TODAY

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By Sanjit Sethi.

The landscape of cultural policy is a constantly shifting one. Not unlike the rapidly changing face of our planet we can similarly see changes in cultural policy by looking at both larger national / global policy as well as by examining more intimate local policy as it relates to specific communities. While the phrase “think globally, act locally” is somewhat tired and overused, it still holds relevance to an approach towards enhancing a community’s ability to celebrate who they are – one of the cornerstones of cultural policy. Due to factors including, but not limited to, the economic downturn, the housing crisis, and state / local / national governments feeling budgetary constrictions, it is easy to lose any semblance of a thoughtful process in examining the direction that cultural policy is headed. In many ways these factors, these seemingly uncontrollable forces, shape and shift any attempt towards enacting cultural policy both on the national / global scale as well as in our own backyards.

Currently art and government organizations are trying to stay alive. They are trying to meet a varied and diverse constituency with limited resources. Painting with a broad brush, many organizations operate in a manner in which the policy and decision making is far removed from the day-to-day aspects of programming. Cultural policy cannot separate itself from issues of immigration policy, social justice, human rights, and equity. It is ideally a celebration of diversity, a celebration of sameness and difference. And yet cultural policy is very much under attack by a jingoistic backlash in this country (best witnessed by the Tea Party Movement) that seeks to homogenize and polarize.

 

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Sanjit Sethi is Director of the Center for Art and Public Life, and the Barclay Simpson Chair of Community Art at California College of the Arts.  Sethi received a BFA in 1994 from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, an MFA in 1998 from the University of Georgia, and an MS in Advanced Visual Studies in 2002 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sethi has been an artist in residence at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada and a Fulbright fellow in Bangalore, India, working on the Building Nomads Project. Sethi continued his strong focus on interdisciplinary collaboration as director of the MFA program at the Memphis College of Art. His work deals with issues of nomadism, identity, the residue of labor, and memory. Sethi recently completed the Kuni Wada Bakery Remembrance, an olfactory-based memorial in Memphis, Tennessee; and Richmond Voting Stories, a collaborative video project involving youth and senior residents of Richmond, CA. Sethi’s current works include Indians/Indians, the Urban Defibrillator, and a series of writings on the territory of failure and its relationship to collaborative cultural practice, all of which involve varied social and geographic communities.

Don’t miss Reframing the Arts : Advocating for the Public Culture at Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)
on Saturday, April 16! Register here.

We've moved & our Cultural Policy 101 Blog Salon starts today!

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Hello!

Emerging Arts Professionals/SFBA has moved to emergingsf.org Please visit us on our shiny new site.

“Who We Are” – The Cultural 101 Blog Salon Begins Today

Emerging Arts Professionals/SFBA and Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)
are proud to kick off the Cultural Policy 101 Blog Salon today! Dedicated
to reframing the issues around cultural policies, check into emergingsf.org
daily and follow our insightful guest bloggers who will investigate
policies, promote alternative solutions, and address issues that
affect our cultural sector.

Below is just a sampling of what you will find on the Emerging Arts
Professionals website this week:

Who We Are
by Arlene Goldbard
Writer, activist, blogger

I admit it: I’m obsessed. I turn my attention to the way we spend our
commonwealth as a nation, and like a song you can’t get out of your head,
the cultural policy questions that matter most to me keep cycling through:
Who are we as a people? What do we want to remembered for, our vast
creativity, or our prodigious ability to punish?

Most mainstream debate about cultural policy in the U.S. actually focuses
on one question, arts funding. Recently, the focus has been on cuts to the
budgets of state arts agencies and the National Endowment for the Arts.

To read more, please visit our website at http://emergingsf.org/?p=52.

Stay tuned this week for more posts from other cultural advocates such as :

Eboni Senai Hawkins (see.think.dance)
http://www.seethinkdance.com/
Randolph Belle (Support Oakland Artists)
http://supportoaklandartists.org/
Nancy Hernandez (Program Manager, Estria Foundation)
http://estria.org/
Jacinda Abcarian, Executive Director, Youth Radio,
http://www.youthradio.org/
Kenji Liu –Writer, Graphic designer, Cultural Worker
http://liusan.wordpress.com
Kristi Holohan & Ara Jo, Class Directors, Rock Paper Scissors Collective
http://rpscollective.com/
Susan Mernit, Editor/Publisher, Oakland Local
http://oaklandlocal.com/
Sanjit Sethi, Center for Art in Public Like, CCA
http://center.cca.edu

***This salon can only work with YOUR participation.  Please share your
hopes, insights, and criticisms of the arts and culture sector. There is
a lot of potential to investigate and to inspire; so visit emergingsf.org
daily from April 11th-15th for updated postings and comments.

Questions? Contact: nextgenerationsf@gmail.com

Making Dance Visible: Prioritizing Place for Public Performance in Oakland

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by Eboni Senai Hawkins

“Our communities need to see our artists doing their art.” ~ Senay Dennis (aka Refa 1)

As a transplant from New York (8 years and counting), I have come to expect the performing arts to take over the landscape during warm weather in major cities.  New York sets the bar with Summer Stage across 5 boroughs.  L.A. organizes Grand Performances in spite of its urban sprawl. Chicago, with only 2.5 real warm months, has a jam-packed schedule at Millenium Park.  San Francisco’s approach is a little disjointed but at least the effort is there: Stern Grove and Outside Lands fill a niche. And in SF, when all else fails, there’s always someone performing at BART & MUNI’s busiest stations.

So what’s going on in Oakland?

Oakland is home to some 90 parks, (compare that to Brooklyn’s 39).  With so much public space, why are we only graced with two days for the Art and Soul Festival, four days of Sundays in the Redwoods, and a smattering of lunchtime performances as part of Sweet Summer Sounds?  In the debate around encouraging arts appreciation in youth, why are we not making it simple, direct, and affordable?  While we’re at it, why not change the focus in favor of involving whole families through a dynamic network of outdoor, neighborhood-based performances that span the range from music to dance to theater?

Outdoor performances (usually) = free performances.

The economics don’t add up. Nor should they, according to Arlene Goldbard’s urging that we “start with open eyes: refuse to pretend this debate is about money; explain how the arts are being used to send a political message.”  Oakland’s political message is a charged one that mimics the overall United States emphasis to exercise control and boundaries rather than encouraging diverse communities to connect around public performance.  What if, post-Mesherle verdict, the City of Oakland spent less on overtime for law enforcement officials and invited Turf Feinz and Youth Uprising to engage the public in a dance demonstration at Frank Ogawa Plaza?

What if Oakland committed to outdoor performances as much as is its highly-publicized restoration projects?  CBS Outdoor contributed $6.5 million in billboard revenue so that Oakland School of the Arts could pre-pay its first seven years of rent to the Fox Theater.  What if the City negotiated with CBS Outdoor to use a portion of the billboard’s continued revenue to support site-specific performance activating the Uptown Sculpture Garden?

In the midst of the furor around Mayor Quan’s most recent push to cut Oakland’s arts funding, we also need to look at our neighbors’ understanding of “the arts”.

I would bet that the majority of Oakland-ers, like the majority of Americans, don’t define themselves as artists or see “the arts” as vital to their lives.  Even in the Bay Area, where we are supposedly so culturally-literate, I listen closely to the subtext when young second-generation business owners think artists are people who just want to “live off society” and graduates of Berkeley High are instantly cynical when a new acquaintance describes herself as “an artist.”  What if Oakland’s residents, encouraged by the presence of dance and music almost in their backyards, became more active cultural stewards, showing just as much enthusiasm for new bars and restaurants as the performance-packed but seemingly one-off Uptown Unveiled?

Performance artist, Adesola Akinleye, discussing the overlapping elements of bodies and buildings, writes:

“… The person who watches dancing does none of the physical work themselves but in perceiving the performance they experience the rhythm of it as though it were in their own body…  I see choreography working in such a way that the audience becomes aware of their own feeling of the aesthetic of the body in space.  I aim for my work to continue to be alive within the space when the dancing bodies have finished; for the dance to have left a trace.”

Dance demands a kinesthetic empathy, a way of experiencing art bodily simply by watching.  Another video featuring Turf Feinz is “RIP Rich D”.  The intense and simple beauty of humans finding an outlet for mourning through movement has accumulated over 2.5 million views on YouTube.  Such empathy has the potential to pierce the layers of urban existence and bring together Oakland’s diverse yet self-segregated neighborhoods.  Especially if we commit to it in public.

 

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Eboni Senai Hawkins is the Producing Artistic Director of see. think. dance.
After valuable experiences in arts administration (Jacob’s Pillow Dance, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet), she took a leap of faith and started working directly with the art and artists she loved.

Inspired by the opportunity to present intimate performance in a low-pressure environment, Eboni curated a short program for the June 2007 Mission Arts Performance Project (MAPP) hosted by the Red Poppy Art House, featuring dancers Antoine Hunter and Rashad Pridgen.

The response from the primarily visual arts/music audience was overwhelming and in collaboration with Todd Brown and the Red Poppy’s Street-Level Curating Program, Eboni established see. think. dance. to produceTruth + Beauty (November 2007), Word. Warrior. Music. Movement. (March 2008), and Urban Art Sessions(May 2008).

May 2008 also marked the formation of and the first performative installment by The Intimacy Project, an ongoing collaboration between artists/educators who draw creative inspiration from their connection to the African continent and are deeply invested in social change through the re-integration of the mind and the body.  Losing a dancer at the last moment and concerned with the flow of the evening’s program, Eboni overcame her fear of the stage to perform a duet with actor Kwesi Hutchful, a movement composition incorporating media installation, tempest tossed by lauren woods and layered with a recorded version of Intro to Kemetic Science by David Boyce.

In 2010, heavily influenced by the REVIVE workshop, Eboni created the annual REflect film series as part of the Black Choreographers’ Festival: Here and Now. Subtitled “The Black Dancing Body on Film”, REflect mines the rich visual history of Black dancers and choreographers on film through a dynamic selection of documentaries, feature films, and shorts.

 

Don’t miss Reframing the Arts : Advocating for the Public Culture at Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)
on Saturday, April 16! Register here.

Who We Are

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By Arlene Goldbard .

I admit it: I’m obsessed. I turn my attention to the way we spend our commonwealth as a nation, and like a song you can’t get out of your head, the cultural policy questions that matter most to me keep cycling through: Who are we as a people? What do we want to remembered for, our vast creativity, or our prodigious ability to punish?

Most mainstream debate about cultural policy in the U.S. actually focuses on one question, arts funding. Recently, the focus has been on cuts to the budgets of state arts agencies and the National Endowment for the Arts. (If you’re interested, check out my 3-part series on the subject, “Life Implicates Art.”)

Cultural policy is much, much bigger. It’s the aggregate of public statements and actions affecting cultural life. That includes support for artists and arts organizations; regulations and other policies affecting the commercial cultural industries (for-profit film, TV, music); telecommunications policies that regulate the internet, TV, and radio; education policies affecting what is taught, whose culture is deemed worth learning—and much, much more.

The tiny portion of public funds going to arts and culture has been accurately described as the equivalent of a rounding error in categories like public spending on the military or prisons. Nevertheless, when budget-cutting happens these days, culture is treated like a significant center for cost-savings. Politicians use the arts as a form of symbolic speech, to signal a get-serious attitude. In return, they get a lot of credit for almost no impact on the deficit.

It reminds me of a joke that’s making the rounds, inspired by recent events in Wisconsin: a CEO, a Tea Party member, and a union member are sharing a plate of cookies. The CEO takes 11 of the 12 cookies, then turns to the Tea Partier and says, “Watch out! That union member wants a piece of your cookie.”

The truth about arts funding is even more stark: for the last decade, we taxpayers have been spending the equivalent of two annual NEA budgets a day, seven days a week, on war. In the recent legislation extending Bush-era tax cuts, the U.S. Treasury lost $225 billion in revenues from tax breaks specifically tailored to benefit high-income taxpayers. In our version of the joke, the CEO is the world’s largest war and prison industries; the union member is an artist; and the Tea Partier is all the other social programs duking it out. But it isn’t one cookie out of a dozen we’re fighting over; it’s barely a crumb.

People who specialize in framing public issues—campaign advisors, for instance, and other strategists—tell us it’s not the facts and figures of an issue that matter most, it’s how the issue is framed. How big is the picture? Who is in it? How do the pieces connect? One popular way of explaining this is to show a group of people two pictures. In the first, group members see a bunch of sick-looking cattle in a field. When asked why the animals are ill, they speculate that the farmer has neglected them, or they have a virus, or they don’t have enough food. Then the picture is switched. In the second image, the frame is enlarged. Behind the hill, group members see a huge factory, belching black smoke. Suddenly, other reasons for the cattle’s illness occur to them: the air is polluted, chemicals are in the animals’ drinking water, and so on.

Our arts funding debate is like the first picture, a frame far too small to hold adequate information. What do you want to fund, politicians ask, school lunches or the arts? Health care or art? But when we pull back for a long shot, we see that those aren’t the choices. Officials are choosing tax breaks for the wealthiest over cultural funding; they are building prisons faster than schools and quibbling over an NEA budget that equals half a day’s worth of war funding.

If we bring the big picture into the frame, what values are driving our current cultural policy? I’m ashamed to say that they are the same values the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., listed 44 years ago in his famous speech at Riverside Church: “the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism.”

We can change this, but we have to start by telling the truth about what’s at stake. Who are we as a people? What do we want to remembered for, our vast creativity, or our prodigious ability to punish?

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Arlene Goldbard is a writer, speaker, consultant and cultural activist whose focus is the intersection of culture, politics and spirituality. Her blog and other writings may be downloaded from her Web site: www.arlenegoldbard.com. She was born in New York and grew up near San Francisco. Her most recent book, New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development was published by New Village Press in November 2006. She is also co-author of Community, Culture and Globalization, an international anthology published by the Rockefeller Foundation, Crossroads: Reflections on the Politics of Culture, and Clarity, a novel. Her essays have been published in In Motion Magazine, Art in America, Theatre, Tikkun, and many other journals. She has addressed many academic and community audiences in the U.S. and Europe, on topics ranging from the ethics of community arts practice to the development of integral organizations. She has provided advice and counsel to hundreds of community-based organizations, independent media groups, and public and private funders and policymakers including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Independent Television Service, Appalshop and dozens of others. She is currently writing a new book on art’s public purpose. She serves as President of the Board of Directors of The Shalom Center.

 

Don’t miss Reframing the Arts : Advocating for the Public Culture at Oakland Museum of California (OMCA)
on Saturday, April 16! Register here.

Reframing The Arts: Advocating for Culture

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Reframing The Arts: Advocating for The Public Interest in Culture

April 16th – Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) – 1p-4p

If you’re energized by the blog salon and want to delve deeper into these issues we invite you to Reframing The Arts: Advocating for The Public Interest in Culture April 16th 1p-4p in the James Moore Theatre of Oakland Museum of California.

In this highly interactive workshop led by Arlene Goldbard you will have the opportunity to work in small teams. Participants will explore this cultural policy issue from many angles and build a composite picture of the way arts, culture and its value are currently understood. Participants will also be able to discover the values, stories, images, and metaphors that have the potential to effectively reframe this debate. It’s advocacy for the future and its starts with you. We hope you can join us.

Reframing The Arts: Advocating for The Public Interest in Culture April 16th 1p-4p in the James Moore Theatre of Oakland Museum.

This program is free, but please register here.

Cultural Policy 101 : A Blog Salon

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Cultural Policy 101 : A Blog Salon

Are you an aspiring blogger or cultural policy wonk?  An artist, activist or arts professional interested in joining the cutting edge of cultural thinking?

Then you’ll want to tune into our blog salon Cultural Policy 101 April 11-15.

Arts funding seems to be perpetually in crisis, but lately, the crisis has escalated. But the truth is, 30 years of relying on economic arguments and “support the arts” slogans have yielded a decline in the real value of NEA funding of more than half. This year’s NEA budget would have to be $400 million just to equal the spending power of 1980.

It’s time to enlarge the debate.

To respond to this conversation, Emerging Arts Professionals and Oakland Museum of California will host a conversation on this issue. Cultural Policy 101 will leverage the voices of Oakland arts leaders to discuss how we can move from a failed strategy to one that captures the true power, scope, and promise of the public interest in culture.

Our salon will feature writers, activists and arts professionals such as Arlene Goldbard (writer, activist, blogger), Randolph Belle (Support Oakland Artists), Nancy Hernandez (Program Manager, Estria Foundation), Sanjit Sethi (Director, Center for Art in Public Life, CCA), Jacinda Abcarian (Executive Director, Youth Radio), Kenji Liu (Writer, Graphic designer, Cultural Worker), Kristi Holohan and Ara Jo (Rock Paper Scissors Collective) and Susan Mernit (Editor/Publisher Oakland Local and media entrepreneur).

For more information or to find out how YOU can participate click here:

You can participate by visiting the blog daily at emergingsf.org April 11-15 for updated postings, and please comment often! We want you to be a part of this important conversation. What is the public interest in culture? Do we want to promote equity? Active participation in community life? Expand opportunity for marginalized voices? Beautify the built environment, creating sites of public memory that speak to everyone?

Are you an aspiring blogger or cultural policy wonk? An artist, activist or arts professional interested in joining the cutting edge of cultural thinking?

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Then you’ll want to tune into our blog salon Cultural Policy 101 – April 11-15 and Reframing the Arts Workshop – April 16.

Cultural Policy 101 : A Blog Salon
Arts funding seems to be perpetually in crisis, but lately, the crisis has escalated. But the truth is, 30 years of relying on economic arguments and “support the arts” slogans have yielded a decline in the real value of NEA funding of more than half. This year’s NEA budget would have to be $400 million just to equal the spending power of 1980.

It’s time to enlarge the debate.

To respond to this conversation, Emerging Arts Professionals and the Oakland Museumwill host a conversation on this issue. Cultural Policy 101 will leverage the voices of Oakland arts leaders to discuss how we can move from a failed strategy to one that captures the true power, scope, and promise of the public interest in culture.

Our salon will feature writers, activists and arts professionals such as Arlene Goldbard(writer, activist, blogger), Randolph Belle (Support Oakland Artists), Nancy Hernandez(Program Manager, Estria Foundation), Sanjit Sethi (Director, Center for Art in Public Life, CCA), Jacinda Abcarian (Executive Director, Youth Radio), Kenji Liu (Writer, Graphic designer, Cultural Worker), Kristi Holohan and Ara Jo (Rock Paper Scissors Collective), Susan Mernit (Editor/Publisher Oakland Local and media entrepreneur), and Eboni Hawkins ( Artistic Director, see. think. dance.)

You can participate by visiting the blog daily at emergingsf.org April 11-15 for updated postings, and please comment often! We want you to be a part of this important conversation. What is the public interest in culture? Do we want to promote equity? Active participation in community life? Expand opportunity for marginalized voices? Beautify the built environment, creating sites of public memory that speak to everyone? For more information about how you can participate, go to emergingsf.org.

Reframing the Arts: Advocating for the Public Interest in Culture
April 16, 2011, 1-4pm
Oakland Museum, James Moore Theatre
FREE
Register Here: http://reframingthearts.eventbrite.com/

If you’re energized by the blog salon and want to delve deeper into these issues we invite you to Reframing the Arts: Advocating for the Public Interest in Culture April 16th 1p-4p in the James Moore Theatre of Oakland Museum.

In this highly interactive workshop led by Arlene Goldbard you will have the opportunity to work in small teams. Participants will explore this cultural policy issue from many angles and build a composite picture of the way arts, culture and its value are currently understood. Participants will also be able to discover the values, stories, images, and metaphors that have the potential to effectively reframe this debate. It’s advocacy for the future and its starts with you. We hope you can join us.

Reframing The Arts: Advocating for The Public Interest in Culture April 16th 1p-4p in the James Moore Theatre of Oakland Museum.
This program is free, but please register at http://reframingthearts.eventbrite.com/

And don’t forget about Friday First – Sight
Friday, April 1, 6-9pm

Join us for Sight at the Palace of Fine Arts and the Exploratorium as we delve into the fun of art making without sight. Challenge the way you look at the world – use your intuition, instinct and your other senses. Join us for a blind photography challenge, where you will photograph what is around you in blindfolds; continue looking into a world without sight in the Exploratorium’s Tactile Dome – an interactive excursion through total darkness, where your sense of touch becomes your only guide. Afterwards, join us for drinks, and look through the “blind” photographs taken during the evening. Please join us for this “sensational” experience!

What: Sight – Part of the Emerging Arts Professionals Friday Firsts Series 

When: Friday, April 1, 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Location: Palace of the Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA @ Exploratorium/Tactile Dome
***Meet under the gazebo for blind photography (unlimited RSVP). Tactile Dome limits 30 people (RSVP now). Please bring a digital camera.

Why: Because you’re cool and we’re cool, and it’s going to be a fun evening
Price: $10 payable on site 

RSVP HERE: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1477436051

Questions? Contact: nextgenerationsf@gmail.com
Mark your calendars! Upcoming Friday Firsts include:
April 29 – Hearing @ The Audium
May 27 – Taste @ Straw
June 10 – Smell @ Hayes Valley Farm
Questions? Contact: nextgenerationsf@gmail.com

Upcoming Events in April You Won't Want to Miss

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You Are Invited… 

Thank you to all those who attended Touch earlier in March, the first of Emerging Arts Professionals’ Friday Firsts, an ongoing series created by EAP’s Fellowship Program at the one of a kind House of Air. There was a lot of laughter, incredible people, and amazing jumping skills showcased. Friday Firsts mixers are specially designed to engage the senses and to help those who work in the arts to get together, unwind and more importantly, get to KNOW each other in novel and exciting ways! We invite you to be a part of all of EAP’s programs and series of events, aimed at encouraging exploration, risk taking and creating a stronger community of arts and cultural workers.

If you enjoyed Touch, Emerging Arts Professionals invites you to the next event in the Friday Firsts series – Sight. Join us for Sight at the Palace of Fine Arts and the Exploratorium as we delve into the fun of art making without sight. Challenge the way you look at the world – use your intuition, instinct and your other senses. Join us for a blind photography challenge, where you will photograph what is around you in blindfolds; continue looking into a world without sight in the Exploratorium’s Tactile Dome – an interactive excursion through total darkness, where your sense of touch becomes your only guide. Afterwards, join us for drinks, and look through the “blind” photographs taken during the evening. Please join us for this “sensational” experience! 

What: Sight – Part of the Emerging Arts Professionals Friday Firsts Series

When: Friday, April 1, 6:00pm – 9:00pm

Location: Palace of the Fine Arts, 3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA @ Exploratorium/Tactile Dome
***Meet under the gazebo for blind photography (unlimited RSVP). Tactile Dome limits 30 people (RSVP now). Please bring a digital camera.

Why: Because you’re cool and we’re cool, and it’s going to be a fun evening
Price: $10 payable on site 

RSVP HERE: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1477436051

Questions? Contact: nextgenerationsf@gmail.com
Mark your calendars! Upcoming Friday Firsts include:
April 29 – Hearing @ The Audium
May 27 – Taste @ Straw
June 10 – Smell @ Hayes Valley Farm
MORE UPCOMING EVENTS… 

Arts funding seems to be perpetually in crisis, but lately, the crisis has escalated. But the truth is, 30 years of relying on economic arguments and “support the arts” slogans have yielded a decline in the real value of NEA funding of more than half. This year’s NEA budget would have to be $400 million just to equal the spending power of 1980. It’s time to enlarge the debate. Emerging Arts Professionals along with Oakland Museum will tackle these issues and more with a blog salon and Workshop aimed to delve deeper into the issues and examine ways to harness the true power, scope and promise of the public interest in culture.

Cultural Policy 101 : A Blog Salon – April 11 through April 15
Are you an aspiring blogger or cultural policy wonk?  An artist, activist or arts professional interested in joining the cutting edge of cultural thinking? Then you’ll want to tune into our blog salon! Cultural Policy 101 will feature prominent blog writers, activists and arts professionals and you can participate in the dialogue by visiting EAP’s blog daily and join the conversation. More details to come!

Reframing the Arts: Advocating for the Public Interest in Culture – April 16 at the Oakland Museum
If you’re energized by the blog salon and want to invite you delve deeper into these issues with others interested in the future of arts policy, we invite you to Reframing the Arts: Advocating for the Public Interest in Culture April 16th, 1p-4p in the James Moore Theatre of Oakland Museum. Stay tuned for updates on this event! If you would like to RSVP to this event, please email nextgenerationsf@gmail.com.

Questions? Contact: nextgenerationsf@gmail.com

Hearing – Friday Firsts Mixer

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“Emerging Arts Professionals invites you to the third event in the Friday Firsts series – Hearing. Socialize with other arts professionals at Hemlock Tavern before a unique sonic experience at AUDIUM “a theatre of sound-sculptured space.” Explore your sense of hearing and delight your ears with experimental sound works while visiting the only space of its kind! A place constructed specifically for choreographing sound in space. And stay tuned for an EAP-exclusive Q&A with composer Stan Shaff, a trumpet player, composer, teacher and the co-creator and developer AUDIUM.What: Hearing, part of the Emerging Arts Professionals Friday First Series
When: April 29, 2011
Where: Hemlock Tavern and AUDIUM
Hemlock Tavern – 6:30pm 1131 Polk Street San Francisco, CA 94109-5541 (415) 923-0923
AUDIUM – 8:30pm 1616 Bush Street San Francisco, CA 94109-5308 (415) 771-1616 Questions contact nextgenerationsf@gmail.com Price: $20.00 payable on site.

The first 20 people to RSVP get the EAP discount of $15 ($5 off the regular $20 ticket). Anyone RSVPing after the 20 person limit will need to purchase their own ticket directly from Audium. Other things to note: We will leave Hemlock Tavern after drinks and socializing at 8pm and walk to AUDIUM.

Please note AUDIUM is performed in complete darkness for a sustained period of time.

Mark your calendars! Upcoming Friday Firsts include: May 27 – Taste @ Straw and June 10 – Smell @ Hayes Valley Farm.

Friday Firsts is a networking series designed for arts and culture workers in the Bay Area. Emerging Arts Professionals/SFBA is a network focused on empowerment, leadership, and growth of next generation arts and culture workers in the San Francisco Bay Area through knowledge sharing, learning opportunities, and partnerships. By supporting today’s emerging models and mindsets, we hope to generate a path for individuals’ meaningful and sustainable work and to stimulate a vibrant, integrated, and evolving arts and culture sector. http://emergingsf.org

For more information visit http://www.audium.org/ www.hemlocktavern.com

About AUDIUM
Stan Shaff: From his early career in the 1950s as a trumpet player, composer and teacher, Stan Shaff gravitated towards stretching boundaries and shaping new forms. His friendship and collaboration with painter and sculptor Seymour Locksexpanded his grounding in the arts. His high school band students performed improvisational light-sound programs, including one at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; he explored the nature of sound in relation to movement with Anna Halprin’s Dancers Workshop; curious about sound bereft of traditional tools and structure, he turned to tape composition, working and performing with composers involved with the Tape Music Center. By the late 1950s, Shaff’s work with audio tape led to the need to externally realize sound in the way he conceived of it: as an energy in space. In 1958 Shaff met fellow musician and teacher Douglas McEachern, whose background in electronics enabled him to develop original equipment systems for live, spatial performances. From the first public presentation of these ideas in 1960 through succeeding decades of work with the co-creation and development of AUDIUM – constructed specifically for choreographing sound in space – Shaff has sought to explore and expand the language of space in music composition and performance”  To learn more visit them at http://www.audium.org/

Sight – Friday Firsts Mixer

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April 1 – 2011 6PM

Join us for Sight at the Palace of Fine Arts and the Exploratorium as we delve into the fun of art making without sight. Challenge the way you look at the world use your intuition, instinct and your other senses. Join us for a blind photography challenge, where you will photograph what is around you in blindfolds; continue looking into a world without sight in the Exploratorium’s Tactile Dome – an interactive excursion through total darkness, where your sense of touch becomes your only guide. Afterwards, join us for drinks, and look through the “blind” photographs taken during the evening. Please join us for this “sensational” experience!

When: April 1, 2011, 6pm
Where: Palace of Fine Arts, Exploratorium/ Tactile Dome
Questions? contact nextgenerationsf@gmail.com
Price: $10 payable on site
Other info: Meet under the gazebo for blind photography (unlimited RSVP). Tactile Dome limits 30 people (RSVP now). Please bring a digital camera.

RSVP