San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie\u2019s office today said he wants the site of the shuttered and fiscally troubled Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts to remain a cultural space, but offered few details about the path forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For 50 years, the non-profit MCCLA at 25th and Mission has run arts programming from the four-story building it leased from the city for a dollar a year. The Arts Commission has also given them funding, with the expectation that they will raise more funds from donors, classes and events.<\/p>\n
This month, however, the Mission Cultural Center ran out of money and on Jan. 26 it closed indefinitely<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe mayor is committed to the future of the site and is working in close partnership with community leaders, artists, and cultural stakeholders to chart a path forward that safeguard MCCLA\u2019s cultural legacy, art, and archives,\u201d a statement from the mayor\u2019s office said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The city, the mayor\u2019s office added, \u201cis working in close partnership with community leaders, artists, and cultural stakeholders to chart a path forward that safeguard MCCLA\u2019s cultural legacy, art, and archives.\u201d<\/p>\n The city\u2019s commitment comes after a Wednesday meeting at City Hall where no decisions were made, according to several sources who asked that their names not be used. Instead, options were discussed, including having the mayor appoint someone other than the Arts Commission to serve as interim overseer.<\/p>\n Among others, the meeting included An\u00ed Rivera from the Galer\u00eda De La Raza, Robert Sanchez, from the cultural center\u2019s board, Jennifer Ferrigno, from District 9 Jackie Fielder\u2019s office, and Mois\u00e9s Garc\u00eda, community liaison from the mayor\u2019s staff. The mayor did not attend, according to a source. <\/p>\n Susana Rojas, the executive director of Calle 24, said a community meeting will be held at the cultural center on Monday at 5:30 p.m. to discuss its future. Press are not invited. \u201cThe cultural center is a community asset and the community will decide what to do,\u201d Rojas said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n At present, the Arts Commission oversees and funds all of the city\u2019s cultural centers. But since early January, 2025<\/a>, when the former director Martina Ayala laid off all but two employees and shut down classes, that relationship has frayed.<\/p>\n After those layoffs,, the center reopened on Jan. 21. Classes, workshops and art shows resumed for the year. But after closing for winter recess on Dec. 13, it failed to reopen on Jan. 13 as planned.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ayala stepped down on Dec. 15, and for three weeks, Derek Jentzsch, the founder of Broderick Haight Consulting, a nonprofit consulting firm, served as interim director. He quit earlier this week after it became clear he would not be paid.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a Jan. 14 email, 12 days before shuttering the center, MCCLA board president Bob Sanchez and Derek Jentzsch, then interim executive director, asked the city to advance MCCLA $300,000 in grants so that it could remain open.\u00a0<\/p>\n