When the California Arts Council posted guidelines in April for this year’s general operating grants, West Edge Opera, Oakland Theater Project, Magic Theatre and a slew of other organizations decided to apply, either for the first time or for the first time since the pandemic hit.

Since 2021, the agency has exclusively directed its general operating money to the state’s tiniest arts organizations — those with annual budgets under $250,000. But after a March meeting, the CAC altered its guidelines to say more organizations with budgets over $250,000 would get funded.

General operating funding is the holy grail of arts support. Many grantors require their dollars be spent in very specific ways, often on new projects instead of on less sexy but essential expenses like keeping the lights on and administrative payroll. So when the possibility of obtaining state general operating funding of $60,000 over two years opened to more applicants, many paid attention.

The application, with its many essay questions, could take up to a week of work, but OTP, Magic, West Edge and others with budgets over $250,000 decided it was worth it and applied by a June deadline.

But then, in an August meeting, the CAC abruptly changed course again, without supplying a reason. Although all three companies scored high enough to get money under the originally published guidelines, the CAC decided to give preference to smaller ones. All three, and scores of others, were rejected.

The resulting outcry from those groups isn’t that smaller organizations got money, as they should, but that so many applicants wasted time trying.

“No one wants to take money away from anyone,” said West Edge Opera director of advancement Emilie Whelan. “The concern is the process this happened under,” with the rules changing midway without explanation or justification. Her company’s been transparent about hiring local artists and nurturing the region’s arts scene, she added, “and so to have the very source that is supposed to be supporting us at the state level be not transparent is really hard.”

“What’s really perplexing is, whoever thought this was a good switch, why wasn’t that shared with the community?” said Sherri Young, executive director of African-American Shakespeare Company, another organization that was initially recommended for funding then rejected. “People will fill in the blanks in their own mind when there’s no clarity.”

Jonathan Moscone, executive director of the CAC, declined to be interviewed for this story. CAC Chair Consuelo “Chelo” Montoya said in a statement, “Our Council is governed by a democratic process and deeply respects and values the principles of fairness, transparency and open debate.” She added, “This process has highlighted something we have always known, that there is great need at every level of our field.”

The unexpected shift at the CAC parallels recent changes atSan Francisco’s Grants for the Arts.This year, longtime city arts grantees said they were caught off guard by cuts after being promised by Director Vallie Brown’s administration that changes would be minimal.

At its March meeting, the CAC approved in a 9-1 vote to allocate 55% of its general operating funding to organizations with annual budgets under $250,000, 25% to those with $250,000-$1 million and 20% to those with $1 million-$1.5 million. Programs Policy Committee members Leah Goodwin and Ellen Gavin led the effort to open general operating funding to groups with larger budgets while still reserving the majority for the smallest companies. It’s not clear why, in August, the council voted on another proposal, from Allocations Committee members Vicki Estrada and Olivia Raynor, that gave 81% to organizations under $250,000, 16% to organizations with $250,000 to $1 million and 3% to organizations of $1 million to $1.5 million. That allocation passed on a 4-3 vote.

Artemio Armenta, CAC’s director of public affairs, told the Chronicle, “Council members can propose recommendations and changes to any business within their purview.”

In aZoom recording会议,加文-旧金山创立的s Brava Theater — made her dismay clear. Tiny organizations aren’t the only ones who need help, she said, adding that she and council member Goodwin forged a compromise based on months of conversations with artists and producers.

“As someone who started her organization as a volunteer, grew it through 25 years so that it’s an anchor institution, I know what’s happening right now to the midsize organizations and to larger anchor organizations,” she said, including those that are run by women, people of color, LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups. “They are dying.”

“I feel very upset about this,” she went on. “Once we get into this game of pitting people against each other, we are going to lose.” Gavin declined to speak to the Chronicle.

Marie Acosta, executive director of the Latino Arts Network and a former CAC staffer, attended the meeting virtually. “When I heard that vote, I went, ‘Oh, my God, what happened? ’ It was very distressing,” she recalled. She said she can’t remember another instance in meetings she’s attended since the 1980s when council members reversed a previously approved recommendation.

There are many schools of thought about the methodology behind governmental funding for the arts. Ted Russell, director of arts strategy and ventures at Kenneth Rainin Foundation, points out that governmental bodies have different responsibilities than private philanthropic ones.

“既然CAC的资金来源来自于国家,they have a responsibility to consider broad distribution, and larger organizations are not as widely distributed across the state as smaller ones,” he told the Chronicle, adding that when he travels outside the state’s large metro areas, the largest arts organizations regularly have budgets under $250,000, sometimes under $50,000.

At the same time, Acosta said, some arts funders suffer from the misperception or stereotype that the only way to support arts groups of color is to fund small ones: “There is a wrong-mindedness, in my opinion, that (with) communities of color, our arts organizations are only small — because we’re people of people of color. That is insulting and racist.”

Organizations with budgets of $250,000 to $1.5 million are crucial to the ecosystem, she went on. They incubate new talent; they serve as examples to companies that are just starting out.

They also often have the capacity to affect the field more than smaller organizations can. Both Magic Theatre and West Edge had planned to use their money to create new permanent positions.

In any case, for the rejected applicants, while that debate is valid and important, they believe the CAC should have it in public — not make last-minute changes behind closed doors.

“It’s the arts: We’re not trying to take anything from anyone,” Young continued. “We just want better communication.”

Reach Lily Janiak:ljaniak@sfchronicle.com