History in Collaboration: Equalizing the Arts and the Humanities in San Francisco

<p>Historically, there has been a critical imbalance in the way history and preservation organizations are civically supported in comparison with the amount of funding that is available to arts organizations in the United States. To correct this imbalance in San Francisco, I propose the creation of a San Francisco Department of Culture that would place the San Francisco Arts Commission equally alongside a San Francisco History Commission within a department that absorbs responsibilities currently managed by other divisions with in city government, such as the Planning Department and the Office and Economic and Workforce Development. City government necessarily takes time to reorganize, so the first step will be to advocate for and demonstrate the need for a Department of Culture; this can be achieved by continuing to strengthen and expand San Francisco History Days, and by grooming key members of the event’s organizing committee to become stakeholders in a nascent San Francisco History Commission. This, however, will only address part of the problem; we must also address the problematic federal and perceptual division of the Arts from the Humanities, and the inaccurate perception that History is boring and irrelevant to contemporary life. To do this, we must present History didactically—in conversation with its surroundings, through collaboration with other types of cultural organizations.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts in Museum Studies

Level thesis:degree_level

Project/Capstone - Global access

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Museum Studies

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Meldahl, Nicole C.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stephanie Brown
• Marjorie Schwarzer
• Paula Birnbaum

• museum studies
• city government
• nonprofit
• public-private partnerships
• humanities
• San Francisco history
• American Art and Architecture
• Arts Management
• Comparative Philosophy
• Cultural History
• History of Philosophy
• Intellectual History
• Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
• Policy History, Theory, and Methods
• Political History
• Public Affairs
• Public History
• Real Estate
• Strategic Management Policy
• United States History
• Urban Studies

Repository record dc:identifier

https://repository.usfca.edu/capstone/470

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.usfca.edu:capstone-1494