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Since its inception in 1961, Grants for the
Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund (GFTA) has distributed over $160
million to hundreds of nonprofit cultural organizations in San Francisco.
In 2007/08 over $11M has been allocated to 225 groups and activities.
This economic investment in diverse arts and promotional organizations
enhances our City's attractiveness to visitors and provides employment
and enrichment to the City's residents. Grants for the Arts/San
Francisco Hotel Tax Fund revenue derives from a portion of the 14%
room tax levied on local hotel and motel bills.
Established through a combination of City
and State legislation, and approved by the City's Board of Supervisors,
GFTA has evolved into a national model of arts funding. It has a
policy of supporting an arts organization's general operating expenses,
and does not limit the number of years a group can continue to receive
grants. The foremost goal is to be a stable, dependable base of
support for organizations that continue to meet the funding criteria.
The Fund is committed to supporting the broadest spectrum of the
San Francisco arts community, including for example, the nation's
first international film festival, the oldest continuously performing
ballet company in the country, one of the premier African American
theatre groups on the West Coast, an internationally acclaimed symphony,
a gay and lesbian theatre with a national presence, the leading
Bay Area presenters of contemporary performance, and an array of
festivals celebrating the heritages of our many cultures, all adding
to the City's color and excitement.
The goal of the Fund is to contribute meaningfully
to the presentation and enhancement of existing art forms while
assuring the ability of others to experiment, to dare, and to find
new as yet untested ways of adding to our cultural panorama. We
look forward to a future full of challenges - and thus, by definition,
full of opportunities.
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