Deborah Cullinan

Chief Executive Officer YBCA

  • San Francisco CA

Deborah is a leading advocate on the pivotal role artists & cultural organizations play in shaping our social & political landscape.

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Biography

Deborah Cullinan, CEO of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), is one of the nation’s leading thinkers on the pivotal role artists and arts organizations can play in shaping our social and political landscape, and has spent years mobilizing communities through arts and culture. Deborah is committed to revolutionizing the role art centers play in public life and during her tenure at YBCA, she has launched several bold new programs, engagement strategies, and civic coalitions. Prior to joining YBCA in 2013, she was the Executive Director of San Francisco’s Intersection for the Arts. She is a co-founder of CultureBank, co-chair of the San Francisco Arts Alliance, Vice Chair of the Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy, and on the boards of the Community Arts Stabilization Trust and HumanMade. She is a Field Leader in Residence at Arizona State University’s National Accelerator for Cultural Innovation and a former Innovator in Residence at the Kauffman Foundation. She currently serves on Mayor London Breed’s San Francisco Economic Recovery Task Force and Governor Gavin Newsom’s Jobs and Business Recovery Task Force. Her passion for using art and creativity to shift culture has made her a sought-after speaker at events and conferences around the world.

Industry Expertise

Health and Wellness
Philanthropy

Areas of Expertise

Advocacy
Nonprofit Management
Civic Engagement
COVID Recovery
Unemployment
Philanthropy
Indigenous communities
Art
Community
Policy
Activism
Culture
Diversity
BIPOC
Racial Disparities
Health and Wellbeing
Entrepreneurship
Arts & Culture

Education

Lawrence University

B.A.

History and Anthropology

Affiliations

  • Leader in Residence, Arizona State University’s National Accelerator for Cultural Innovation: 2020 to present
  • Member, Governor's Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery: 2020 to present
  • Member, San Francisco Economic Recovery Task Force: 2020 to present
  • Board Member, Humanmade: 2020 to present
  • Vice Chair Board of Directors, Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy: 2018 to present
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Media Appearances

Mayors Call For Federal Response To US Arts Crisis

Art Forum  online

2021-01-28

Deborah Cullinan, CEO of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and cochair of the San Francisco Art Alliance, applauded the mayors for their efforts, and in a statement contended that “the real opportunity lies in the roles that artists and arts organization can play in supporting federal programs for infrastructure, education, job creation, and health. Amid calls for a modern WPA Federal Art Project and a ‘Dr. Fauci for the arts,’ I hope the new administration will create a new permanent position in the Executive Office for a national arts leader.”

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COVID-19 relief package offers $15 billion for struggling arts venues

KRON4  online

2020-12-28

“The arts have been devastated,” Deborah Cullinan said.

The shuttered gates of nightclubs like The Chapel on Valencia Street, where you can see the lineup for last February still posted outside — One example of that the devastation.

Cullinan is co-chair of the San Francisco Arts Alliance which worked with Washington political leaders to help venues like these stay alive with the $15-billion grant program that’s part of the bipartisan COVID relief stimulus package.

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S.F. pays artists — some with cute clown noses — to improve community health in pandemic

SF Chronicle’s Datebook  online

2020-12-04

Deborah Cullinan, YBCA’s chief executive officer, approached the city with the idea after being part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. “What’s the WPA program for today?” she recalls thinking, referring to Depression-era initiatives such as the Federal Theatre Project and the Federal Art Project that employed artists not just as work relief but as a broad public investment in art and culture and in valuable human capital.

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Articles

The Biden-Harris administration must integrate the arts into our national recovery

San Francisco Chronicle

Deborah Cullinan

2021-01-28

The events of the past year, and the shocking insurrection that took place at the Capitol on Jan. 6, have reinforced the value of art in our society. We have always known that art can be a source of peace, solace and joy in times of struggle. But art also provides the intellectual, economic and emotional healing that will lead our nation forward.

With President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in office, I encourage them to end Washington’s ambivalence toward the arts and partner with organizations and artists themselves to address the looming creative sector depression and revitalize the nation. Artistic production, which fuels almost $9 billion of our economy, will be nothing short of vital to the country’s overall recovery. As we strive to build back better, it is time for the federal government and our elected leaders to fully realize the previously underestimated and under-resourced power of America’s cultural ecosystem.”

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Opinion: To build racial and wealth equality in post-pandemic America, invest in a Cultural New Deal

Marketwatch

Deborah Cullinan

2020-10-22

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, author Arundhati Roy published a now widely referenced article called “The Pandemic is the Portal.” In it she sounds a crisp alarm that “nothing could be worse than a return to normality” post-pandemic because normality is inequitable, unjust, dangerous, and often deadly for so many. She cautions that we have no choice but to travel through this pandemic door to the other side.

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Why the 2020 US Census Matters for the Arts

Hyperallergic

Deborah Cullinan

2020-04-16

Many months ago, before the coronavirus pandemic changed our lives and took hold of our collective psyche, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) was approached by independent curator and activist Amy Kisch.

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