group and secretary of its board of administrators California art lawyersthe lobbying arm of the group. And she or he served for six years as governor of the San Francisco Chapter Board of the Recording Academy, the group that presents the GRAMMYs. In her function as cultural steward at Dwelling Jazz, she has developed financing methods to supply under-resourced communities with entry to the humanities.

“She is aware of that defending Oakland’s artists means truthful insurance policies, long-term investments and treating them just like the important staff they’re,” Mayor Barbara Lee mentioned in a speech. press release saying Luke’s appointment. “Oakland has all the time been a metropolis the place tradition drives change, and I am thrilled to have Lyz main that work.”

Luke was additionally a voice opposing cuts to the humanities in Oakland.

The place of cultural affairs supervisor was eradicated this summer time as a part of a spherical of layoffs geared toward balancing the town’s finances. Arts advocates joined Councilor Carroll Fife in sounding the alarm in regards to the vital function the supervisor performs in serving to arts organizations, and the council reinstated this place final December.

Luke’s core function can be to lift exterior funding from county, state, federal and philanthropic sources to be awarded on to artists. Exterior cash is essential, Oakland artists say, as a result of the town spends lower than 1% of its general finances on cultural affairs and public artwork packages. Luke may also assist run the town Cultural Affairs Committeea volunteer board that advises the town on coverage points affecting artists, arts organizations and tradition.

The committee oversees the town’s implementation of its cultural improvement plan, ‘Belonging in Oakland’, a roadmap to make sure that “each Oaklander in each neighborhood has entry to cultural facilities.”

The Cultural Affairs Fee was closed in 2011 in the course of the Nice Recession on account of funding shortages, however was not revived till February 2020, simply earlier than the pandemic.

Luke may also lead the town’s Public Artwork Advisory Committee and Funding Advisory Committee.

“Oakland’s cultural energy comes from each our impartial artists and our long-standing arts establishments,” Luke mentioned within the press launch. “My objective is to construct methods that acknowledge our artists and humanities organizations as central to Oakland’s social, financial and political future.”

Luke can be solely the second particular person to carry this place. In 2016, as the town’s finances recovered, Roberto Bedoya was hired as Oakland’s first cultural affairs managerand in that capability he helped revive the Cultural Affairs Fee, create the town’s first cultural plan in 30 years, and launch Oakland’s first Poet Laureate Program. He additionally introduced in about $1 million yearly for artists by way of basis partnerships. Bedoya retired in October 2024 and the place was stuffed on an interim foundation by employees from the town’s Cultural Affairs Division, with help from the Division of Financial and Labor Growth.

“Lyz Luke is a confirmed and dedicated native arts chief who emerged after strong nationwide recruitment,” Ashleigh Kanat, director of Financial and Workforce Growth, mentioned within the launch. “I’m thrilled that she is becoming a member of our crew to additional the very important work of supporting Oakland’s inventive and artistic communities.”