Emergence provides a collaborative platform for Bay Area arts and culture workers to connect, share ideas, and elevate their work and voices.

This, our third year, revolves around three overarching themes calling for attention: open systems: talking diversity beyond butts-in-seats, networked approaches: the power of collaboration, and regenerative practices: how individuals and organizations sustain themselves.

We’ve reached out to our community to gather thoughts on these topics — thoughts informing the flow of conversation throughout the day. Shaking up the typical conference model, Emergence presents an experience to engage and energize. Learning will unfold in many directions, demanding your input while sparking new ideas.

From the interactive morning keynote to an afternoon yoga break to the final session — a “fishbowl” exercise to synthesize the day’s ideas and lessons — you’ll be stimulated and renewed. Reflecting the very themes we’ll discuss during the day, sessions are designed to be multi-perspective, participatory, and restorative. As a group, we’ll capture emerging ideas to inform our plans for the year ahead while reflecting on and celebrating the work of our outgoing fellows.

Register today! Space is limited.
Tickets are $40 with 50% discount volunteer rate available. To inquire about volunteer opportunities, email adam [at] emergingsf [dot] org.

Emergence Schedule

9:30 a.m. Registration and breakfast
10:00 a.m. Collaborative keynote
11:00 a.m. Breakout sessions
Noon Lunch 
1:15 p.m. Breakout sessions
2:15 p.m. Coffee and yoga break!
3:00 p.m. Fishbowl session
4:00 p.m. Reception

Speakers and Facilitators

Carrie Blanding, former executive director of San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
Clara Hatcher, president & co-founder, Bay Area Emerging Museum Professionals
Maura Lafferty, independent PR consultant
Lex Leifheit, executive director, SOMArts Cultural Center
Elissa Perry, coach and consultant
Frances Phillips, program director, Arts and the Creative Work Fund, Walter and Elise Haas Fund
Julie Potter, program assistant, Community Engagement and Performing Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Ron Ragin, program officer for the arts, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
Favianna Rodriguez, artist and organizer
Yesenia Sanchez, coach and consultant
Carl Tashian, co-founder & vice president of engineering, yerdle
Sean Waugh, assistant to the director of artistic administration, SF Opera
Tyese Wortham, program associate, cultural equity grants, San Francisco Arts Commission

To see what Emergence is all about, read the recaps from last year’s convening.

SPUR Urban Center
654 Mission Street (between 2nd and 3rd)
San Francisco, CA 94105

The panel featured Barrett Shaver, director of development, SF JAZZ; Christopher Borg, executive director, Community Music Center; Gina Basso, public programs, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Jack Carpenter, production director, SF Ethnic Dance Festival.

Though looking towards the future was ultimately on everyone’s minds, the conversation stayed within the current context. Themes of the conversation revolved around staffing, capital campaigns, space, and project-based venues versus an actual building. We wanted to share some kernels of the experience with our larger network. Also, we love to continue the conversation beyond the brick and mortar, so feel free to add your comments.

Adam Fong, executive director of both Emerging Arts Professionals / SFBA and the Center for New Music, took the brave task of navigating the arts skyline with consistency and curiosity.

Some highlights of the current Bay Area Arts Skyline

The Exploratorium closed in Fall 2012 at the Palace of Fine Arts and will re-open on April 17 at Pier 15 with a new building.

The SFMOMA will be closing its doors for three years on June 2 to make way for construction of a 235,000 square foot addition. Until early 2016, the SFMOMA will present new art experiences around the Bay Area as the building is transformed.

SF JAZZ recently opened a brand new facility on the corner of Franklin and Fell streets to wide acclaim, moving from project-based to a cultural institution.

The Community Music Center will be expanding with the purchase of a neighboring house. Christopher Borg says it will make CMC more of a “campus.” CMC has been in the same building in the Mission district since 1921.

World Arts West, the organization hosting the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival, continues to have the conversation about finding a permanent home, believing they need to make the move to a more established organization within the city.

There is a light that never goes out

Overall, the tone is continuing to strive to be experimental with space, programming, and money. As we continue to move through the economic recession towards recovery, new spaces can mean new opportunity and hopefully engaging new audiences with a stronger brand than project-based models. Though institutions grow and consolidate, seeking new ways to engage audiences is at the heart of the conversation. And as Ms. Basso said, the SFMOMA is screwing little light bulbs across the city throughout 2016. But, don’t worry the lights won’t go out!

About Gregory Stock

Gregory coordinates public programs at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco along with a team of four under the direction of Renee Baldocchi. At the de Young, he provides support and logistics of Friday Nights at the de Young, a weekly “art happening” public and free event for all ages themed to the permanent collection and special exhibitions. At the Legion of Honor, he coordinates the Chamber Music Series and special exhibition programming. Other programs include special lectures and academic symposiums for special exhibitions. Interests cross between public art, digital tools, collaboration and social enterprise. He has been in the Bay Area for four years and graduated from Saint Louis University with a BA in American studies and history.

Join us on May 13 at SOMArts. Register today!

When other sectors are experiencing growth at exponential rates, how can we as arts leaders re-prioritize and re-imagine the R&D process to create impactful and innovative works in our communities? Does R&D necessary lead to innovation–and what does innovation in the arts field even look like at this point?

We’re conducting a little R&D about R&D, with plans to create a real resource for those in the field who are interested in the now, new, and next.

Who are the future thinkers in the field? How can we make forward thinking in the arts a higher priority in cycles of support?

We’ve invited some future thinkers of our own to get the conversation started, but we need you to bring you own ideas (#BYOID) to make it count!

Speakers include

Mat Dryhurst, Artup and GAFTA
Jess Curtis, Director/Choreographer/Performer
Jayna Swartzman, Bay Area, Center for Cultural Innovation
Julie Potter, YBCA

Our ultimate goal with this forum is to create a resource informed from your ideas. It will offer a space to share and learn about ways our peers continue to push the field into new directions–but to get things started, we need you!

Re-imagining the Box is supported by the SOMArts Cultural Center’s Affordable Space Program, which provides subsidized, large-scale affordable space and technical assistance to nonprofits.

SOMArts receives support from the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Community Arts and Education Program with funding from Grants for the Arts/The Hotel Tax Fund.

The mission of SOMArts is to promote and nurture art on the community level and foster an appreciation of and respect for all cultures. To find out about SOMArts classes, events and exhibitions, please visit www.somarts.org.

FREE! RSVP via Eventbrite

You asked and we answered! We know you love our heady panel discussions and all but, perhaps even more, you love to let your hair down with us.

Come network, mingle, and explore one of Oakland’s leading galleries! Meet fellow Bay Area artists and arts sector workers over drinks and snacks at Pro Arts, and learn more about Emerging Arts Professionals (EAP). See over 400 pieces in Pro Arts’ East Bay Open Studios Preview Exhibition and enter our business card raffle for some special art prizes. Bring your cards and a desire to meet like-minded folks!

Mixer is FREE but please REGISTER HERE

Thanks to Pro Arts for hosting!

501 See (3) You Later?

2150 Allston Way, Suite 400
Berkeley, CA 94704
(510) 649-7700

Is the 501(c)(3) model the only way to run an arts organization? Arts and culture organizations face greater challenges as traditional arts funding decreases and philanthropic needs shift rapidly. Join us to learn about new financial models including benefit corporations (B corps), low-profit limited liability corporations (L3Cs) , and the emerging economy of social enterprises and impact investing.

Experts from the field will teach you essential information on each of these new financial models while you mingle with arts, culture, and business workers from across the Bay Area region. We will conclude the evening with a fun arts prototyping activity giving you the opportunity to make a creative enterprise using one of the new financial models.

Get your ticket now on Eventbrite.

Moderator:

Mariko Chang (Former EAP Fellow & Masters Candidate at JFK University)

Panelists include:

Andy Fyfe (Community Developmment at B Lab)
Josh Furnas (Owner at Selfless)
Daniel Roberts (Attorney at K2 Law Group)

In the  San Francisco Online Community Meetup panel hosted by TechSoup, representatives from four arts organizations discussed how they are using social media in new and innovative ways to market the arts.

Michel DeLong, online community manager at TechSoup and part of the leadership team with Emerging Arts Professionals, moderated the discussion. Panelists included:

• Danielle Siembieda, former community engagement and special projects manager for ZERO1: The Art & Technology Network in San Jose, CA.
• Maura Lafferty, an independent communications consultant working with classical musicians and performing arts organizations in San Francisco, CA.
• Dan Meager, director of marketing at Diablo Ballet in Walnut Creek, CA.
• Carly Severn, digital engagement associate at San Francisco Ballet in San Francisco, CA.

Art & Social Media: Case Studies

Danielle Siembieda (@art_inspector) created a project called Art Ambassadors. She started this project as a response to the commonly heard statement, “I just don’t get art”. Its purpose was to train students to experiment with, understand, and share art using social media and face-to-face interaction. As part of the marketing campaign for the 2012 ZERO1 Biennial, it also functioned as a professional development program in arts administration. An interactive map app was also collaboratively created by the community as a social experiment to facilitate user experience. Through this project, she bridged the gap between curator and audience using the essential component of social media: technology.

Dan Meager (@DiabloBallet) used Twitter to crowdsource the first ballet work created from the Internet with the goal of making classical art forms more relevant. Highlighted on the Huffington Post, this social media project invited the Twitterverse to submit ideas for everything related to the performance: concept, mood, even the moves of the dancers. Meager also used YouTube to crowdsource the score of the dance. The Diablo Ballet used social media and received media attention on The San Francisco Chronicle and the Huffington Post without a $5 million budget. As Meager mentioned, while the ROI of social media is hard to define – the broad exposure social media brings to the arts is well worth the work.

Maura Lafferty (@mlaffs) introduced a new digital asset community managers could use to measure ROI. The new app, Awe.sm, correlates social media data with revenue at a low monthly cost. As a “Chief Happiness Officer” because she sees community managers as the liaison between the audience and the strategic goals of the client or organization–ensuring everyone is happy. This can be difficult in the arts, where audiences’ values can differ greatly. Take her specific case: marketing classical music to a generally younger audience on social media channels. Lafferty communicates strategically by finding out how values from different audiences relate. This involves constant monitoring to gain a fluency in the dynamic trends of social media.

Carli Severn (@teacupinthebay) hit the nail on the head. In the performing arts, the audience is your lifeblood. When arts organizations are creating strategies around audience development, they must first know who their audience is. Severn spearheaded a new marketing initiative for the San Francisco Ballet that used social media to grow audiences through a series of contests. Using Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter , Facebook, and WordPress, she cross-promoted The Nutcracker by offering special seats to contest winners. Knowing the audience was for each platform proved to be effective. Because of this social media campaign, the Nutcracker is seen as a local tradition.

As arts organizations across the globe begin to recognize the the value of social media as an integrated marketing and communications tool, the role of community manager will inevitably grow. These panelists have demonstrated innovative strategies for using social media to interact with and grow audiences in the arts.

I participated in the Community Arts Education Leadership Institute last summer, a program which included a 360-degree feedback process, a week-long intensive seminar, and follow-up coaching. This experience has been a transformational learning experience for me, largely due to the rare opportunity to stop, reflect, and plan in the context of group discussions regarding effective leadership.

The importance of reflection

In the past, I resisted taking the time to reflect on my leadership because I had a sense of guilt about taking the time away from other tasks I viewed as more practical. The importance of reflection finally hit home for me as a result of the profound connections I made with the group and the intense level of discussions which we were engaged in.

As individuals, we never could have gained the depth of insights we generated as a group, nor the pragmatic applications and strategies that sprouted as a result of those insights.

Each participant, having a different set of stories, experiences, and knowledge, made a unique and valuable contribution to the group through full participation. The safe, open, and supportive atmosphere enabled for participants, including me, to completely open up their hearts and minds. It was an enormous blessing to be both giving and receiving from such an inspired, diverse group of professionals.

A 360-degree view

One of the most impactful, and somewhat horrifying, activities we engaged in was a 360-degree feedback process.

Fifteen individuals – direct reports, board members, colleagues and stakeholders – answered questions regarding my overall leadership competencies in areas such as vision, wisdom, communication, integrity, and conflict management. I could feel heart palpitations when I was handed the 40-page summary of their candid, anonymous interviews.

This was the most comprehensive and structured feedback I’d ever received in my entire career, and I had virtually no sense of what might be inside. I was able to digest the information after taking several deep breaths and reading through it several times. Being thrust into this new level of the unknown had an incredible effect on my learning. I gained new awareness of my deepest strengths and validation on things I suspected I needed to work on (always that dreaded conflict management), as well as several eye-opening comments on communication issues with my organization.

The supportive environment of the institute helped for each of us to further distill the results of our 360-degree reviews, and to create action plans around where we wanted to grow. Three months of coaching after the institute helped to bring our action plans to life.

Reflecting on a regular basis

Since the institute ended over a year ago, I’ve been consistently engaged in this new practice of slowing down and taking the time to reflect on a regular basis, resulting in a heightened sense of awareness of my own strengths and areas for improvement, as well as a deeper clarity on my core values and how they can influence my decision making. I’ve also deepened my practice of requesting ongoing feedback from others in a structured way.

Overall, my participation in the institute has enabled for me to be fully present and to make more meaningful contributions to others around me, my organization and my community.

About Julie McDonald

Julie is the executive director of Leap: Arts in Education.

In a presentation hosted by Theatre Bay Area at Shelton Studios on November 27, Margy Waller, senior fellow at the Topos Partnership, presented the findings from a research initiative designed to better understand what arguments for artistic value did and did not resonate with the general community.

A misguided approach?

When expounding upon the virtues of the arts to those not already in its passionate throes, I often default to a quantitative approach:

The arts create jobs! 

The arts contribute such-and-such dollars to the GDP! 

For members of a sector with largely qualitative attributes, individuals in the arts have gone to great lengths to provide quantitative data in support of their cause. It’s certainly understandable – we figure we’re being smart tacticians by engaging in the numbers and stats which are so significant to other sectors.

Go on, tell us we’re frivolous and a waste of tax dollars . . . then bam! Hit them with the good stuff.

“Perhaps you didn’t know, but for each new dollar of ‘value added’ by the performing arts industry in California, the state’s economy gains $1.38.” You smile triumphantly, holding back that well-deserved pat on the back.

Not so fast.

According to Waller, you’ve already lost the battle. Their eyes have glazed over and they’re thinking about whether it’s their turn to bring in the office donuts tomorrow.

But why? you ask. I spoke their language!

As explained by Waller, the use of economic impact facts and figures by well-meaning arts advocates is a misguided approach. The same goes for the other favorite tool in the bag of arts advocacy tricks – arts education.

Facts and figures are boring, and often do little to dispel any skepticism on the part of the listener. Arts education, while successful in inciting far more excitement in the listener, is often a tricky route to navigate. The excitement lies in the education component, leaving the arts part of the matter lying sad and forgotten in the dust.

It’s these typical non-responses or misguided responses to arts advocacy efforts that led Waller, with the Topos Partnership, to develop a research initiative aimed at determining which arguments for artistic value resonated with the general community, which did not, and which were even proving detrimental to the cause.

Surprising results

Through hundreds of talkback sessions designed to uncover what people think about a topic, rather than what they know about it, Waller found some surprising results – most notable being that “the arts” were often equated to entertainment. That in itself wasn’t terribly surprising. More surprising was the equation between the two. When viewing the arts as entertainment (a private choice), many failed to see why they were deserving of public concern and funding.

Whither arts advocacy?

If that is, indeed, the prevailing sentiment, is there even a place for arts advocacy?

Before you grow too despondent, allow me to pull you from the ledge. There is some good news. While it was true many people viewed the arts as nice but not necessary (and certainly not necessary with regard to public funding), Waller did find that there’s really no active opposition to the arts. In fact, most individuals, regardless of whether they believed the arts to be a matter of public concern, associated the arts with two specific benefits:

1. The arts contribute to neighborhood vibrancy
2. The arts connect people

The kicker was that even if individuals were not attending or actively participating in arts-related activities, they still believed in these two benefits.

The key, then, as Waller discovered, was to draw upon these positive associations already residing within the hearts and minds of individuals and use them to the arts advocate’s advantage.

Rather than fighting to overcome hurdles already laid out clear and menacing, why not take the path of least resistance by working with the positives and build from there? A notion revolutionary in that it’s not revolutionary at all.

Put down the stats sheet?

-          Yes!

Drop the picture of children huddled over an arts and crafts table?

-          Yes! Well, sort of. Pictures of children eagerly tucking into arts projects are great, as long as the pictures are within the larger frame of the arts contributing to the connecting of those children, not solely within the long-favored framework of arts education.

Shifting the conversation

The discussions framing the arts need to be shifted from the personal to the public arena. The way to achieve that shift is through the notion that creative activity sets off a ripple effect of significant benefits throughout the community, contributing to its overall vibrancy and connectedness.

In addition to shifting this framework within one’s own public relations and advocacy efforts – be it for a single organization, a local arts community, or the arts nationwide – a crucial factor in making this approach work is ensuring that your message is conveyed clearly across all channels. Often, those channels are trickling down from our friend/foe, the press.

Sure, you can’t control the press 100% of the time (ha!) but you can work with the press on a regular basis to provide them with the framework in which you’ve already carefully laid out your pro-arts messages.

When they contact you looking for an image to run with their coverage of your event, don’t send them the static picture of a playbill or the symphony hall that does little to demonstrate to the community the positive impact of your arts organization. Instead, send them the pictures of the audience mingling before the performance, or the artist chatting with a gallery patron at an opening.

Yes, you read right – no need to even show images of the orchestra/artwork/ballet; what is important is conveying how those things contribute to the vibrancy and connectedness of a community.

Of course, it isn’t merely a matter of being PR savvy. If you want your community to start thinking collectively with regard to the arts, then you have to start thinking collectively as well. Get creative! For more inspiration, and in-depth report on Waller’s findings, check out The Arts Ripple Effect.

If it’s always a fight down to the eleventh hour to get the support and funding, why not focus your efforts on shifting the community’s day-to-day mindset about the arts so that it never has to come down to the eleventh hour? Forget the stats and work with the values already in place: the arts contribute to the overall vibrancy and connectedness of a community; investment in the arts is an investment in our community.

Discussion:

What are some of the ways you have worked to advocate for the arts within your community?  What worked?  What didn’t?

Are you surprised by Waller’s findings?  Will you adopt any of them to benefit your specific arts advocacy efforts? 

About Alison Konecki

Alison Konecki is a freelance arts program and development consultant and a recent San Francisco transplant. She graduated with a B.A. in Art History and English from Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y. and received an M.A. in Art and Museum Studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. During her tenure at Georgetown she spent a semester in London where she completed a course in Art and Business with a focus on contemporary art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Prior to her move Westward, Alison was the development and community outreach coordinator for Transformer, a non-profit alternative art space in Washington, D.C., where she coordinated public programming initiatives including the organization’s Framework Panel Series, and assisted with development operations ranging from grant writing to donor cultivation. While in D.C., Alison also served as co-founder of Knowledge Commons DC – a free, self-generating “school” designed to provide non-traditional community learning and instruction.

The issue

I remember being a college freshman, listening to everyone introduce themselves and their major (the latter of course being a seemingly crucial component of any introduction at the time), and thinking to myself how lucky I was to be responding “art history.”

My job was to study the world’s innovators, creators, beauty makers, thought-provokers, and doers! My very bones vibrated with the sheer thrill of it.  Let the political science majors have their policy debates, and the finance majors fuss over bulls and bears. My work would be steeped in the things that made life beautiful and wondrous.

Although my complete naïveté didn’t persist much beyond the first semester (and thankfully so, I discovered, when my career landed me knee-deep in the world of non-profit arts), I had no idea its lingering fragments were yet to meet their greatest match.

Gentrification.

Having lived and worked in Washington, D.C. while bearing witness to gentrification’s wildfire sweep across broad swaths of the city over the course of a mere three years, I was no stranger to the term and its significance. However, until recently, I had only thought of the arts as one of a number of victims left bobbing and scrabbling for air in gentrification’s mighty wake. It wasn’t until the matter was turned thoroughly on its head – the arts as harbingers of gentrification – that my naïve notion of the arts reaping only positive effects was truly pulverized.

It came as a question: “What are your thoughts on the fact that the work you do [in the arts] can, and often does, lead to the displacement of communities and cultures?” (I paraphrase slightly, only because my surprise at the question left me feeling rattled and subsequently unable to recall the exact wording).

What were my thoughts? It was certainly true that artists were often the forerunners in up-and-coming neighborhoods. In fact, when advocating for greater arts funding, my go-to practical argument had always been that the arts create a robust economy – where the arts go, restaurants, shops, and residents were sure to follow.

And there it was, staring me in the face – the flipside to art’s ripple effect.

Although suddenly so clear to me, what was less clear was what was to be done. Cutting off arts funding and growth at the knees (god forbid) wasn’t the answer, but neither was playing naïve. I fumbled through an awkward response as I rolled these two extremes around my brain, desperately hoping an intelligent response would eventually emerge from my babbling lips. Alas, this did not occur.

Compounding my confusion was KQED’s Forum program “How Much Tech Can San Francisco Take?” I stumbled upon only a few days later. The program examins the rapid rise of the tech industry in the Bay Area, with critics arguing that “the trend and its accompanying high rents [are] shutting out artists . . . and threatening the very soul of the city.” The soul of the city. Yes! On went my rosy arts specs again. The arts are the soul of a city – not just in San Francisco, but in all cities, with each arts community a unique product of the particular city/neighborhood/enclave of which it is a part.

That was it. I was determined to explore art’s role in gentrification so that I could approach the issue with deeper understanding: with eyes open, yet hopefully still slightly tinted with the rosy hue emanating from a firm belief that the arts ultimately have a great life-enriching capacity.

Exploring the issue, one organization at a time  

Approaching gentrification as a matter unique to each community that it affects, I began my exploration with a specific organization and community with which I already had a great deal of familiarity.

Sitting from my perch in the loft of Transformer, the non-profit gallery where I worked during my time in D.C., I was able to see a broad pageant of humanity walk past and peer into the gallery’s storefront window on any given day. Transformer’s executive and artistic director often remarked that the beauty of the space’s location meant a daily audience running the gamut from hipsters on their way to see a show at the divey music venue up the street, to homeless women and children staying at the shelter two blocks away, to Lululemon-bedecked yogis attending one of a half-dozen studios within a quarter mile radius, to clients on their way to the barbershop next door.

An interesting cross-section to be sure, but what did that mean?

By the time I arrived at Transformer, the gallery was already in its seventh year of operations, during which the neighborhood had undergone tremendous change. The nearest cross street, once rife with vacant lots and a multitude of abandoned buildings in various states of disrepair, had over the years proven a fertile space for clothing boutiques and restaurants to take root. True, “old” neighborhood holdouts such as the barbershop could still be found, but their number was far eclipsed by specialty food shops and trendy bars. Was the “interesting” mélange of people what that neighborhood envisioned for itself years ago? And where did Transformer fit in in all of this? A perpetrator? A soon-to-be victim? A mere witness?

Recently, Transformer, in partnership with fellow DC arts and community organizations Pleasant Plains Workshop and Artspace DC, held a panel discussion examining gentrification and its relationship to disappearing histories. The panel was full of great perspectives and ideas (too many to touch upon here – but click the link and watch an uploaded video of the panel!), but one thread of dialogue in particular resonated with me. The panelist Sylvia Robinson, Executive Director of Emergence Community Arts Collective, mentioned that “You can’t just truck in resources. You have to learn to work with the neighborhood, the culture that’s there.”

The key isn’t to parachute in with a mind to change/improve/save, but rather, to strive for equitable development. Whether an artist or arts space, you enter a community because you believe it has unique characteristics that will enable you and your work to flourish (mind you, I said it has, not it could have).

To wit:

Once, Transformer had a new potential funder stop by.  Having recently moved into the neighborhood, this gentleman was intent on investing in his home turf.  Excited for new-blood enthusiasm, we eagerly prepared for his visit with a private viewing reception complete with bubbly refreshments. He arrived, we popped the cork, and began talking about the current exhibition, when suddenly, with a quick slashing of his hand, we were interrupted.

“First,” he said, “we need to talk about your sign.”

Our sign? This man was standing amidst a tangle of brilliantly-colored sculpture seemingly defying gravity as it floated above our heads and he wanted to talk about our sign?!  I will spare you the train wreck that ensued, but suffice it to say, he just didn’t get it. He thought we needed more flash. He didn’t see us as a worthy investment until we looked like a worthy investment. With all the amazing work we were doing to provide a space in which emerging artists had the breathing room to push the boundaries of their practice (not to mention the cost of doing that work), this gentleman had the chance to really make an impact furthering his community, and instead he was preoccupied with changing it.

True, our “sign” was merely a hand-stenciled “t r a n s f o r m e r” painted above the storefront. But our barbershop neighbors had a small hand-painted sign too, featuring mini portraits of each of the barbers painted by one of Transformer’s artists. There was quiet unity in that, and we were okay keeping it that way.

What does that mean?

At the time, I didn’t grasp the full significance of what happened at Transformer. Looking at it now through the lens of Ms. Robinson’s assertion that equitable development comes from within a community, I see that we were pushing back against the misguided notion of “improvement” that gentrification so often carries with it. It was a subtle protest to be sure, but an important one nonetheless. We couldn’t force that gentleman out of the neighborhood, but we could decide that we weren’t interested in accepting his “patronage.”

I still stand firm in my belief in the positive effects of the arts. However, I now offer a slight key amendment to that assertion:  The arts are at their best when in service to their respective communities. Only then can they truly enhance our world through their powerful ability to provoke thought, challenge norms, and show us the beauty hovering otherwise unseen in the everyday.

***

Gentrification is an extremely complicated topic with many layers and viewpoints. It is our job as artists, and arts administrators and advocates, to work collaboratively with our respective communities to develop tailored, creative approaches toward equitable development. I haven’t nearly begun to scratch the surface in this discussion, so I invite you to check out the links below, and add your comments and suggestions so that we can grow this crucial dialogue.

•  Are Artists Pawns or Players in the Gentrification of Low-Income Urban Neighborhoods?
• The Fine Art of Gentrification
• The Artistic Mode of Revolution: From Gentrification to Occupation

About Alison Konecki

Alison Konecki is a freelance arts program and development consultant and a recent San Francisco transplant. She graduated with a B.A. in Art History and English from Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y. and received an M.A. in Art and Museum Studies from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. During her tenure at Georgetown she spent a semester in London where she completed a course in Art and Business with a focus on contemporary art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art. Prior to her move Westward, Alison was the development and community outreach coordinator for Transformer, a non-profit alternative art space in Washington, D.C., where she coordinated public programming initiatives including the organization’s Framework Panel Series, and assisted with development operations ranging from grant writing to donor cultivation. While in D.C., Alison also served as co-founder of Knowledge Commons DC – a free, self-generating “school” designed to provide non-traditional community learning and instruction.

Image: Adapted from photo by Sharat Ganapati