Lex Leifheit

Even though I’ve been in San Francisco for nearly two years, you’d be surprised how many people still ask me what it’s like to be here and be running a cultural center as someone from “out of town.” And not just out of town, Connecticut. People who live in San Francisco have the same impression of Connecticut that I did when I was growing up in the midwest: Martha Stewart, old Yankees, rich New York suburbanites. San Franciscans are proud, and rightly so, of the diversity and empowerment here. But we (and I mean we San Franciscans—myself included) have so much going on that it can be hard to think beyond the city limits and imagine, let alone appreciate, what is happening in the community arts elsewhere in the country.

There have been many times when I have wished I could take the artists and collaborators who inspire me here and show them what is going on in the Connecticut I know. New London, Hartford, New Haven, Middletown—the little cities that shaped my dreams of what is possible when people embrace the arts as a way to build strong and healthy communities. I am fortunate to see the transformative power of the arts at SOMArts, an organization that enjoys city support that is almost unprecedented elsewhere in the country. Because Connecticut cultural organizations do not have the same funding resources, and because I have always rooted for the underdog, what happens with the arts in Connecticut still evokes deep admiration in me, as well as pride for what the people living there have achieved and keep striving for.

Two projects in Connecticut caught my eye this week. The Green Street Arts Center, where I was the assistant director for several years, has created not one but two murals over the past two years. The most recent one, created by Marela Zacarias in collaboration with the after school program and a local soup kitchen, recognizes the city’s homeless population.

Further north, Hartford City Councilman Luis Cotto has begun a Kickstarter campaign to fund a cultural center without walls. We San Franciscans need only look to the city-supported virtual cultural centers to know how powerful this can be. The first project of the center was a collaboration between Cotto and Oakland-based artist and activist Favianna Rodriguez, whose work I have admired but who I have not had the pleasure of meeting personally.

Although I’ve had no hand in this project whatsoever, I am excited to see that someone from the Bay Area is playing a part, and to see another example of how the marriage of great minds can help accessible art continue to thrive in Hartford. Cotto’s right-hand-man at City Hall, Brendan Mahoney, is a longtime friend of my fiance’s and will be officiating our wedding in September, and we will be hosting a gathering of many friends from around the country at SOMArts. So, while I can’t bring all my West Coast friends east, at least I will be able to share with my friends and family around the country the creative home that inspires me in the present, and look forward to future insurrection, connection and community through the arts.

Today I learned that Janice Albert, formerly of Oakland and later Middletown, Connecticut, passed away. She contacted me in February to let me know that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, and we corresponded while she began her treatment.

Janice and I met through the Green Street Arts Center. She was one of the first volunteers I began working with who was not a friend, or a friend-of-a-friend. She was just someone new to town who was looking for a way to connect with the community. And she was a true inspiration. A writer and photographer, she played a huge role in starting some of Green Street’s community-based programs. She had tremendous talent, and despite the physical limitations brought on by aging, she was always in good spirits and found many ways to be a true helpful presence.

One of my many memories of Janice is when we started the North End Grid Project, a photography project that asked photographers to explore a much-maligned, under appreciated and often misunderstood neighborhood of Middletown. Janice was determined to get a certain photograph that involved wading into mud and she got stuck! She got her shot, though.

Janice also wrote an amazing short story about visiting a graveyard with her siblings. I wish I had a copy. I recorded her reading it and will have to see if I can locate the audio file.

I have been fortunate in my life not to have too many people close to me pass away, or perhaps it is the unfortunate result of moving so often and not having a wide circle of truly intimate friends and family. Janice was loved by many, and I feel very lucky to have met and known her through the arts.

RIP Janice, you are deeply missed.

One of the resources of San Francisco is the beautiful weather and the fact that there is some kind of race almost every weekend. So I was completely inspired by Sara Seinberg’s Run for Radar Productions. I want to do this. I want ten people I know to do this. I don’t really care if it’s for SOMArts or some other organization (okay that’s a lie). But really, I want this idea to catch on. Because Seinberg just did this on her own and look at all the good that comes of it:

-people talk about it, hear about her and discover her work
-RADAR gets $5k to continute building community through literary arts
-fabulous health benefits

Every now and then I get emails from my arts friends who are running a 5 or 10k for a cause—usually health related—and I always think, why not run for art? Training for a run is social, it’s healthy, and it is something that can raise money on a shoestring. These health people have their fundraising DOWN. Why do the arts organizations throw big expensive parties and auctions when if we do our jobs right, every single event we have is a chance to meet artists, be social, learn about and enjoy art, and it’s usually free?

Having big galas for small, grassroots organizations usually feels status-y and weird. The people you are selling tickets to are usually about 90% different from the people who use your services on a day-to-day basis, and because of both the similarities and the differences it is hard to create an effective fundraising event that like a true celebration of the work. Few organizations get it right, and the ones that feel right in SF are usually called fundraisers but described behind the scenes by staff as “more friend-raiser than fund-raiser.” (Aside: what is with this trend of calling every concert and performance a fundraiser? I don’t understand the long-term benefit of giving people a false impression that what they are paying is above and beyond the cost of doing the work).

Of course, I hurt my foot and I’m getting married in a mont so my own Run for the Arts may have to wait a little bit. But my lame excuses only serve to make Seinberg’s success seem all the more awe-inspiring.

Photo credit: 5k, woohoo!

And I need you to be better than me
And you need me to do better than you.
—Know Better, Learn Faster by Thao With The Get Down Stay Down

Over a week has passed since the 50^th Anniversary Summit of Americans for the Arts, and what a whirlwind week it was. Back at SOMArts Cultural Center we closed out an amazing turnaround year. We more than doubled our gallery attendance, revived our intern and volunteer programming, launched a website, renovated our lobby and office spaces, invested in long-overdue equipment upgrades, fought to protect our city funding, and lived to tell about it.  And yet, in many ways we are just catching up. There’s so much to do and it feels like the more we succeed, the more people we connect to who have urgent needs and high expectations.  Such is the life of a thriving nonprofit.

At the AftA convention, I connected with peers who had similar stories. We’re all exhausted. So we sat in the audience and listened to panels talk about new models, veering between skepticism and hope.

I came to convention still stubbornly hanging on to the idea that a “new model” was a structure I could study and apply to my organization—that magical combination of for-profit innovation, technology application and nonprofit altruism.

I left convention having reached the conclusion that we need to stop treating “new model” like a noun, in panels or anywhere else, when what we’re talking about is changing the system. We’re asking how we can achieve dramatic organizational change necessitated by the factors mentioned above, but succeeding via thoughtful communication and a process of enrolling (vs. influencing) stakeholders in one’s vision.

Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Zheng is opening a next exhibition of video documentaries in which he asks his former classmates five years out of a studio MFA program, “What’s it like having a career as an artist?” They speak of their creative and financial challenges, expectations and the professionalization of the contemporary art world that is partially the result of the proliferation of MFA studio programs.

This is a different side of the NEA’s  “Art Works” slogan and the Artists in the Workforce study, a more engaging window into the lives of artists … and yet one that encompasses a group of people and will (hopefully) speak to the bigger picture of what life as a working artist is like, from an artist’s perspective and from the perspective of  his peers, competitors and collaborators–people who mostly went through bachelor’s degree programs and then took on a further commitment of time and resources to be working artists.

I am very excited to see the results of Zheng’s research. The exhibition opens May 21 with a reception from 6pm to 9pm at the Marina Abramovic Institute West, 575 Sutter Street, San Francisco.

Almost a year ago, something happened at SOMArts … I didn’t realize at the time, but it was the beginning of a movement I now call the “Shaping Up On A Shoestring Movement.” Someone who came to SOMArts for Day of the Dead exhibition contacted me, he was part of the National Council on Aging and worked with their employment training program.

Like most SOMArts opportunities, this one came about as the result of the NCOA’s contact with a friendly and inspiring staff member. SOMArts needed someone to monitor our galleries and the NCOA provided Lynne, whose role quickly expanded to include reception and administrative support.

Around the same time, a client of SOMArts suggested that we look into Philanthropy by Design, a charitable organization that connects a network of design industry professionals with community benefit organizations and saves tons of furniture from the landfill through creative reuse. Caroline Ranere of Ranere Design Group donated her time and talent to transform the SOMArts lobby, clean up our office spaces and create a more functional and welcoming workspace.

As we were cleaning and painting, we realized that although we had lots of volunteers at different times throughout the year, we didn’t have a way to track their time or interests so that we could make the best use of their skills. We also weren’t keeping track of all the volunteer time that was donated and relied upon as an essential resource for our organization. I remembered an article published on Blue Avocado, Tracking Volunteer Time To Boost Your Bottom Line, and we used the templates from that article to start building up a real volunteer program. We reached out to the California College of the Arts Center for Art and Public Life and applied for a student  to work as our Communications and Community Outreach Fellow. Staff members Deb Bok and Rene Yanez held volunteer orientations to help introduce new volunteers to the opportunities at SOMArts. We attended the Volunteer Center’s Board Match to connect with people who were interested in donating their skills as Board Members for nonprofits. We applied to Rebuilding Together and they brought more than 50 volunteers from The Belden Club to repaint our theater and Bay Gallery during National Volunteer Week (they even put photos of the day on their website). Amber Hasselbring of the Mission Greenbelt Project guided our growing volunteer team to revive our garden. Project 20 volunteers helped repair our floors and deejay at art openings. Curator & Gallery Director Justin Hoover developed internship descriptions for the gallery and reached out to local university programs to help develop the Ramp Gallery in our new lobby and prepare for exhibit installations.

Less than a year later, we’ve partnered with over fifteen organizations and logged more than 2,000 volunteer hours. More importantly, we’ve made significant improvements that will benefit all of the arts and community-building cultural groups who depend on SOMArts and expanded a fun, diverse community of individuals who believe in our mission. Getting strategic about our repair and maintenance efforts means that more donations directly support our programs, and that our donors can feel confident that every dollar they give is going as far as it can. (in case I am being too subtle this is a PITCH to donate to SOMArts—it’s worth it!)

When I think back, the most amazing thing about our little shaping up on a shoestring movement is how easy it was to undertake these projects and how much we got in return for our efforts. In-kind volunteer and employment programs saved SOMArts many thousands of dollars this year and all it took was small, intentional, progressive changes over the course of a year. The organizations (who I’ve linked to for the benefit of other arts managers who might read this) were without exception excited to work with arts organizations, and those of us who work at SOMArts made new friends who are full of great suggestions and enthusiasm.

If you live in the area and haven’t been to SOMArts in a while, there is a beautiful exhibit in the Main Gallery right now: (Re-)CLAIM, an exhibition by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center. And next Saturday is a fundraiser to support SNAG (Seventh Native American Generation) youth in attending the Allied Media Conference. There will be a skateboard art exhibit, vendors, drumming, Pomo dancers, Mohawk acoustic soul music, LOTS of other music and dancing, visual art and good food. It will be a very fun time for a very good cause.

… are two of my favorite things. The National Endowment for the Arts has extended the Request for Proposals for the “Art Works” logo design until March 5 due to the blizzard.

Above title is a quote from Jason Schupbach, author of thecheesefreak.com but ALSO creative economy industry director at the Massachusetts Department of Business Development, and a major mind behind affordable artist space. What is up with all of my smartest friends and associates having food & drink projects on the side? Design writer Will Bostwick also covers beer for GQ. Gritmedia designer Fran Duncan (responsible for the Echoing Green website, which I love) started Plate to Plate, a blog about eating locally in the Berkshires.

As if anyone needs arm-twisting to consume food, cheese and beer. But thanks, all, for lending your minds to these worthy causes. I see a goofy cheese-tasting video in my imminent future.

photo credit: Taken on a trip to London. In retrospect, I deeply regret not tasting the best cheese in the world.

For Christmas, Dan’s sister gave us a membership to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I’ve been a member of many visual arts organizations in the past (ArtSpace New Haven, Southern Exposure, Wadsworth Atheneum, Real Art Ways, and on and on) but for whatever reason this is the first one that has resulted in participation as I imagine it’s more or less intended. The membership provides us with the ability to spontaneously drop in, look around, enjoy an exhibition without feeling the need to take in the whole building. And, we get to skip the line, which is a nice perk on a rainy Sunday. I’m lovin’ it.

Today, we went to the Luc Tuymans exhibition, which Dan blogged about here.

In addition to the shows, I am also enjoying SFMOMA’s new lineup of bloggers, er, columnists. They just got started and already there’s an interesting post by Renny Pritkin about artists who’ve left town (and those who have stayed). I discovered Pritkin’s Prescription For A Healthy Art Scene on the Open Space blog shortly after moving to San Francisco last year, and it was posted on my office wall for quite a while. Glad to see that he is now an official poster, creating an interactive online space for dialogue.

Speaking of dialogue, there was quite the turnout for SOMArts’s Saturday afternoon talk about politics and printmaking. Sixty-five people showed up to see the work of more than 30 Bay Area artists represented in the exhibition, and to hear the differing opinions of Art Hazelwood, Robert Flynn Johnson, Steve Lopez and Don Farnsworth. Somehow, there is a connection to be made in the tremendous (and growing) local turnout at SOMArts shows, and the response by artists and curators on Pritkin’s blog who are seeking the kind of business, finance and critical rigor that will sustain them here. The lack of posts on my own blog is due partly to a desire not to make this site an annex to my work space … but these artists’ needs, and how to support them with our limited resources, are very much on my mind.

So, over at SOMArts we’ve been doing some advocacy in the face of budget cuts to the cultural centers. We’ve been writing grants. And we have been working damn hard.

And right now, I wish there was another day to this weekend! This one was good, and too short. Thanks San Francisco, for living up to expectations once again.

(photo by Julie Michelle)

A couple of months ago, I wrote about some of my favorite San Francisco blogs … and through the magic of the interwebs, this connected me with Julie Michelle, author and artist behind i live here: sf. Julie invited to be here 90th subject, and we took a walk around SOMArts for the photo shoot. You can view the slideshow, along with my essay about discovering a community through art, here.