Revolving directors and failure to cultivate corporate and individual community sponsorships and donations has contributed to a $22,000 deficit at one of the city's most accessible queer cultural arts programs, which is now appealing for the community's help in paying four months' worth of back rent.

Leadership turnover in the 27-year-old Jon Sims Center for the Arts means "starting from scratch," each time, said outgoing Executive Director Crystal Mason, who serves until the end of April. After that, interim director Marta Tejeda, currently the operations manager, takes over.

The Sims center, despite its long history, has had five directors in the last five years.

"Every time, we recreate the wheel," said Mason, a co-founder of the former Luna Sea women's performance space. "It's difficult for me to find time to develop relationships. They don't know anything about me. I'm here. It's difficult to get on [with] the day-to-day running of the place."

"When there is turnover it is hard to keep the donor base excited about projects," said Sara Moore, who has so far archived 27 spoken word events by 130 performers on digital podcasts, harvesting voices of the community in memory of her former girlfriend, Kris Kovic, a spoken word artist who died at age 50 of breast cancer.

Charles Wilmoth's two-year tenure as director ended in 2003. He was followed by Amy Robinson, who provided four months of service on an interim basis. There was then a nine-month period with no leadership before Mason began a year and a half ago.

Tejeda, after submitting a 10-page essay and beating out 80 applicants, became the development director two years ago during the period without a director.

But Mason assumed all development duties upon her hiring, and gave Tejeda strictly operations and technical duties.

"It was all down hill," after that, claimed Tejeda, who plans more outreach and fundraising benefits soon.

Tejeda said she is working hard networking with everyone and in fundraising negotiations with various companies in the hopes of securing grants.

This year marks the 20th year of the center being in its current location. The rent for the Sims center's home at 1519 Mission Street is $5,600 per month for a large mirrored dance studio and two black box performance spaces. The center has an annual budget of $190,000 and two paid staff – Mason earns $36,000 annually and Tejeda makes $27,000 to $30,000, according to Mason.

Cuts in city arts funding (the center's grant from hotel tax fund went from a high of $44,000 before the dot-com crash to a low of $33,000 recently), the comparatively low salaries, and the city's changing economics make it difficult to solicit volunteers. Those problems have also led the Sims center to this impasse.

Mason said a small, "worn out" board also contributed to a lack of vision. She has encouraged other art groups to share their office space, and bring their corresponding constituencies with them.

The center lost its biggest tenant when the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band found a new rehearsal space three years ago. Richard Gibson, president of the band's board of directors, told the Bay Area Reporter that the split was amicable, and came about when the center and the band grew apart.

Originally, the late Jon Sims started the band, which became a 501 (c)3 foundation in 1981. Then, in 1986 – following the death of Sims from AIDS in 1984 – the Jon Sims Center was formed. It served as an umbrella group for several early gay arts troupes, including the band, Bay Area Raw Rahs (now Cheer San Francisco), City Swing, and Dixieland Dykes +3. Each group kept its fundraising and other income separate, but contributed money for shared overhead and administrative costs, Gibson said. Over time, Gibson explained, the center started its own programs like AirSpace for emerging artists.

"It started to fill a new niche," Gibson said of the center. "It wasn't doing much for the member groups."

Three years ago, the band and the Sims center mutually agreed that the band would leave the center and form its own 501 (c)3, which it has done. According to a separation agreement, the Sims center paid a total of about $22,500 to the band, which represented a portion of the band's account, said Gibson.

Gibson said the band has no ill will toward the center.

"I hope they're able to get out of their current predicament and turn this around," he said.

Sims is a do-it-yourself rehearsal and performance resource. It's up to a group to find schedule space and sign up. The center will then help with promotion and split the ticket gross. The arts groups pay for lighting and provide the lighting person.

The AirSpace and collaborative Jon Sims dance residencies have a co-op structure where emerging artists create and perform works in progress, and then revise them based on audience interaction and critical feedback.

Moore, in a letter to the B.A.R. , urged people to attend the shows this spring "and pay the high end of the scale."

Unlike well-endowed companies where one person gets the luxury of the spotlight and another gets janitorial duty, at Sims, one can exchange work for free rehearsal and performance space.

"They get to learn behind the scenes, as opposed to dancing at a company, where others do all the work and you become spoiled," said Tejeda.

Arts funding is integral to the LGBT civil rights movement, said Tejeda

"All the politics and voting – that's all well and fine," agreed Mason. "But it's important to have a place to tell our stories."

Those interested in donating can do so through the center's Web site at www.jonsimsctr.org. Click on the "special 20-year note" link. Checks can be sent to 1519 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94103.