Episode 80: Shipyard Trust for the Arts

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Dolores Gray, former STAR Artist-in-Residence.jpg

Shipyard Trust for the Arts Programs

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“We have never been assured beyond a doubt that dirt does not contain any toxic substances that we should be you know cautious about”-Barbara

In this episode, our featured voice is the President and CEO of the Shipyard Trust for the Arts Barbara Ockel.

In this episode, our focus and theme are on our artists, and how making art and community engagement is supporting the development of studio spaces to support both our artists and a more diverse community of artists. Our featured voice is the CEO and President of the Shipyard Trust for the Arts Barbara Ockel. Barbara shares with us their ongoing work to support our artists in the Bayview Hunters Point community and the environmental issues at the hunters point shipyard redevelopment project.

Barbara Ockel

Barbara grew up in Germany and came to the United States at age 20 to attend U.C. Berkeley, where she earned a B.A. degree in physics. She started a business making sails for Windsurfers, which she later moved to the Hunters Point Shipyard in SF and became part of a burgeoning artist colony. There she started working with African American artist Joe Sam, and together they installed over 40 public art sculptures across the country. After creating a website for the artist, she started working in the website department of a Silicon Valley start-up and put up art in their worldwide offices for over 10 years while the start-up grew into an international Fortune 100 company.

Barbara has worked at the Hunters Point Shipyard since 1984 and moved to Bayview in 1993. She was a founding member of the “Businesses of Hunters Point Shipyard,” the first organization that was formed to defend the artists and businesses who had settled at the Shipyard, against displacement. While most small businesses moved on as the Shipyard site underwent many changes and challenges, the artists are still there. To continue the work of the original organization, Shipyard Trust for the Arts (STAR) was formed. Barbara rejoined it in 2015 and became president of the board in 2018.

Barbara joined Bayview Opera House (BVOH) as a Board member in 2008 and in July 2009 as Director. During her tenure at BVOH, she founded Dare 2 Dream ARTS Youth Enrichment, now a flagship program. Under her supervision, the former South San Francisco Opera House’s historic wood floor and proscenium have been restored to their former glory, earning the Bayview Opera House Ruth Williams Memorial Theatre a place on the 2011 National Register of Historic Places and a 2011 Governor's Award for Historic Preservation. The new status helped convince the City of San Francisco to make a major investment and renovate the building from 2014-2016 to be fully ADA compatible, structurally sound, and transform an outdoor concrete landscape into a beautiful garden with a wooden outdoor stage.

Barbara continues to steward both organizations to provide more relevant arts and culture to the Bayview and larger Bay Area community, ensure the Shipyard artists’ survival and attract more Bayview community artists to the Shipyard community. She helps ensure, that the struggle and contributions of the African American community of Bayview Hunters Point are recognized and preserved for future generations, while providing programming for all who live here now, bringing people together and increasing community cohesion.

Barbara has more than quadrupled Bayview Opera House’s budget since she started in 2009. In addition, she raised significant sums to support the old building’s maintenance needs and invested $300k into modern theatre equipment in 2016, 200k to paint the building in 2017, and 250k to restore the old floor and kitchen in 2021. She also helped STAR raise funds to more effectively support and promote the Shipyard community, and especially its community artists.

Shipyard Trust For The Arts

The Shipyard Trust for the Arts (STAR) is the nonprofit organization of the Hunters Point Shipyard Artists, a studio community of more than 300 working artists and musicians in the historic naval shipyard in the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco that also includes the nearby Islais Creek Studios and Eclectic Cookery. We are the largest artist community in the U.S.

San Francisco's Hunters Point is named after the Hunters family who lived on the San Francisco Bay in the 1800s. A commercial shipyard, established there in 1870, was acquired by the Navy days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In the 1950s, the 638-acre Hunters Point Naval Shipyard employed 8,500 civilians. Decommissioned in 1974, it was leased in 1976 to a private ship-repair company that sublet buildings to civilians including The Point's founder, sculptor Jacques Terzian, a fabricator of found-object furniture and wall installations.

Jacques' vision of transforming neglected buildings into affordable workspaces became real in 1983 when a handful of artists began renting and renovating Shipyard studios. With co-developers Paula Terzian and David Terzian (Jacqies' daughter and son), The Point was soon home to 300 visual artists, musicians, and writers. You can find more about the Shipyard Trust for the Arts History Here

Donation/Volunteer

Your gift will support STAR's work on behalf of the Hunters Point Shipyard artist community and our arts outreach to the surrounding Bayview Hunters Point and greater San Francisco community. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Donate to STAR

Videos

To find out more about the Shipyard Trust for the Arts and check out our videos:

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“With the delay in the development of the shipyard. There is more opportunity to expand the artist’s footprint and not just preserve what we have, but create more studio space for artists and make this the place where the creative people of San Francisco can thrive and afford to be”

— Barbara Ockel, Preseident/CEO,Shipyard Trust for the Arts

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