San Diego arts groups protest proposed funding cuts ahead of City Council meeting

In the heart of downtown San Diego, at Civic Center Plaza, more than 300 arts supporters came together as a united front Monday, the first time since Mayor Todd Gloria unveiled his plans five days ago to cut arts funding.

Just two hours before Gloria was expected to officially present his proposed budget to the City Council 12 floors above at council chambers, artists from all corners of the arts community - actors, musicians, visual artists and poets - descended on the plaza next to City Hall to decry the proposed cuts.

Set against a backdrop of handmade signs - "Fund Art," "Arts Matter," "Cities without Art are just Concrete!" - representatives from arts groups, ranging from the San Diego Symphony and Mingei International Museum to La Jolla Music Society and San Diego Youth Symphony, stood shoulder to shoulder to listen as speakers came to the mic to demand the mayor change course.

In his budget plan, Gloria is proposing to cut arts funding by $11.8 million - from the original $13.8 million - in the coming fiscal year to help close a projected $146 million deficit.

That would leave just $2 million, enough to keep the city's Cultural Affairs Department open. That agency oversees the city's public art initiative and works closely with individual artists and incubator programs. Funding for grants out of that department comes from the state.

Alessandra Moctezuma, an art professor at San Diego Mesa College and the director of its art gallery, said "it was devastating to learn that the … budget proposal has zeroed out $11.8 million for arts and culture."

"I can tell you, this decision came as a complete surprise. It felt like a kick in the gut,” said Moctezuma, who is also chair of the city's Commission for Arts and Culture.

"The timing could not have been worse," she said from the stage. "We were in the middle of reviewing grant applications for what would have been our largest group of awardees ever: 229 organizations. These organizations - large and small - exist in every district in this city. Nearly half of the programs they provide are free and community-facing. For fiscal year 2025, they included 5.3 million free admissions. And beyond their cultural value, they are a powerful economic driver."

Standing in the middle of the throng, Todd Schultz, president and CEO of La Jolla Music Society, said: "Every year, it’s a huge process to try and match our expenses to our anticipated income, and a cut like this - approximately $300,000 for us - would be huge. And what we would end up doing is having to cut things that don’t generate income, and those would be the free programs. Free programs are a huge way that we serve the community, and we could try to fundraise to replace it, but $300,000 is not going to be covered."

Katrina Bruins, executive director of Visions Museum of Textile Art in Liberty Station, said "we rely on about $20,000 that we get from the city each year." That, she said, translates to "one part-time position or three months’ rent, so it’s not insignificant."

But more importantly, she added, it "really reduces our ability to create free public programming."

Stephanie Weaver Yankee, executive director of La Jolla Symphony & Chorus and a piano teacher with Villa Musica, said, "funds that we received through both of those organizations represent between 8% and 15% of our respective budgets, and that’s going to mean we’re going to have to cut programming. For us, that will affect kids in schools and seniors in the community. And we'll probably have to cut staff. We're already running pretty lean. These potential cuts don't help." For La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, the proposed cuts translate to $45,566.

Sameer Patel, music director and orchestra conductor of La Jolla Symphony & Chorus, said the proposed budget “deeply affects” everything they do, especially behind-the-scenes support. “Everything that it takes to put on any kind of musical event, that’s affected,” added Patel, who is also the artistic director of San Diego Youth Symphony, where these cuts “directly impact the students.” The San Diego Youth Symphony could lose $142,080 under the mayor’s proposed budget.

Ruben Valenzuela, artistic director of Bach Collegium San Diego, said all of the funding it receives from the city - $41,220 for fiscal year 2026 - “goes directly to the musicians that perform our season, so a cut like this would literally mean a cut of a project. We do four projects in a year, and it could easily eliminate a project and a half probably. We have subscribers who have come to expect a four-concert season from us. We’re very lean and very small, but the impact is big.”

For Alex C. Villafuerte, executive director of Pacific Arts Movement, the city’s proposal comes at a bad time for the arts and culture community. Pac Arts, which received $48,301 from the city this fiscal year, produces the highly popular San Diego Asian Film Festival.

“In the past year, we’ve had our funding cut from the federal government due to the executive orders on DEI. Because of that, many sponsors have stepped away as well,” he said. “And now, it feels like the city is also walking away from us. We’ve had to cut and cut and cut, and we’re at a point right now where we don’t think we can cut anymore. It’s either end some programs, cut staff, or just stop existing.”

Doug Oliphant, chief operating officer of Coastal Nonprofit Consulting, said the city’s Organizational Support Program, one of the two grant-funding arms the mayor wants to ax, provides an average of 7% to 8% of many San Diego nonprofits’ operating budgets.

“If you were to make a list of your top donors, just about every single organization in this city that receives funding from the city would put the city of San Diego among their top 10 donors,” he said. “That’s the equivalent of losing one of your most major pillars of support, which means you debate between cutting a program altogether, scaling back or laying off an employee.”

Mere moments after a chorus of “Save the arts” chants echoed through the plaza, Martha Gilmer, president and CEO of San Diego Symphony, said: “The arts are critical to this city, and we bring such awareness of San Diego internationally. You have witnessed today small, medium and large arts organizations coming out to show the mayor and the city what the arts bring to San Diego.”

“We all understand the challenges of infrastructure, but the arts are what lift our souls and inspire our children,” added Gilmer, whose organization stands to lose $268,412. “It’s what we stand for. So we’re hoping that there’s going to be wisdom in the next days and weeks for the mayor to understand why this is so devastating.”

San Diego arts leaders blast proposed massive funding cuts as ‘catastrophic' and ‘devastating'

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This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 5:32 PM.