{"id":413722,"date":"2026-07-27T11:33:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/413722\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T11:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:33:09","slug":"meet-matthew-goudeau-s-f-s-new-leader-of-arts-and-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/413722\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Matthew Goudeau, S.F.’s new leader of arts and culture"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew Goudeau, San Francisco\u2019s first-ever leader<\/a> of a newly consolidated arts and culture agency<\/a>, is a creature of City Hall. Beginning as an intern under Mayor Willie Brown in 1999, Goudeau has spent more than two decades working for S.F. mayors. He\u2019s also had career interludes in arts fundraising, at the Chinati Foundation<\/a> in Marfa, Texas and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Mission Local, Goudeau traced his leadership approach to Brown, who insisted on hearing directly from residents<\/a>, he said. That taught Goudeau that repeated public criticism should prompt officials to look for solutions.<\/p>\n

Goudeau discussed his goals for the new agency, his plans to rebuild trust with artists and arts organizations \u2014 and changes to proposed grant-payment rules that have raised concerns <\/a>about whether local artists can afford to make public art.<\/p>\n

This interview took place on Wednesday, July 22, at Goudeau\u2019s office in the War Memorial Veterans\u2019 Building. It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

Mission Local: You\u2019ve been in the role since June 1. How does it feel?<\/p>\n

Matthew Goudeau: It feels great. There\u2019s a lot of work to do. Several months of discussing the merger and different ideas related to it put decisions about existing policies and new initiatives on hold. Now the energy is: How can we do everything at once? That\u2019s inspiring, but it\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n

ML: What are your priorities for the first six months?<\/p>\n

MG: I look at the first six months, or perhaps the whole fiscal year, as having three priorities.<\/p>\n

The first is restoring trust. There was a lot of uncertainty among staff about what the merger would look like. The organizations we serve also had questions, and over the last several years, a lot of people have felt unheard. I need to spend time repairing those relationships and showing my leadership style, which operates from extreme transparency.<\/p>\n

Second, we need to repair and rebuild systems, including our grant-payment policies and the rules surrounding them.<\/p>\n

Third, we need to establish a process for completing a strategic plan for the agency, a creative-economy plan and a citywide arts plan. We\u2019ll have a deep public-engagement process, so that may take longer than six months. But we need to establish the structure for it during that period.<\/p>\n

ML: That sounds like a lot of change.<\/p>\n

MG: It is. The third step is the most exciting because it\u2019s forward-looking. What are we going to do about public art, bringing it into neighborhoods and making it accessible?<\/p>\n

I hope we can reach a point where the communities we serve don\u2019t have to focus so much on the Arts Commission\u2019s bureaucracy. People should not have to constantly attend commission meetings to comment on our systems.<\/p>\n

We should be having robust conversations about what public art means, who participates in choosing it and how it\u2019s funded. Artists should be focused on what they\u2019re creating, rather than worrying about what percentage of a grant gets advanced or how much documentation they have to submit.<\/p>\n

ML: So you want to get back to art-making.<\/p>\n

MG: Yes. We\u2019re still a bureaucracy and a city department. We have responsibilities that distinguish us from a private foundation. We\u2019ll continue making sure public funds are used for the purposes outlined in grant agreements.<\/p>\n

But externally, can we get back to a place where we focus on the art? That is the debate we\u2019re having: What is public art? Who should have access to it? Which artists should we work with, and how should we pay for it?<\/p>\n

I support public-private partnerships and engaging people who have the resources to support public art, so we can make it accessible to more people. But I\u2019m open to hearing what others think.<\/p>\n

ML: How can the Arts Commission\u2019s bureaucracy change for the better?<\/p>\n

MG: Consider the discussion around grant-payment policies. Most city grants are reimbursement-based. You receive a grant, spend the funds, submit documentation and then receive payment.<\/p>\n

That can apply equally to a large nonprofit receiving a multimillion-dollar grant and an individual artist receiving $50,000. But an individual artist or small organization may not have the resources to advance that money.<\/p>\n

More robust compliance measures were developed to safeguard city funds, but their effect on artists and small-budget organizations was not fully considered.<\/p>\n

In my first few weeks, our team went to the Controller\u2019s Office and made the case that individual artists, cultural centers and small organizations need rules that reflect their circumstances. The Controller approved changes.<\/p>\n

I reviewed months of Arts Commission meetings and listened to public comment. People had spent countless hours expressing frustration with the payment policy. Our job was to determine whether it could be fixed.<\/p>\n

The Controller\u2019s Office was willing to work with us on a solution that better reflects the organizations we serve while preserving accountability.<\/p>\n

ML: What will change?<\/p>\n

MG: One proposal would have reduced the portion of cultural center grants paid in advance from 75 percent to 50 percent. They will now be able to continue receiving 75 percent.<\/p>\n

Individual artists previously could receive up to 90 percent of a grant in advance. That was going to drop significantly. Some artists receive $100,000 over two years and cannot front those costs.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll now be able to receive 90 percent in advance over two years: 50 percent in the first year and 40 percent in the second. There will be similar provisions for smaller organizations.<\/p>\n

That will come with more robust reporting. We\u2019ll trust organizations with advance funding, but we\u2019ll also verify how it\u2019s spent.<\/p>\n

ML: What role do you see for public art under Mayor Daniel Lurie?<\/p>\n

MG: I think what\u2019s exciting under Mayor Lurie is the ability to bring back robust public-private partnerships and philanthropic support for the arts. San Francisco\u2019s corporate and philanthropic communities once had more robust arts programs, while the city\u2019s direct support has grown.<\/p>\n

The city can\u2019t afford to put up temporary public art or commission art across the whole city. So how do we bring more organizations to the table to partner on that? How do we give more opportunities to artists to commission more work?<\/p>\n

And I think what\u2019s interesting about this mayor is that he really is passionate about art as an experience \u2014 performances, concerts, festivals and installations that attract people to a neighborhood and gather people together.<\/p>\n

Those events can support economic development and create jobs for artists, musicians and cultural workers. We\u2019re also looking at culturally specific artists working within specific communities that have an art form that is in need of support to survive. <\/p>\n

Art as beauty is important. Beauty is a civic value and is worthy of civic funding. Art is also good for the economy. I see no tension between those things.<\/p>\n

ML: Critics say private funding can allow wealthy donors to dictate public art. How do you address that concern?<\/p>\n

MG: I can appreciate that criticism. The Arts Commission can help offset those criticisms by using public dollars to make sure we support those who may not be as significantly supported by private funders.<\/p>\n

Art has been supported by patrons for thousands of years. We live in an era in which it\u2019s supported by both patrons and government. We\u2019re so fortunate to have a city government that understands the importance of funding the arts.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s up to me and the staff of the Arts Commission to find the happy medium between those tension points.<\/p>\n

ML: What will test your experience most in this job?<\/p>\n

MG: I learned different things from each mayor I worked under. What I\u2019ve learned most is how quickly administrations pass. You really have a limited amount of time to implement the vision a mayor was elected to carry out.<\/p>\n

All of a sudden, one year passes, then two, and it\u2019s like, \u201cOh wow, we only have two more years to get this done!\u201d I have a limited amount of time to accomplish these larger goals and leave behind a stronger agency.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a philosophical idea about time. It\u2019s literally how government works.<\/p>\n

ML: How will you know you\u2019ve left behind a stronger agency?<\/p>\n

MG: Success could mean reducing by one month the time between a grant application and a payment to a grantee, or figuring out a way so that every resident of San Francisco can be within walking distance of a piece of art, or an Arts Commission-funded activation.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll also know we\u2019re successful when I can walk around the city and I can be in any neighborhood in San Francisco, along any merchant corridor, and see a nonprofit arts organization thriving, or a piece of public art in the neighborhood. <\/p>\n

ML: How many mayors have you worked under at this point?<\/p>\n

MG: Six. All great mayors in their own way. Don\u2019t make me choose between them!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew Goudeau, San Francisco\u2019s first-ever leader of a newly consolidated arts and culture agency, is a creature of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[5282,4752,101,7599,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-413722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-arts","tag-city-hall","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-arts-commission","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}