After resigning from her position, Mumby-Huerta worked as an affiliated scholar at University of California Hastings College of the Law and is currently a vice president at the Portland-based Native Arts and Cultures Foundation.
The grant had been intended for a local Native and Indigenous artist, and was awarded to fund a short documentary exploring pre-colonial connections across the Pacific. Instead, the money was used by former arts director Barbara Mumby-Huerta to pay travel expenses to Hawaii for herself, her daughter and a friend, a trip in which no work was ever produced.
The misappropriated grant money was never recovered. April McGill, executive director of the American Indian Cultural Center of San Francisco, said Mumby-Huerta's use of funds for her own purposes had left a void where a Native American artist's work could have been created. Mumby-Huerta's malfeasance caused further strain between some Bay Area Native and Indigenous organizations and the San Francisco Arts Commission, as well as divisions in the Native community, according to three people whose organizations have sought grants from and been involved with events planned by the arts commission.
"The San Francisco Arts Commission takes allegations of fiscal impropriety very seriously," an arts commission spokesperson said in an email."The SFAC takes all concerns and complaints received by members of the public seriously and will work to diligently gather all relevant facts and information to address and respond to concerns received in a timely manner."
"We have no doubt that she will be impactful in improving the health of San Francisco's arts sector and advancing racial equity in the arts and in our community," said then-director of cultural affairs Tom DeCaigny. Lawson indicated in a short phone interview that neither the idea for the project nor the idea to apply for the grant were hers and that she no longer considered Mumby-Huerta a friend. She then abruptly ended the interview and said,"no comment. I'm just glad this whole thing is over."
She went on to write,"I have also been to her studio in the past three months and can confirm this is her SF home address." The ethics commission found that to be untrue. According to the ethics commission,"documentation obtained during the investigation showed that prior to negotiating the initial grant disbursement of 90 percent, Mumby had drafted a budget for the trip to Hawaii that identified the cost of the trip as $13,500."
According to a summary of the grant proposal, which was released by the arts commission as part of a public records request,"SFAC funds will be used to support the creation of a five-minute documentary trailer to tell the story of migration and connections between Native Americans in the Sierra Nevada mountain range of California and Native Hawaiians.
What happened in Hawaii in August 2019 is informed by interviews with two participants on the trip, Vega and Gali; a description of the events from Kimberly"Avanna" Lawson to the arts commission, and the ethics commission's own investigation. By all accounts, the experience was a disaster. Morning Star Gali, called it"Real World Hawaii: Native version."
Vega said there was a helicopter tour taken by Mumby-Huerta and her daughter, and the ethics commission said grant money was used for a dinner to celebrate the pair's shared birthdays. But the arts commission invited Mumby-Huerta to write and edit multiple drafts of a letter to directly respond to the organizations.
Both McGill and Jolivette said they were contacted by Mumby-Huerta's husband, which left them feeling uncomfortable. Jolivette said he saved the voicemail that was left for him, while McGill said she shared the experience contemporaneously with a friend who was present when she received the call.Mumby-Huerta resigned in January 2020, five months after the Hawaii trip.
Portland-based Native Arts & Cultures Foundation hired her in July 2021 as the vice president of programs and partnerships, where she helps evaluate and distribute grants to Native and Indigenous artists.
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