Longtime arts and city government veteran Matthew Goudeau has been named San Francisco’s first executive director of arts and culture.
The role was created by Mayor Daniel Lurie, who vowed Monday, April 27 that “under my administration, government is going to do a better job supporting those artists and organizations who are driving our city’s economic recovery.”
To that end, Goudeau will oversee three of the city’s most important arts entities: the San Francisco Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts and the Film Commission.
“As we bring together our arts departments to strengthen our support for this sector, we need a leader who is steeped in the community,” Lurie said in a statement. “Matthew Goudeau pairs that experience with a deep commitment to San Francisco. I am excited for the work he will do to support our artists, strengthen our cultural institutions, and keep this community at the forefront of our city’s recovery.”
The appointment comes after a three-month search during which the city received 259 applications and interviewed more than a dozen candidates.
Goudeau has extensive experience in local arts and government. He currently serves as the chief development officer for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and previously worked as deputy chief of staff in Lurie’s office. Goudeau also worked for Lurie’s mayoral campaign as a senior adviser and director of the office of the mayor-elect.
Other roles during his career have included serving as director of Grants for the Arts for the City and County of San Francisco from February 2019 to December 2020, following the retirement of longtime head Kary Schulman. Also in 2020, Goudeau was director of philanthropy for the city’s Give2SF COVID-19 Fund for four months, and for more than a decade worked in several leadership capacities in the Mayor’s Office of Protocol.
He was also the director of development for San Francisco’s 500 Capp Street from October 2015 to July 2016, overseeing the public opening of artist David Ireland’s home, after four years at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.
“San Francisco’s artists and cultural organizations bring so much energy and excitement to our city, and they deserve a government that gives them the tools to succeed,” Goudeau said in a statement. “In every role I’ve had, I have gone to bat for these organizations as well as the artists, workers, and visitors that keep them going – and it will be a privilege to be their champion in city government.”
The creation of the position comes at a time of tumult for the arts in the city, including the closure of the Mission Cultural Center, the listing of the Contemporary Jewish Museum building for sale, and the planned takeover of the California College of the Arts campus by Vanderbilt University. The city has also seen a slew of recent gallery and theater closures.
Nationally, the arts have been rocked by funding cuts, new requirements for patriotic art at the National Endowment for the Arts and broader challenges in sustaining the nonprofit arts model.
Chuck Collins, president of the San Francisco Arts Commission, said in a statement that he believes Goudeau “brings the civic experience, cultural fluency, and administrative judgment San Francisco needs.”
This article originally published at San Francisco just named its first arts and culture leader.
