The Artist as Citizen and Public Arts Partnerships

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The Artist as Citizen

and Public Arts Partnerships

Tuesday, April 24, 2012
5-8pm
Intersection for the Arts
925 Mission Street, Suite 109, San Francisco (map)

FREE
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EAP brings together dynamic panelists to discuss artistic citizenship and issues of engagement with place.

 

For this program, among other inquiries, we ask:

* To what degree have artists become agents of community revitalization and place-making?

* How are cluster initiatives in the development of city spaces facilitating the role of artistic citizenship and providing opportunities for partnership with the public?

* In what ways are cities, curators, and organizations utilizing elements of the New Deal/ WPA legacy to create a new model for artists as citizens?

Panelists
David Kasprzak, Artist
Julio Morales, Artist / Adjunct Curator, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Jennifer Parker, Professor of Art and Digital Art and New Media, UC Santa Cruz / Co-founder, OpenLab
Randy Rollison, Innovation Studio Director, Intersection for the Arts
Lizzie Wallack, envelope architecture + Design / Project Architect, ProxySF
Moderator: Sanjit Sethi, Co-Director, CCA Center for Art & Public Life

5-5:30pm Networking
5:30-7:30pm Moderated discussion and Q & A
7:30-8pm Reception (light refreshments will be available)

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This event is free and open to the public

 

Panelist Biographies:

David Kasprzak was raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 2000 he attended the Columbus College of Art and Design, Ohio, where he received his B.F.A. in Fine Arts. In 2003 Kasprzak was awarded a scholarship to Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy, where he focused on ancient art history and Italian cinema. During his stay in Italy, Kasprzak wrote and directed a feature length film titled Hitting The Same Car Twice. Upon returning to Columbus, Ohio, he began working for the Wexner Center for the Arts as a curatorial assistant and artist-in-residence. The final exhibition of his videos and sculpture was titled If Morning Never Comes (We’ll Be Just Fine). Kasprzak moved to San Francisco in 2005 to begin several curatorial endeavors, including organizing the group exhibition HYPERSPACES at Park Life, which presented the work of artists Sean McFarland, Paul Wackers, Orion Shepherd, and James Sterling Pitt. Kasprzak is currently pursuing his MA in Curatorial Practice at the California College of the Arts. His work has been exhibited in various galleries in California, Italy, Ohio, and Philadelphia, and often deals with subjects such as geometry, destruction, displacement, and paranoia in a humorous light.

Jennifer Parker is co-founder of Openlab and a Professor of Art and Digital Art and New Media at the University of California Santa Cruz. Parker’s research is rooted in sculpture, interactive art, new media, and kinetic art, including cross-disciplinary and collaborative research. Current projects explore new methodologies for art making that engage innovative, creative and collaborative research with art, community, design, technology, and science. Parker has exhibited internationally at a variety of venues including The War Memorial Museum in Seoul, Korea; the World Trade Center in Osaka, Japan; the Iskra History Museum in Kazanlak, Bulgaria; Califia Galerie and Skolska 28 Galerie in the Czech Republic. Locally Parker has exhibited, performed and presented at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF Camerawork; The LAB; Gray Area Foundation for the Arts; Southern Exposure; SFMOMA; Kala Art Institute; and ZER01 Biennial in San Jose. Parker’s work has been supported by NASA California Space Consortium; Art Matters; the New Forms Regional Grant administered by the Inter-Arts Program of the NEA; and the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts.

Randy Rollison (Innovation Studio Director, Intersection for the Arts) has served in a leadership role in arts organizations in New York City, Cleveland and Portland, Oregon before joining the staff of Intersection in 2008. A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, he is an award winning producer, director and actor. He is known primarily for developing and producing the world premier of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues”, which has had a global impact and proves that art does indeed have the power to change lives.

Born in Rochester, New York, Sanjit Sethi has done a residency at the Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, as well as earned a master of science in advanced visual studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Visual Arts Program in 2002. His work consistently deals with issues of nomadism, identity, the residue of labor, memory, and movement in the urban sphere—all of which involve various disparate social and geographic communities.Having completed a Fulbright Fellowship in India on the Building Nomads Project, Sanjit continued his strong focus on interdisciplinary collaboration while director of the MFA Program at the Memphis College of Art. His dedication to diverse forms of artistic practice extends in his new position as CCA’s chair of the Community Arts Program and codirector of CCA’s Center for Art and Public Life. Sanjit’s current work includes a collaborative project, titled Urban Defibrillation, the Gypsy Bridge Project, and the Kuni Wada Bakery.

Lizzie Wallack, Designer and Project Manager at envelope a + d, received her undergraduate degree in furniture design at the California College of Arts and Crafts in San Francisco. After a brief stint as a photo stylist back in Boston, she returned to (the newly re-branded) California College of Arts to explore her curiosities concerning the built environment, people, and space. Her Masters of Architecture included several competitive distinctions: Jury Prizes, Design Excellence Awards, and the highly regarded Thesis Prize. She will be teaching her first course at CCA this summer. She remains hungry to envision the future of design while bookmarking images of late ‘60s-early ‘70s muscle cars, which one day she will have…in white, of course.

Taxes, the Arts, and You

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By Karl Cronin, EAP Fellow

From a Sobering Affair … to Ecstasy?

On February 18, at 5:00 p.m., I left Fort Mason feeling oddly ecstatic. My pulse racing, I jumped on my bike and peddled feverishly. Blowing through stop signs. Dodging dog walkers. I simply couldn’t wait to get home and… start my 2011 tax return.

I should preface my story by saying that until California Lawyers for the Arts’ workshop Relax with Tax, I had been the kind of tax payer who puts off filing as long as possible. It’s depressing to look at meager performer stipends sitting in the files alongside travel receipts from festivals where I barely broke even. Filing taxes as an emerging artist is a sobering affair.

Relax with Tax focused primarily on the kinds deductions that sole proprietors should consider taking on their Schedule Cs. I have filed Schedule Cs since 2007 and, much to my surprise, I found I had indeed been taking all the appropriate deductions for my business. I always thought there was some magic deduction I’d been overlooking. Nope. Just the deductions you’d expect (home office, business travel, research expenses, etc.).

However, here are two takeaways I found useful.

It’s All One Business

Early in the workshop I asked if I should be filing two schedule Cs since I work in two distinct capacities: as an independent artist and as an independent arts consultant. The instructor, Tom Andres J.D, C.P.A., said, “No.” They are both arts-related and can go on the same Schedule C. For years I have leveraged my meager earnings as a freelance arts consultant to offset the losses from my emerging art practice. I have always felt it is one continuum of arts production, so it was a relief to find out that the federal government sees it the same way.

Hobby Loss Rule and Audits

We spent a lot of time in the workshop talking about the hobby loss rule, which basically discourages filers from claiming deductions for hobbies. The IRS wants you to make a profit. More specifically, they want to tax you on that profit. They want to make sure you are actually in it to win it. To make same cash. Otherwise, the deductions you’re taking for your “hobby” are just scamming the system.

As an independent artist, I have been afraid of an audit because I know that the IRS likes to see a profit after three years. While I’ve never reported a loss on my business, there have been years (particularly when I’ve been incubating new work) where my profits are awkwardly meager.

Yet my intent to be a gainfully-employed full-time artist are documented and clear. I create work. I send it out. I change tactics when things aren’t working. I join associations. I show up to meetings. I file my taxes. I’ve dedicated my life to making this a thriving business. I left the workshop feeling confident that were I to be audited, I could present my business with confidence. And you can too, by holding onto all those business cards, conference programs, notes from your research meetings, and your calendar.

This Arts Hustle

When I arrived home I dumped my receipts on the floor, and began sifting through the year. Relax with Tax confirmed that the piecemeal life I live — in which one day I’m writing a grant, another day producing a photo shoot, the next day coaching the ED of a nonprofit, or editing a promotional video — is indeed a business.

The nonprofit arts sector has some serious problems. We’ve all been to the conference break-out sessions: “Where are the patrons?” “Concert dance in the age of new media.” “Music licensing in the age of Youtube.” Yet, step by step, year by year, we are each building sustainable arts practices against the odds. If we each can become crystal clear about our income, expenses, ROIs, margins, and tax deductions, perhaps we can participate more fully in the collective building of a new arts economy.

Are you working on your taxes now? Let us know in the comments what challenges you’ve faced and what advice you’ve found helpful.

Image: Images of Money

Mapping MAPP: The Mission Arts Performance Project

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By Katie Fahey, EAP Fellow

Moving images were projecting on the horizontal boards of the backyard fence on Shotwell Street, sounds emanating from the speaker system running through conjoined power bars. Artists Sebastian Alvarez, Ralph Vazquez Concepcion, and Surabhi Saraf were rehearsing for the following night at Patio 308.

“What’s happening here? It’s 9:30,” grumbled a neighbor. Informing the newcomer about the Mission Arts & Performance Project (MAPP) was an exercise in delicate diplomacy. Yes, there will be loud noises. No, it is not just a party. Yes, you are invited.

Easy to join; hard to explain

Participating in MAPP is easy. It is describing MAPP that often is not. To wit, one prominent funder in the San Francisco arts world once wrote me of it, “the event that I’m forgetting the name of — the free, open-house, neighborhood program.”

A testament not to any lack of popularity of the bimonthly arts festival — which routinely attracts hundreds to its happenings — this speaks to, rather, the beauty of MAPP: its abstract nature and its unpredictability.

But if you had to describe it . . .

MAPP is a decentralized operation, open to artists, curators, and venues, established or not. Among those involved, experience levels vary significantly — from distinguished visual artists, accomplished musicians and published poets to first time arts presenters and “amateur” artists. A veritable acknowledgement of contemporary and community arts and culture in the Mission District, MAPP also offers a nonrestrictive, experimental platform for all participants — in particular a chance for artists to incubate a new work or test-run a new partnership.

For those desiring, a seasoned, supportive network is highly accessible. Need a venue? Someone has a garage/garden/living room for you. Need musicians? Each person in the room knows more than thirty of them. Never put on a performance event before? This friend has an amp you can borrow!

MAPP is the people who gather and performances that happen every other month. With an estimated average of fifteen venues per MAPP, and multiple performances in every space, there can be more than one hundred individuals engaged in aspects of planning and production each time.

Why get involved?

My playing a role in MAPP for the first time as an organizer this February was something that emerged quite organically. Through my position with the Red Poppy Art House, the inaugural MAPP venue, I had been aware of the program and attended many of the events. However, being excited by the prospect of working with talented artists and friends to contribute something uniquely our own was an important impetus.

No participant in the MAPP receives financial compensation. In fact, MAPP runs with zero funding whatsoever. At every location entry is free. Fantasies about how the pieces from Patio 308 would look projected on a much larger surface like the Great Wall in downtown Oakland might have to wait.

Unfolding the MAPP

On the night of the event of course I wondered, “Will anyone come?” In part this question was founded. The map for the MAPP (pun intended) provided locations for fifteen venues and ours was a distance from some of the others. The home of our friends, Jon and Ralph, we marked with shiny lettering at the door, and offered free sangria to visitors.

In the end, plenty of people came, saw, and were even moved by the video and performances. Veteran MAPPers came to check out the new addition, Mission Local readers who had seen the piece on the festival stopped by, and other friendly neighbors curiously wandered over. I spoke with a Japanese tourist about the digitally-manipulated footage being shown by artist Ralph Vazquez — taken, incidentally, from a recent trip of his own to Tokyo.

With the only glitch of the evening coming from the overloaded outlets providing power for the speakers and old-school fans that were part of Spin 4, the performance by Sebastian Alvarez and Surabhi Saraf, we mused post-event about the energy input and output of the evening. On the subject of their performance featuring large, colorful, fluid images projected live and accompanied by soft, murmuring vocals and the dissonant chopping of the fans, it was said modestly, “We were just trying to understand what we were doing.”

I believe that other participants would agree that the goal is not to gain name recognition or even an elevator speech for the MAPP – though, of course, these tools might prove useful when conveying to prudish neighbors its value and purpose. More important is to make the event come alive with the highest level of vitality possible, and to create awareness so others might be able to replicate it in their own neighborhoods, here or in other cities.

http://vimeo.com/38195782

To get involved in MAPP, contact Rafael Sarria (rafael at redpoppyarthouse dot org), Georege Brais (georgebrais at gmail dot com), Jorge Molina (415.240.9125), or David Kubrin (415.824.8566). Or join the Facebook group.

Image: Ewedistrict

A Change Would Do (Us) Good

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Changing jobs can be painful, but it might just be a service to the field.

At Grants for the Arts’ 2011 Fall Public Meeting on Leadership Issues in the Arts, Marc Vogl hit on why staff changes, particularly in leadership, are so delicate.

“The reason it’s sensitive is that it’s personal. This isn’t just a job: this is a calling, this is a career, this is a passion, this is a lifetime, this is family.”

Often the potential fallout from changing jobs can be the most powerful deterrent, whether it’s you, your colleagues, or your constituents who will bear the burden of transition. If, like me, you work in a small organization, your departure will force everyone else to adapt, and your hard-working colleagues will need to expend extra energy to integrate a new team member.

You’re not alone if you fear that the added stress could put your organization at risk, as well as jeopardize your own career.

Growing Pains
Another panelist, Michael Warr, proposed that we in the nonprofit arts sector need a “cultural reformation.” Among the many positive actions he suggested were:

  • Put people (especially leaders nearing retirement) who want to leave in a good position to do so.
  • Stop demanding leadership candidates meet the complete (and “ridiculous”) list of requirements that is often given in job descriptions.
  • Increase appreciation for transferable skills from other roles and sectors.
  • Be willing to fail, to fail faster, and to learn from failures.

Among the greatest hurdles to these changes is the underlying assumption that the field as a whole cannot grow. When there is no job growth, or when there is a recession as in 2009, we all feel trapped. Employment becomes a zero-sum game; risks become taboo. And worse, those who are already out of work have few avenues in. In that worldview, organizational change and growth are nearly impossible.

Here’s a look at the annual turnover rates in the nonprofit sector as compared to rates across all industries, distinguishing between voluntary and total turnover (data from CompData Surveys’ BenchmarkPro Survey, collected from HR departments):

The nonprofit sector has, unsurprisingly, followed the larger trend since the 2008 crash: people who do have jobs are keeping them, and the percentage of voluntary departures has dipped steeply. It’s down from 12.5 percent in 2008 to 10.4 percent in 2009, and receding below 10 percent in both nonprofit and all industries by 2010.

In other words, if you work in an organization of ten employees, on average you had one person leave last year. And — if we pretend for a moment that these figures also apply to small organizations in the nonprofit arts sector — in an organization of five employees, only one staff member has changed in the last two years.

Last fall the “rate of change” and our collective ability to “adapt” were hot topics. But if we’ve only welcomed one new voice to our team in the last two years, how fast can we really be expected to adapt?

More food for thought: In 2011, the industries with the highest voluntary turnover were hospitality, healthcare, and banking and finance. Can you guess which industries had the most growth?

It’s good for you
While considering my own job change, I came across “Four Good Reasons to Change Jobs Within the Same Industry Three Times During Your First Ten Years of Employment” by National Executive Resources, Inc. They were:

1. Changing jobs give you a broader base of experience.
2. A more varied background creates a greater demand for your skills.
3. A job change results in an accelerated promotion cycle.
4. More responsibility leads to greater earning power.

Not counting my grad school hiatus and part-time gigs, I am leaving job number two after seven years in the nonprofit arts sector. So is this why I’m leaving? To get broader experience, to become marketable to more companies, to get a promotion, and rake in the cash with my new-found “earning power”?

In a word, no.

But what if we replace the market-speak with mission-based alternatives?

experience –> knowledge
skills –> capacity
promotion –> creativity
earning –> impact

Put this way, YES, it’s why I’m leaving. I do want more knowledge and capacity, and opportunities to creatively impact the sector (in my case specifically, contemporary music).

Transitions will always be tricky, even with open communication and a well-executed hand-off. But if, like me, you want to maximize your impact (née earning power) and help the arts sector grow, changing jobs might just be a service to the field.

Image: Not So Much

How Not to Get Screwed When Signing a Contract

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By Danielle Siembieda-Gribben, EAP Fellow

For anyone just starting out in the public art world, it can seem tempting to take any commission you can get. No doubt it is competitive out there, and there may be dozens of people applying for the same calls for proposals.

If you have been one of the lucky few to receive a public art commission, you may be saying to yourself: “I am so lucky to even get selected, let me sign the contract before they change their minds!”

Before you do, think twice — and come prepared.

On January 31, 2012, I attended a webinar from California Lawyers for the Arts titled “Public Art Contracts: What Every Artist Needs to Know about Public Art Commissions, from RFQ to Moral Rights.”

Here are the top ten tips that I took away from the seminar.

  1. You will only receive 15 to 20 percent of the commission budget. For example, if the budget is $30,000, you will receive $4,500 for the entire duration of the project, from design to fabrication through execution. The lower the commission, the lower the artist fee.
  2. Your ideas are yours, not the city’s. When you present your proposal, put your name, copyright, and date on every page and slide. By doing this, you prevent others who may borrow or “appropriate” your idea to be built by someone else.
  3. If you are working with fabricators, do not sign any contracts with them until your own contract is finalized. Some fabricators may charge you for their design time and, if you end up losing a contract, you will have to pay them anyway.
  4. Most likely you will get paid on a time schedule with different payouts for different benchmarks. When this happens, front load the payment so you don’t get stuck with big fabrication bills at the end.
  5. Title vs. copyright. Never sign your copyright off to the city. You own that! Remember Prince? He had to change his name to a symbol to get out of a copyright dispute.
  6. Site compliance. The city shall be responsible for all expenses, labor, and equipment to prepare the site for the timely transportation and installation of artwork.
  7. Insurance. Yes, you need it. You’ll primarily need liability insurance until your work is installed, and then it is the city’s responsibility.
  8. Where did you get that model? If you use an image of a person, place, etc.  in your work, make sure to get a release from them.
  9. Site credit. Don’t you hate it when you see an amazing piece of public art work but have no idea who did it? Make sure the city pays (not out of your budget) for a plaque or credit site near the work with your name on it.
  10. Budget. These budgets are the hardest. It takes a lot of time to put one together, but they are very important. Call around to fabricators to see the realistic cost for your project. If it’s out of scope, think about scaling down. Also, call a public art manager to see if they have any input.

There are many other ways to look at your public art contract. If you are nervous about confronting a city or other entity about the contract, keep in mind they have chosen you out of all the applicants, and are set on making the project work just as much as you are.

Make sure to check out the downloadable public art contract templates and resources, and let us know in the comments if you have any contract advice or horror stories to share.

Image: Ben Bunch

The Arts Skyline in 2015

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THE ARTS SKYLINE IN 2015
Monday, February 13 and
Monday, February 27
6-8:30pm
Straw Restaurant
203 Octavia Boulevard, San Francisco (map)

Join EAP and special guests from SFMOMA, SF Jazz and the Oakland Museum of California for candid conversations about new and re-imagined buildings for the arts.

Ten percent of food sales on Mondays in February goes to EAP, so come to Straw for a lightly moderated no-host dinner/discussion with your colleagues. This is your chance to pick the brains of the folks whose jobs in the arts are being transformed by major building projects, and support EAP in the process.

Guests include:
Claire Ball, Project Assistant, Oakland Museum of California
Megan Brian, Education and Public Programs Coordinator, SFMOMA *Former EAP Fellow
Barrett Shaver, Membership Director, SF Jazz
Melanie Hwang, Membership Manager, SFMOMA
Louise Yokoi, Development Associate, Individual Giving, SFMOMA *Former EAP Fellow

RSVP: Save your seat by e-mailing adam@emergingsf.org

Why Business Models Matter: Alex Osterwalder at CCA 1/21/2012

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By Katherin Canton, EAP Fellow

Leaving the stone age of business strategy

Seated in Timken Hall at California College of the Arts, Alex Osterwalder started passing out sticky notes because no event is really a design event until you have those little colorful pads.

Alex was at CCA to explain and show next-level tools to support the growth of smart business planning, namely the “Business Model Canvas.” Although this tool is simply a visual format used to discuss a business model, it helps in breaking down the key components of building a coherent plan. Alex didn’t go into those actual components, focusing instead on the reasons behind and productive uses of the Canvas.

How we got hereThe Canvas is revolutionary and practical, simply because it levels the playing field when it comes to business development. Whether you have started and created a major corporation,  are in the middle of redeveloping your business model, or even if you are thinking about starting a business, this tool breaks down the key elements and relationships to consider before committing money and time.

Osterwalder developed this tool in order to spark more complex and deeper dialogues about business models. If it’s your first time looking at the relationship between your customer segments and your key partners, here is the chance to start asking questions that will affect your future business.

The idea here is that we shouldn’t be using outdated business plans when we have come so far in even the types of businesses and relationships we have created.

 

A Business Model Canvas for EAP

In the Everyday

I have no business background, but understanding this canvas wasn’t as intimidating as it is to read a whole novel on a “successful business plan.” It has also pushed me to think about how a plan can’t be successful without having a solid grounding in the day to day of a functioning business.

This is where my two main takeaways from this lecture come into being:

  1. Ideas should be mobile
    Whether using Post-it notes or an Ipad app, innovative business strategizing relies on putting all ideas out on the table and being able to mix and match potential plans. Another rule from Alex: never put more than one idea on a note. This defeats the adaptability of the single ideas.
  2. Take it to the customer
    No matter how much time or how many resources have gone into researching your audience or potential customer base, it never compares to going out and asking them if they would use your product or service. Even being rejected in person gives you insight into launching a potentially successful or useful business.

In the end both of these principles help you reflect on what you are going to embark on before you commit those precious dollars or hours.

Final Thoughts

By reinvigorating tools we use for strategy development or business development, we let go of the old ways of thinking and running businesses. New tools support more complex modeling and experimentation.

This is where the business model canvas comes into play. It takes speaking, reading, and reworking a business development strategy into a common language (a visible one), but also elevates the number or variables and relationships that we can communicate without having the jargon used in old business strategies.

Check out Alex’s What Is a Business Model presentation on SlideRocket, and sound off in the comments. Are you using a business model, or thinking about one? What’s your plan?

Finding Your Place

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FINDING YOUR PLACE
A creative party / A party for creatives
co-hosted by Emerging Arts Professionals and THEOFFCENTER
Thursday, January 26, 5:30-8:30 pm
848 Divisadero Street, San Francisco (map)
***FREE***

Join your fellow artists, arts and culture workers, and cultural historians at the new home of THEOFFCENTER (former home of CounterPULSE) for a creative celebration of the ephemeral.

Contribute short anecdotes to our “map of art experiences” to earn your drinks and snacks; bring your business cards to trade for raffle tickets (drawings at the top of each hour) and to give to your new friends.

Live music; wine and raffle prizes donated by Urban Legends Cellars, McSweeney’s, Meklit Hadero, Other Minds, SF Performances, Z Space, and more!

Event Page on Facebook
or RSVP by e-mail