County of Alameda

DESCRIPTION

Under general direction, to plan, direct and administer program activities for the Alameda County Arts Commission (ACAC), including long-range strategic planning, distribution of ARTSFUND grants, and oversight of complex multi-year public art projects; to perform complex work overseeing the activities of public art-in-architecture projects and arts-in-education programming adherent to State of California standards; and to do related work as required.

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES

This is a single position class responsible for working in close cooperation with the Executive Board Committee and Commissioners of the Alameda County Arts Commission. The incumbent performs a wide variety of independent and inter-related functions to promote arts and cultural activities for the benefit of citizens, arts organizations and individual artists. The position receives policy direction from the Executive Committee of the Arts Commission and is under the supervision of the Management Services Administrator, Public Works or designee of the Director of the Public Works Agency. This class is distinguished from the lower level class of Public Art Program Coordinator in that the latter has overall responsibility for planning, organizing and administering program activities for ACAC.

EXAMPLES OF DUTIES

NOTE: The following are the duties performed by employees in this classification. However, employees may perform other related duties at an equivalent level. Each individual in the classification does not necessarily perform all duties listed.

1. Directs, coordinates, and administers all ACAC programs.
2. Supervises staff assigned to the department; assigns and reviews work and evaluates performance; recommends the selection of staff; recommends and implements discipline as required.
3. Serves as the liaison to the ACAC by providing guidance and direction to the ACAC and its committees.
4. Prepares and delivers presentations before the Board of Supervisors regarding arts funding; represents the County of Alameda before diverse community, regional, business and governmental groups on matters related to the health of the county’s cultural assets and programs.
5. Plans and executes meetings of art and culture representatives to encourage the retention, expansion, and location of arts-related economic activity in the region.
6. Develops and administers program budgets; prepares grant applications; monitors budget expenditures; coordinates fiscal, personnel and contract activities with County administration; secures annual state grant for department and other county funding to support projects of the Commission.
7. Oversees and creates marketing vehicles to promote the Arts Commission including all publications, annual fundraising tax insert, and County website.
8. Monitors and ensures program compliance with the County’s 2% for Arts/Public Arts Program; plans and supervises public art project activities countywide.
9. Surveys and maintains inventory of public art site bank; oversees care, conservation, maintenance and rotation of the County's art collection.
10. Drafts guidelines and procedures for the development, approval and evaluation of ARTSFUND grant request for proposals (RFPs).
11. Oversees all grant information including dissemination and workshop training in several County locations; maintains all contracts compliance with grantees; reviews and approves all requests for payment.
12. Provides analytical and technical expertise to the ARTSFUND panel including orientation for commissioners and other professional grant proposal review team.
13. Supervises the Arts Education Program.
14. Steering Committee Member of Alameda County Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership in partnership with Alameda County Office of Education.
15. Seeks and pursues new funding and partnering opportunities in support of arts education in county schools.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

Possession of a Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with major coursework in any of the following: Arts, Fine Arts, Art History, or Arts Administration.

AND
Experience:

The equivalent of four years full-time professional-level experience in a public or private local arts agency with substantial responsibility in program planning and evaluation or program administrative activities, two years of which must have been in a supervisory capacity. (Additional experience may be substituted for the education on a year-for-year basis; experience working with nonprofit organizations and a demonstrated knowledge of arts funding programs and public art programs is desirable.)

NOTE: The Civil Service Commission may modify the above Minimum Qualifications in the announcement of an examination.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

NOTE: The level and scope of the following knowledge and abilities are related to duties listed under the “Examples of Duties” section of this specification.

Knowledge of:

• Principles and practices of arts administration, planning, management and evaluation.
• Principles and practices of grant making, contract negotiation and administration.
• Fiscal and budgetary practices.
• Current fundraising and philanthropic trends in national, state, regional and local economies.
• Community resources, networking and coalition building.
• Effective public speaking and presentations.
• Principles and techniques of report writing, writing RFPs and RFQs, writing organizational grant guidelines, writing grant requests, minutes and agendas, and organizational and operational analysis.
• Relationship of federal, state, regional and local cultural agencies (arts commissions and councils, nonprofit arts presenters and producers, school districts, foundation funders etc.) and their role with other agencies and the business community.
• Conservation, maintenance, and preservation of works of public art and principles and practices of accessioning, appraisal, and collection management.
• State of California guidelines for State-Local Partnership funding programs; regional, state and national standards/policies of public art funding mechanisms and programs; State Visual and Performing Arts teaching guidelines/standards; federal Visual Artists Rights Act and California Artist’s Rights Act.

Ability to:

• Plan strategically, establish guidelines and set priorities.
• Plan, organize, supervise and evaluate the work of assigned staff.
• Communicate effectively with county and regional officials, foundations, community groups, and arts and cultural leaders.
• Prepare and justify an annual budget for arts/cultural programs and manage these programs within the parameters of the adopted budget.
• Manage large-scale public art projects.
• Establish and maintain cooperative working relationships with ACAC, Executive Committee, Board of Supervisors, CAO, design teams, architects, artists, community representatives, and department heads.
• Work effectively with diverse communities.
• Interpret economic, social and cultural statistical data relating to County cultural development matters.
• Negotiate directly with regional, state or federal grantors.
• Research, study and evaluate programs' service levels and operational problems; propose improvements annually; prepare statistical comparisons of County service to arts/cultural organizations and individual artists.
• Demonstrate interpersonal sensitivity.

CLASS SPEC HISTORY

RC:pf 3/24/03
Newspecs: 0247.doc
CSC Date: 4/16/03
MH:po revised 1/21/09
CSC Date: 3/11/2009