Artists awarded 2026 grants by the San Francisco Arts Commission say they are still waiting for money they were counting on, according to the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle. Some have gone months without a first payment.
The Chronicle said grant agreements normally go out in early July and money arrives within about four weeks. As of October, several artists had received nothing. At least two got their agreements only after the Chronicle asked the commission about the delay.
Who is waiting
Documentary filmmaker Susannah Smith, a three-time grantee, told the Examiner she has spent $10,000 of the $25,000 she was supposed to get this year. "By mid-September, I didn't know where October rent was coming from," she said. She told the Chronicle she had borrowed thousands of dollars from friends and family.
Painter Shrey Purohit got his first payment only this week, three months into the grant period, the Examiner reported. He told the Chronicle he had reached 12 of the 59 grantees in his category, and none had been paid. April McGill of the American Indian Cultural Center said her group is still waiting on its 2026-27 grant and a reimbursement from 2025-26. She said earlier late funding led the center to drop a planned space in the American Indian Cultural District.
Why it happened
Earlier this year the city folded the Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts and SF Film into one department under the Arts Commission. Grantees once got 90% of their money up front. In 2025 that dropped to 50% up front, with the rest paid as reimbursements. After artists pushed back, this year's grants were changed to pay 50% this year, 40% in 2027 and the last 10% at the end of the cycle, the Examiner reported.
Matthew Goudeau, the city's executive director of arts and culture, cited the merger and the reworked agreement. "I'm sorry for the uncertainty these delays have caused," he said in a statement to the Chronicle. He told the Examiner that many more agreements have been signed in recent weeks and payments are moving.