Special Notice / Hearing: None__
Vote Required: Majority
To: Honorable Board of Supervisors
From: Supervisor Ray Mueller, District 3
Subject: Appointment to the Arts Commission
RECOMMENDATION:
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Recommendation for the appointment of Manisha Davesar to the San Mateo County Arts Commission, representing District 3, for an initial partial term ending December 31, 2026.
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BACKGROUND:
The Arts Commission was created to promote and encourage the arts, to serve in an advisory capacity to the Board of Supervisors, to prepare and update the County’s strategic and cultural plan, and act as a liaison with arts organizations in order to ensure collaboration and coordination related to culture and art activities in San Mateo County.
DISCUSSION:
Manisha Davesar is being recommended to represent District 3 on the Arts Commission for an initial partial term ending December 31, 2026, coinciding with District 3 Supervisor’s term in office. The seat was formerly held by Josephine Tsay Deciron who resigned in July 2025.
Manisha Davesar [Ma-Knee-Sha] [The-Vay-Sir] is a local Punjabi-American artist and sociologist. As an artist, she explores concepts of social justice, history, and cultural emotional expressions of grief and trauma; she is also interested in preserving heritage through traditional techniques. As a sociologist, Manisha works in the non-profit sector looking at different social determinants of health, the gaps underrepresented communities, and all the intersections of life that contribute to our well-being. She has combined her love of art, history, and sociology through her award-winning research that looked at how popular media socialized kids and adults during wartime and social movements throughout US history. Manisha understands that art isn’t just something pretty to look at and fun but is a mirror into the way we feel and can help give insight into our perceptions of the world around us and how inequitable our systems/institutions are when analyzing access.
Manisha is interested in understanding the needs of underrepresented BIPOC community members in her district when it comes to having expanded access to the arts and being able to equitably engage with their (and others) cultures, especially in the current social climate we are in today. She has done this in numerous ways already: volunteering at the food pantry, assembling care packages and facilitating rapid response bracelet making with ALAS; creating special art for legal + mutual aid fund for Minnesota Immigrants (Anthology 230 Postcards); creating digital and physical “Know Your Rights” packets in Punjabi for monolingual-Punjabi speakers in the Bay Area; Co-facilitating Art & Advocacy Lecture Workshops; and helping to coordinate the first Half Moon Bay Diwali celebration, and during the celebration, facilitating a community art making collaboration with those who attended. With activism at the core of what Manisha does, she uses her understanding of social structures, root causes of systemic issues, and people’s behaviors through her sociological training as a way to engage with art and cultures in a more meaningful way.
Outside of art, Manisha is currently doing research on several different important subjects as a research associate with Health Leads, including: Indigenous Prenatal Health Care Access & Outcomes; Data Misrepresentation of Queer Trans Pacific Islanders (QTPIs); Doula Access and Clinical Integration; Systems Integration of Community Health Workers/Promotoras/Representatives.
Outside of work and art advocacy, Manisha loves to learn; frequenting the library and participating in different workshops in the County. She brings a multidisciplinary lens in expanding arts and culture in San Mateo County in the most equitable ways possible.
FISCAL IMPACT:
None.