Episode 12: ABBA Summit Highlights Part 2

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Part 2 of Building Equitable Arts Communities - Highlights from 2023 Arts for a Better Bay Area “State of the Arts Summit”

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"When the community comes together, organizes, advocates, makes noise, and has a plan, we can change systems” - Richard Raya

In part two of our compilation show Associate Producer Eric Estrada navigates us through highlights from the Arts for a Better Bay Area State of the Arts Summit. We curate ten voices of recovery: Joshua Simon (Community Arts Stabilization Trust), Kathryn Reasoner (Vital Arts), Richard Raya (Mission Economic Development Agency), Fernando Pujals (Mid‑Market Business Association), Jacob Bintliff (SF Office of Economic & Workforce Development), Laura Poppiti (Center for Cultural Innovation), Meredith Winner (Building 180/Paint the Void), Joe Landini (SafeHouse Arts), Vinay Patel (Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center) and Denise Pate (SF Arts Commission).

Watch and Listen to our wonderful guests outline adaptive housing, vibrant murals, equitable funding and grassroots advocacy that revive the city’s creative workforce.

Kathryn Reasoner - Executive Consultant,Vital Arts

In her role as Executive Consultant for Vital Arts, Kathryn Reasoner draws on deep experience in the fields of arts and cultural policy. She has won awards and recognition for her advocacy and leadership on behalf of artists and seminal art spaces in the Bay Area. She has directed institutions such as Headlands Center for the Arts, Richmond Art Center, and di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, among others. Reasoner has led cultural planning teams and played an active role in strategic arts planning for the California Arts Council, the City and County of San Francisco, and the County of Napa. Her background offers relevant user experience in the design, development, construction, and management of cultural spaces, along with international models from working and living abroad. Find out more about the founding of Vital Arts in Episode 70 of our Covid 19 Special Series.

Joshua Simon - Senior Advisor, Community Arts Stabilization Trust

Joshua is dedicated to building vibrant, healthy neighborhoods that are affordable for all. Prior to becoming Executive Director for the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, Joshua was Director of Real Estate Consulting at the Northern California Community Loan Fund, where he helped nonprofits plan and finance their facilities. From 1994–2006, Joshua worked as a Senior Project Manager and Director of EBALDC’s Real Estate Development Department, overseeing the development of major mixed-use complexes that combine affordable rental apartments with community and retail facilities benefitting the broader community. Throughout his career, Joshua has been an active civic leader, serving 13 years as a School Board member for Emeryville Unified School District and on committees that address education facilities and affordable housing, and is Vice President of Emeryville’s Redevelopment Successor Agency Oversight Committee. Joshua holds a B.A. in Architecture from UC Berkeley and an M.S. in Real Estate Development from MIT. Watch Joshua’s insights on redeveloping empty office space in downtown San Francisco in Episode 4. In Episode 9 find out more about how a Performing Arts organization purchased its building in an interview with Julie Phelps of CounterPulse and Joshua Simon

Richard Raya - Chief Strategy Officer, Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)

Richard Raya, is the Chief Strategy Officer at the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA). For nearly 20 years, Richard has worked at an executive level to bring community leaders, administrators, and elected officials together to improve community outcomes and generate revenue. Raya has been Chief of Staff for an Oakland City Councilmember, Executive Director of Youth Radio, and Director of Administrative Services for Alameda County’s Public Health Department. He is focused on working closely with Mission Promise Neighborhood partners and applying data to improve educational results for San Francisco’s children. 

Richard’s great-grandparents were Yaquis who came to the Bay Area after fighting in the Mexican Revolution. His parents were farmworkers in the fields of Northern California and came of age during the Chicano Movement. Ray earned a B.A. in English and a Master’s in Public Policy from UC Berkeley. Watch Richard’s insights on the economic developmental power of the arts in Episode 5.

Fernando Pujals- Deputy Director, Mid-Market Business Association & Foundation

Fernando Pujals, is Deputy Director, at the Mid-Market Business Association & Foundation and a Director, at Urban Place Consulting. Driven by fostering connection at the intersection of people and place, Fernando Pujals has over five years’ experience in the public space management field. While rooted in communications and storytelling, he has honed his practice in operations and organizational development as a leader for positive change within communities.

Through Urban Place Consulting, Pujals serves as Deputy Director of the Mid-Market Business Association & Foundation, leading the implementation of a two-year $10 million Community Based Safety Program in San Francisco's Mid-Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods. Watch Fernando in Episode 5 and our one on one interview with Fernando about his work to reinvent the mid market neighborhood.

Jacob Bintliff - Mgr of Economic Recovery Initiatives, SF Office of Economic and Workforce Development

Jacob Bintliff is the Manager of Economic Recovery Initiatives at the City of San Francisco's Office of Economic and Workforce Development, where he manages a complex portfolio of initiatives and works with key stakeholders to stabilize and grow a thriving and more resilient economy for the City of San Francisco. Jacob previously served at the City of San Francisco's Planning Department where he specialized in community benefit and affordable housing programs and provided in-house expertise in real estate economics on a variety of mixed-use and multi-phase development projects. Prior to joining the City of San Francisco, Jacob was a senior associate at BAE Urban Economics, where he provided economic development, public-private partnership, and development feasibility services for public-sector clients across the Bay Area and nationally. Jacob holds a Master of City Planning degree from the University of California, Berkeley and BA in Latin American Studies and Economics from the University of Texas at Austin. Find out more about what the City of San Francisco is working on to support the arts in efforts to reinvent downtown San Francisco in Episode 5.

Laura Poppiti - Program Director, Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI)

Laura Poppiti is the Program Director at the Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI), where she manages the organization's grant programs for California artists and arts workers, in addition to overseeing special initiatives. Prior to CCI, she worked in various fundraising and programmatic roles at small and mid-sized arts and arts education nonprofit organizations such as New Conservatory Theatre Center, The Imagine Bus Project, SF Camerawork, and the Museum of Performance & Design. i. Poppiti serves on Grantmakers in the Arts’ Support for Individual Artists Committee and the Advisory Circle for Look What She Did!, an LA-based nonprofit that brings stories of astonishing women, past and present, to the forefront of our culture. She has participated as a grant panelist for the California Arts Council, Creative Sonoma, LA County Department of Arts & Culture, and San José Office of Cultural Affairs, among others. Laura received her B.A. in History from the Catholic University of America and her M.A. in Exhibition & Museum Studies from the San Francisco Art Institute.

Meredith Winner - Co-Founder & COO, Building 180 & Paint the Void

Meredith Winner is the Co-Founder, Curator and Managing Director at Paint the Void. Meredith is a San Francisco-based art curator and producer. She is also both the co-Founder and the Chief Operating Officer of Building 180, an agency whose mission is to inspire change through art and to help artists maintain sustainable careers. In addition to producing public art installations and interiors across the globe, she is the Program Director for two Bay Area Artist-in-Residence Programs. Meredith has spent the past 12 years dedicated to the arts, working in a wide array of positions. Most recently, Winner co-founded Paint The Void, a partnership project with Art For Civil Discourse. She coordinated the painting of over 200 murals on boarded storefronts in the wake of the COVID pandemic. Winner is both an artist and arts facilitator. She holds a BFA in Sculpture from Cornell University.

Joe Landini - Director/Founder, Safe House Arts 

Joe Landini (director of giving/founder) of Safe House For the Arts received his BA in choreography from UC Irvine and his MA in choreography from the Laban Centre (London). His choreography has been presented at the ODC Theater, Z Space, the Cowell Theater and Dance Mission, as well as Santa Cruz, Marin, Sacramento, Monterey, Laguna Beach, Santa Fe (NM), Mexico City and London. He founded SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts in 2007 and received the GOLDIE award from the SF Bay Guardian in 2012. In 2022, Landini received the award for Sustained Achievement with the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and celebrated his 30th year of choreographing in the Bay Area.

Vinay Patel - Executive Director, API Cultural Center

Patel has over a decade’s experience as an arts administrator. He has been a critical factor in the growth of Asian Improv aRts’ (as a co-founder and a coordinator of the California Asian American and Pacific Islander Arts Network), producer of concerts, festivals, tours, and recordings, and he has been an organizational development consultant as well. Patel has been the Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center since 2009

Denise Pate - Dir. Community Investments, SF Arts Commission

Denise Pate currently serves as the Director of Community Investments for the San Francisco Arts Commission. In this role she stewards approximately $13 million annually in municipal funding to invest in San Francisco’s individual artists and arts nonprofits with a focus on racial and cultural equity. She manages an 11-person, Community Investments team which oversees all grant programs as well as the City’s Art Vendor program. Pate has worked for over 30 years in nonprofit management as an executive director, program manager, board member, development professional, dancer, and choreographer. She has raised funds, managed programs, and provided technical assistance for organizations throughout Bay Area counties. Pate formerly served as the Cultural Funding Coordinator for the City of Oakland where she managed competitive cultural arts granting to Oakland individual artists and nonprofits. Pate’s past affiliations include California College of the Arts, Young Audience of Northern California, Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning through the Arts, Youth in Arts and World Arts West. She has an M.B.A. and also has a B.A. in Movement Education.

Vital Arts

Our Story
Soaring rents and costs are displacing Bay Area artists and forcing them to live and gather for events in deathtraps like the Oakland Ghost Ship warehouse, threatening the continuation of innovative arts and culture in the Bay Area, long recognized as a fertile place for creativity.  
Edwin Bernbaum, whose son Jonathan died in the Oakland Ghost Ship fire, started Vital Arts alongside friends Beth Jay and Tom Dolan to address these problems and to honor those lost in the fire by working to ensure that no artists or art lovers have to pay for their passion with their lives. Vital Arts envision a world in which groundbreaking arts and culture that are essential for the continued health and vitality of society at large are recognized and cultivated. We seek to bring this about by implementing projects to meet the needs of low and moderate-income artists in the Bay Area. We believe that if we are successful, our efforts to preserve and support a strong innovative creative arts community can provide models and seeds that can be replicated nationally and internationally. You can find out more about Vital Arts Approach and the work they are doing in the community along with their projects and partners along with supporting their work.

Community Arts Stabilization Trust - CAST

Mission: To create stable physical spaces for arts and cultural organizations to facilitate equitable urban transformation. This seed of an idea that was incubated through NCCLF evolved into what is now known as the Community Arts Stabilization Trust. With a $5 million grant from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation to launch CAST’s first two pilot projects, CounterPulse and Luggage Store Gallery, CAST set out on its mission to slow the exodus of artists and arts organizations in the Mid-Market neighborhood of San Francisco by buying two buildings, leveraging New Markets Tax Credits, and holding the asset for a period of seven years until the arts partner was strong enough operationally and had enough funds raised to buy their building back from CAST and acquire a permanent home. Founded in 2013, CAST has helped transform access to space for nonprofits in the Bay Area, at a time when artists were being priced out left and right in San Francisco and particularly vulnerable to an escalating commercial real estate market. Find out more about the model, programs/services, partnerships resources, and partnering with CAST, looking for space and supporting their work.

Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)

Rooted in San Francisco’s Mission District, MEDA is advancing a national equity movement by building Latino prosperity, community ownership and civic power. We envision generations of Latino families choosing where to call home, thriving economically, succeeding in learning opportunities, and leading policy and social change toward a more equitable society. In working to achieve our mission, MEDA has identified several core values that we strive to reflect in all of our activities. Our core values are:

Equity - We create programs and change policies to expand opportunities for Latinos and other historically underserved communities, to ensure justice is never limited by race/ethnicity, class, gender identity, age, sexual orientation, religion, immigration status, country of origin and disability status.

Activation - Our work is grounded in the experience and expertise of our community members, mobilizing local leaders to reverse displacement and promote local ownership of neighborhood establishments, cultural institutions, business capital, and homes.

Audacity- We are risk-takers who lead with courage, put forth new solutions to our community’s challenges and continuously adapt to changing circumstances.

Togetherness - In solidarity with fellow organizations committed to advancing equity, the MEDA team creates partnerships locally, regionally, statewide and nationally, sharing our model and building coalitions in a movement toward social justice.

Impact - Our goal is to eradicate our community’s problems, not only to help our clients develop coping strategies. In order to create this lasting change, we continuously monitor the impact of our services as well as use data to drive program improvements and inform our policy agenda. Find out more about MEDA’s Programs, Family Resources, Key Learnings, and Getting Involved.

Mid-Market Business Association & Foundation

The Mid-Market Business Association (MMBA) is a 501c6 and advocates on behalf of businesses, property owners, and other stakeholders along Market Street between 5th and Van Ness and surrounding areas. The Mid-Market Foundation (MMF) is a 501c3 non-profit established in 2019 which accepts charitable donations and seeks funding to conceive, implement, and manage transformative programs. Our collective vision is a safe and clean business setting that fosters a sense of community, inclusion, and contribution, by and for everyone. We envision the Mid-Market corridor as home to a thriving business community. We believe a strong business community is one important step of many towards an increased quality of life, and a more beautiful and welcoming neighborhood for current and future residents and businesses. Find out more about MMBA's Programs, Newsletter, Getting Involved, and Past Projects.

SF Office of Economic and Workforce Development

The Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) in San Francisco is responsible for creating a thriving and resilient economy, where barriers to economic and workforce opportunities are removed, and prosperity is shared equitably by all. OEWD provides high-quality direct services and programs, drives practical policy solutions, and serves as a champion for San Francisco’s diverse small business community. OEWD’s services include:

Small Business Services: OEWD provides assistance to small businesses in San Francisco by offering resources and support to help them grow and thrive.

Workforce Development: OEWD offers training and job placement services to job seekers in San Francisco. They also provide customized recruitment services to employers.

Community Economic Development: OEWD invests in San Francisco’s business corridors, public spaces, and commercial centers to promote economic growth and development.

Visit their website to learn more about their programs and services and the Road Map to San Francisco's Future.

Building 180 & Paint the Void

We imagine a world where art connects us with one another, and the world around us. A world where art has no boundaries and is made to elevate the human experience, inspires the very best in human nature, and awakens the fullest possibility of imagination. We are the producers who see the world in color. We make ambitious projects possible by empowering both artists and clients to dream bigger and build better. We apply our expertise to transform big ideas into tangible reality, changing the way art is experienced, valued and made. Building 180 is a full-service art production and consulting agency — we curate and produce uniquely complex art installations from conception to completion. Our team of curators, producers, and artists are professional problem solvers with big ideas who thrive on fast timelines. We work with cities, brands, architects, designers, developers and more to identify opportunities, build consensus between stakeholders, then apply our methodology to bring your story to life — ahead of deadline and under budget. We exclusively work with reliable artists and pride ourselves as safeguards of artistic integrity and freedom.

We measure success by the number of emerging artists we have supported, the number of unique installations we create, and volume and quality public/private community engagement surrounding each project. Our ultimate goal is to draw community into conversation by using art as a catalyst for shared ownership and creative value. Find out more about Building 180’s Services, Projects, Get Involved.

Paint the Void is a fiscally sponsored 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, born from an idea to help keep artists engaged and paid as guardians of hope and beauty in a time of fear and uncertainty. Public art organization Building 180 and Art for Civil Discourse (ACD) joined forces to raise funds for artist grants as a response to COVID-19. Since mid-April 2020, we have facilitated and supported the creation of over 200 murals in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland, funding over 150 artists. Paint the Void is funded through small individual donations, grants, and collaborations with larger institutions for permanent murals. Get involved as an artist or as a volunteer and inquire about a free mural.

SAFEhouse Arts

SAFEhouse is a cooperative, community art space that hosts Residencies, Workshops, and Performances, and also has space available for Rentals. SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts is a 501(c)3 California non-profit and is operated by the resident artists and staff who are supported by the SAFEhouse Board of Directors.

SAFEhouse has moved around to several locations over the years and currently resides in their newest venue located at 145 Eddy St. SAFEhouse is proud to have a staff entirely comprised of working artists and a strong board to support them. Although SAFEhouse is only 15 years old, it has quite a colorful history with a strong mission and bright future. Find out more about Applications for Artists, Renting the Facilities, Artists Bios and Making a Donation

Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center

APICC proudly presents the annual United States of Asian America Festival (USAAF), showcasing diverse artistic works in music, dance, film, visual art and more from API artists throughout San Francisco.

The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center’s (APICC) mission is to support and present multidisciplinary art reflective of the unique experiences of Asian Pacific Islanders living in the United States.

APICC was founded in 1996 by representatives of five nonprofit arts groups: Asian American Dance Performances, First Voice, Asian Improv aRts, the Asian American Theater Company, and Kearny Street Workshop. Since 1998, the center has promoted the artistic and organizational growth of San Francisco’s API arts community by organizing and presenting the annual United States of Asian America Festival as well as commissioning contemporary art for and by the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Find out more about Programs & Events, Festival, Fiscally Sponsored Events and Making a Donation.

San Francisco Arts Commission

The San Francisco Arts Commission is the city agency that champions the arts. We believe that a creative cultural environment is essential to the city’s well-being and we strive to integrate the arts into all aspects of city life. The San Francisco Arts Commission consists of fifteen members appointed by the Mayor for four-year terms. Our work is overseen by the Director of Cultural Affairs. We believe that the transformative power of art is critical to strengthening neighborhoods, building infrastructure and fostering positive social change. Find out more about Programs, Opportunities, The Arts Impact Endowment Program [CSAP], [AIE] Grant Arts Hub Public Meetings and Getting Involved.

Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI)

The Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) was founded in 2001 as a California 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation. Its mission is to support individuals in the arts—artists, culture bearers, and creative entrepreneurs—to realize greater self-determination so as to unfetter their productivity, free expression, and social impact, which contributes to shaping our collective national identity in ways that reflect the diversity of society.

In 2000, a major study was commissioned by 38 funders nationally, resulting in a 2003 benchmark report produced by the Urban Institute in Washington, DC titled Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for U.S. Artists. The Urban Institute study showed, and CCI’s field experience has affirmed, that artists have significant needs in multiple domains, including training and professional development, material supports, access to markets, public validation, information, and participation in larger communities and networks. In 2016, capping a two-year national research effort in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts, CCI released an updated report on U.S. artists, Creativity Connects: Trends and Conditions Affecting U.S. Artists, to understand artists’ support systems in a technology-enabled era and to recognize how the very definition of “artist” has been expanding. Find out more about CCI’s Funding, Resources, Workshops and Initiatives

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