The Art in Storefronts project has transformed four commercial corridors in San Francisco from blighted streets with empty or boarded windows into dynamic, engaging and beautiful areas for the community to enjoy. Artists from the neighborhood are invited to submit proposals for temporary installations in vacant storefronts in selected areas (chosen based on how hard hit they are from the economic recession). The artists are then provided with material fees and stipends to transform the empty spaces, activating the street and bringing communities together. It has helped property owners rent out space, given great visibility to local artists, and helped beautify our neighborhoods and boost the economic activities in the areas. It's really a great project and an innovative alternative that really does change a neighborhood. Please share your thoughts about it! It'd be great to do see more neighborhoods involved in the year ahead.
You are our first response. Thank you so much for beginning the dialog about Art in Storefronts and encouraging others to add their thoughts. Next year we will be in 5 additional neighborhoods: Central Market, North Beach, Japantown, Fillmore and SOMA (South of Market).
Empty storefronts don't necessarily equal blighted. Often they indicate the erosion of small neighborhood businesses that are the connective tissue of a healthy neighborhood. San Francisco's Japantown and Fillmore neighborhoods were negatively impacted by perceptions of "blight" that may have simply been thriving, but culturally different, expressions of community. in the next round, let's match neighborhoods with artists that have long-standing connections and deep understanding of the local residents, their history and their culture. Let's use at least some of the storefronts to help the residents tell their own stories. The Chinatown storefronts were particularly powerful because artists like Leland Wong, Cynthia Tom and Yumei Hou have long-standing ties and a deeply felt connection with their community.
Genuine community-based dialog benefits everyone: long-time residents who get to share their histories, the newcomers and visitors who learn something about the richness of the community, and the artists themselves who experience new dimensions of collaboration and community impact.
http//: shizueseigel.com
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Shiz. If we receive funding, we have plans to move this project into Japantown. I want to do it at the same time as Fillmore, so that we can work on building bridges between those two communities.
I love this idea and could see how it could be replicated in our city. There has been art created on parking meters in our city but no widespread use of window spaces in vacant neighborhoods such as yours. As an art therapist working with children and families in an inner city neighborhood, I see daily the need to have programs such as yours. We have used our own agency windows to engage community particpants in creating art during neighborhood events and the feedback has been very positive. We are taking it a step further now by creating poetry trees througout the city of York. We have the same goals as your project and would be very interested in discussing your program more. Our entry is titled Branching Out Through Tending, Love, and Care (Community Poetry Tree) and I can be contacted at email: angela@castlc.org or at facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Art-Therapy-at-The-Lehman-Center/138411639530493?ref=ts.
We have a poetry program for students, This Place is Poetry, that dovetails with your program. http://www.sfartscommission.org/WC/events/this-place-called-poetry/, that dovetails with your project. It's part of our WritersCorp program that brings professionals writers, poets and playwrites to students.
I was a participating artist in the inaugural Art in Storefronts program and found it to be a fantastic experience. It exposed my art to a wide audience and connected me with fellow artists several of whom I still maintain content with. More importantly it provided a creative channel for a community of artists to offer something positive to our community. Blight begets blight. As businesses abandon pockets of our cities, artists rush in to fill the void. The storefront installations become both a signal that civic leaders value the neighborhoods and communities where they are installed, and serve as symbols of optimism, beauty, intellect, craft and dignity in communities that are rarely offered these essential human needs.
Hospitality House's Community Arts Program participated in the Art in Storefronts project last year with a group exhibition created by poor and homeless Tenderloin artists. It was a great experience that not only brought art enthusiasts to the neighborhood, but broadened our exposure to people who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to experience artwork created by marginalized communities.
It was a great experience! Thank you SF Arts Commission for all your work to bring opportunities for artistic expression to the Tenderloin!
One of the most powerful things about Art in Storefronts is that it gives local artists an avenue to give back to their communities. As part of San Francisco's inaugural Art in Storefronts event last year, Hospitality House artists who created work in the Tenderloin had an opportunity to exhibit their work for the enjoyment of a broader audience in the community. In the overall context of dwindling resources for community arts programs, Art in Storefronts is a breath of fresh air!
It's so nice to hear from a community partner. A big part of what make programs like Art in Storefronts successful are these ongoing relationships. We're looking forward to the next step in working together and collaborating on Market Street.
Art in Storefronts has been a vibrant way to showcase community strengths. Envision a neighborhood with a number of vacant storefronts. Then picture a colorful transformation, with the same storefronts filled with creative artwork. Both locals and tourists would stop to see what it was all about, engaging in conversation and bringing a wonderful energy to the sidewalks. This was a great way for Hospitality House artists to bring their work out from behind closed doors and into a high-visibility spotlight. Thanks to the San Francisco Arts Commission for coordinating, and hopefully the project will be able to continue and grow!
I worked on Art in Storefronts as a project partner (Kearny Street Workshop) of the most recent iteration in Chinatown. Art in Storefronts combines the forces of government agencies, community organizations, property owners, and innovative artists. It is so rewarding to see the "before" and "after" of the storefront sites and to hear people talking about art installations that have stopped them in their tracks! Not only do the vibrant art installations lift spirits of despair but they have helped many vacant sites be reopened for business. Art in Storefronts should expand to every challenged neighborhood in San Francisco.
Thank you for the link to your website. I was particularly interested to see the videos of youth reading their poems. Writing poems are powerful but speaking it to the community, and publishing it in books puts it on a whole new level. Your organization does great work. You can hear and see the impact of your organization's work in your videos of youth and the expansion of your programs based on the needs of the community. We are similarly going to bring poetry to the places around our community of York that have low-income families and educationally disadvantaged youth. As our project is just starting, we are leaving it open to grow based on the needs of the community but we certainly can envision books, readings at our community poetry trees and much more that will come from the communities where the tree sites will be. Our organization is much smaller and this project is an outgrowth of a need we have seen as art therapists at a nonprofit called The Lehman Center, a program of Children's Aid Society. Our project will depend on partnerships with others as we are not a community arts organization such as yours. We are excited by the partnerships that are developing quickly with 3 Cord Inc., an organization that manages charter schools, alternative schools, and private schools for urban youth in our city, Bring On Play, an initiative to rennovate the city parks in York, and Union Lutheran Church, our next door neighbor. There are community poetry tree sites in the works at 3 locations so far, beyond what we expected at this stage and I think the sky is the limit when you connect with the community in partnerships. We also have several arts organizations in York including a great bookstore where "openmic" nights are held, so we envision many more partners and our role as spreading the word through workshops to community areas and to get them involved and started on their quest. We have also begun a community poem about the city of York and will be traveling the poem around to different sites in the community for many to add their words. Your model is a great inspiration and we will use it as an example of a successful, more established program. I tried to find information on writerscorps and found the DC website no longer works. Have many of these projects been absorbed into other agencies such as yours when the funding ended? Do you know of any organizations doing the writerscorps model such as yours on the east coast? Any information you can provide would be helpful. Thank you again for the link and information. Best wishes on continued success.
Art in Storefronts is an example of how art can be a civic benefit and a part of a community engine. I was fortunate to be part of the first round of participants and have been impressed with and inspired by all the projects that have since been installed. The program has allowed me to venture into the realm of public art and provided me an opportunity to think about my artwork in a new medium. Outside of my own benefits, I've seen the transformative effect the program has had on a neighborhood. In this economy in which empty storefronts are a sign of dark times, Art in Storefronts reminds us that art can be an uplifting and illuminating force.
The thing that I loved about Art in Storefronts is the way it encouraged the community to share in a public space. The launch on Market Street, an area that people walk past, had people socializing and dancing in the streets. In Chinatown, families and seniors, locals and tourists, activists and artists, merchants and shoppers all gathered together for the unveiling of Robert Minervini's mural.
I hope that we can encourage community interaction in more neighborhoods across San Francisco.
As a participating artist in the inaugural Art in Storefronts program in the Bayview District, I cannot say enough about this program. The experience was incredible! This program not only allowed me a chance to give back to the community yet it transformed the neighborhood in a way that honored and uplifted it. It was exciting to place artwork in unexpected places and see people awaken to something new, to see that the surroundings they’d become so accustomed to seeing renewed and celebrated. Art is NOT a luxury but rather something necessary for elevating the human spirit and creating community.
On top of all the great things this program does for neighborhoods and community, I love that Art in Storefronts gives local emerging artists the chance to show their work to a larger audience.
It's great to read all the comments about this program. Hearing from artists and community members truly attests to the power of art to change communities, especially blighted, disenfranchised communities. With Art in Storefronts, it brought people -- neighbors -- together to share in the pride of the community and to work together to improve the area with everyone working together.
Comments
The Art in Storefronts project has transformed four commercial corridors in San Francisco from blighted streets with empty or boarded windows into dynamic, engaging and beautiful areas for the community to enjoy. Artists from the neighborhood are invited to submit proposals for temporary installations in vacant storefronts in selected areas (chosen based on how hard hit they are from the economic recession). The artists are then provided with material fees and stipends to transform the empty spaces, activating the street and bringing communities together. It has helped property owners rent out space, given great visibility to local artists, and helped beautify our neighborhoods and boost the economic activities in the areas. It's really a great project and an innovative alternative that really does change a neighborhood. Please share your thoughts about it! It'd be great to do see more neighborhoods involved in the year ahead.
You are our first response. Thank you so much for beginning the dialog about Art in Storefronts and encouraging others to add their thoughts. Next year we will be in 5 additional neighborhoods: Central Market, North Beach, Japantown, Fillmore and SOMA (South of Market).
Empty storefronts don't necessarily equal blighted. Often they indicate the erosion of small neighborhood businesses that are the connective tissue of a healthy neighborhood. San Francisco's Japantown and Fillmore neighborhoods were negatively impacted by perceptions of "blight" that may have simply been thriving, but culturally different, expressions of community. in the next round, let's match neighborhoods with artists that have long-standing connections and deep understanding of the local residents, their history and their culture. Let's use at least some of the storefronts to help the residents tell their own stories. The Chinatown storefronts were particularly powerful because artists like Leland Wong, Cynthia Tom and Yumei Hou have long-standing ties and a deeply felt connection with their community.
Genuine community-based dialog benefits everyone: long-time residents who get to share their histories, the newcomers and visitors who learn something about the richness of the community, and the artists themselves who experience new dimensions of collaboration and community impact.
http//: shizueseigel.com
Thanks for your thoughtful comment, Shiz. If we receive funding, we have plans to move this project into Japantown. I want to do it at the same time as Fillmore, so that we can work on building bridges between those two communities.
I love this idea and could see how it could be replicated in our city. There has been art created on parking meters in our city but no widespread use of window spaces in vacant neighborhoods such as yours. As an art therapist working with children and families in an inner city neighborhood, I see daily the need to have programs such as yours. We have used our own agency windows to engage community particpants in creating art during neighborhood events and the feedback has been very positive. We are taking it a step further now by creating poetry trees througout the city of York. We have the same goals as your project and would be very interested in discussing your program more. Our entry is titled Branching Out Through Tending, Love, and Care (Community Poetry Tree) and I can be contacted at email: angela@castlc.org or at facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Art-Therapy-at-The-Lehman-Center/138411639530493?ref=ts.
Poetry can make a difference.
Are your poets reading their poems at your trees?
We have a poetry program for students, This Place is Poetry, that dovetails with your program.
http://www.sfartscommission.org/WC/events/this-place-called-poetry/, that dovetails with your project. It's part of our WritersCorp program that brings professionals writers, poets and playwrites to students.
I was a participating artist in the inaugural Art in Storefronts program and found it to be a fantastic experience. It exposed my art to a wide audience and connected me with fellow artists several of whom I still maintain content with. More importantly it provided a creative channel for a community of artists to offer something positive to our community. Blight begets blight. As businesses abandon pockets of our cities, artists rush in to fill the void. The storefront installations become both a signal that civic leaders value the neighborhoods and communities where they are installed, and serve as symbols of optimism, beauty, intellect, craft and dignity in communities that are rarely offered these essential human needs.
Hi Christopher. We were so thrilled that you participated with us in this program. We hope to be doing more with you.
Hospitality House's Community Arts Program participated in the Art in Storefronts project last year with a group exhibition created by poor and homeless Tenderloin artists. It was a great experience that not only brought art enthusiasts to the neighborhood, but broadened our exposure to people who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to experience artwork created by marginalized communities.
It was a great experience! Thank you SF Arts Commission for all your work to bring opportunities for artistic expression to the Tenderloin!
One of the most powerful things about Art in Storefronts is that it gives local artists an avenue to give back to their communities. As part of San Francisco's inaugural Art in Storefronts event last year, Hospitality House artists who created work in the Tenderloin had an opportunity to exhibit their work for the enjoyment of a broader audience in the community. In the overall context of dwindling resources for community arts programs, Art in Storefronts is a breath of fresh air!
It's so nice to hear from a community partner. A big part of what make programs like Art in Storefronts successful are these ongoing relationships. We're looking forward to the next step in working together and collaborating on Market Street.
We love the Hospitality House Community programs!
Art in Storefronts has been a vibrant way to showcase community strengths. Envision a neighborhood with a number of vacant storefronts. Then picture a colorful transformation, with the same storefronts filled with creative artwork. Both locals and tourists would stop to see what it was all about, engaging in conversation and bringing a wonderful energy to the sidewalks. This was a great way for Hospitality House artists to bring their work out from behind closed doors and into a high-visibility spotlight. Thanks to the San Francisco Arts Commission for coordinating, and hopefully the project will be able to continue and grow!
I worked on Art in Storefronts as a project partner (Kearny Street Workshop) of the most recent iteration in Chinatown. Art in Storefronts combines the forces of government agencies, community organizations, property owners, and innovative artists. It is so rewarding to see the "before" and "after" of the storefront sites and to hear people talking about art installations that have stopped them in their tracks! Not only do the vibrant art installations lift spirits of despair but they have helped many vacant sites be reopened for business. Art in Storefronts should expand to every challenged neighborhood in San Francisco.
I love how this competition is reinforcing and celebrating collaborations.
Thank you for the link to your website. I was particularly interested to see the videos of youth reading their poems. Writing poems are powerful but speaking it to the community, and publishing it in books puts it on a whole new level. Your organization does great work. You can hear and see the impact of your organization's work in your videos of youth and the expansion of your programs based on the needs of the community. We are similarly going to bring poetry to the places around our community of York that have low-income families and educationally disadvantaged youth. As our project is just starting, we are leaving it open to grow based on the needs of the community but we certainly can envision books, readings at our community poetry trees and much more that will come from the communities where the tree sites will be. Our organization is much smaller and this project is an outgrowth of a need we have seen as art therapists at a nonprofit called The Lehman Center, a program of Children's Aid Society. Our project will depend on partnerships with others as we are not a community arts organization such as yours. We are excited by the partnerships that are developing quickly with 3 Cord Inc., an organization that manages charter schools, alternative schools, and private schools for urban youth in our city, Bring On Play, an initiative to rennovate the city parks in York, and Union Lutheran Church, our next door neighbor. There are community poetry tree sites in the works at 3 locations so far, beyond what we expected at this stage and I think the sky is the limit when you connect with the community in partnerships. We also have several arts organizations in York including a great bookstore where "openmic" nights are held, so we envision many more partners and our role as spreading the word through workshops to community areas and to get them involved and started on their quest. We have also begun a community poem about the city of York and will be traveling the poem around to different sites in the community for many to add their words. Your model is a great inspiration and we will use it as an example of a successful, more established program. I tried to find information on writerscorps and found the DC website no longer works. Have many of these projects been absorbed into other agencies such as yours when the funding ended? Do you know of any organizations doing the writerscorps model such as yours on the east coast? Any information you can provide would be helpful. Thank you again for the link and information. Best wishes on continued success.
Art in Storefronts is an example of how art can be a civic benefit and a part of a community engine. I was fortunate to be part of the first round of participants and have been impressed with and inspired by all the projects that have since been installed. The program has allowed me to venture into the realm of public art and provided me an opportunity to think about my artwork in a new medium. Outside of my own benefits, I've seen the transformative effect the program has had on a neighborhood. In this economy in which empty storefronts are a sign of dark times, Art in Storefronts reminds us that art can be an uplifting and illuminating force.
It was great to see a photo of your installation in Art Ltd., too.
The thing that I loved about Art in Storefronts is the way it encouraged the community to share in a public space. The launch on Market Street, an area that people walk past, had people socializing and dancing in the streets. In Chinatown, families and seniors, locals and tourists, activists and artists, merchants and shoppers all gathered together for the unveiling of Robert Minervini's mural.
I hope that we can encourage community interaction in more neighborhoods across San Francisco.
As a participating artist in the inaugural Art in Storefronts program in the Bayview District, I cannot say enough about this program. The experience was incredible! This program not only allowed me a chance to give back to the community yet it transformed the neighborhood in a way that honored and uplifted it. It was exciting to place artwork in unexpected places and see people awaken to something new, to see that the surroundings they’d become so accustomed to seeing renewed and celebrated. Art is NOT a luxury but rather something necessary for elevating the human spirit and creating community.
Thank you everyone for reading and commenting on our entry.
Kathy
On top of all the great things this program does for neighborhoods and community, I love that Art in Storefronts gives local emerging artists the chance to show their work to a larger audience.
It's great to read all the comments about this program. Hearing from artists and community members truly attests to the power of art to change communities, especially blighted, disenfranchised communities. With Art in Storefronts, it brought people -- neighbors -- together to share in the pride of the community and to work together to improve the area with everyone working together.