The Toe

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Alleged serial thief — mostly after art — struck three times at Mission co‑op

by Junyao Yang : missionlocal – excerpt

Project Artaud just hosted its spring open studios on April 12 and 13. Just a week later, it was struck by seemingly the same art thief three times.

In just one week, Project Artaud, the art cooperative at 499 Alabama St., was hit three times by seemingly the same thief — one interested mostly in the artworks.

In just one week, Project Artaud, the art cooperative at 499 Alabama St., was hit three times by seemingly the same thief — one interested mostly in the artworks.

The thief took keys from the lock boxes near the sidewalk and let himself into the three-story complex, where artists live and work. He stole a sculpture, several paintings and prints from five artists. The stolen pieces add up to about $20,000 in losses, according to Javier Manrique, an artist at the building who had one of his paintings stolen.

“It’s just odd,” Manrique said of the video that showed a man in his late 20s about 5 feet 10 inches tall. “But they knew what they were looking for.”

The thief was identified on security footage as the same man by Manrique, but Mission Local could not independently verify this. The San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The break-in happened just a week after the spring open-studio weekend on April 12 and 13. On April 18, a wooden sculpture went missing overnight. On the evening of April 21, the thief returned and broke into the sculpture studio, stealing some electronics and speakers.

Two days later, on April 23, the thief showed up again between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. He entered through the back parking lot, “messed with” a double locked door that had a broken top lock, and went directly to the third floor, Manrique said. There, he stole two paintings from artist Dale Erickson and then took a few more from the second and ground floors — plus a bike from the parking lot.

The thief used spray paint in the parking lot to obstruct one of the security cameras, but was caught on other cameras in the parking lot and on the sidewalk. He also left his footprints on the wet paint on the third floor during a floor maintenance project… (more)

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Mission artists to be evicted from longtime art warehouse Engine Works

By io Yeh Gilman : missionlocal – excerpt

Back in the 1990s at the Engine Works building at Capp and 17th, B-boys danced, the Mission Burrito Project passed out food to the homeless, and members of the Mission School art movement hung out, including photographer David Schubert and artist Margaret Kilgallen, who painted a mural in the building (it’s since been removed).

Fast forward two decades and the converted warehouse was still an arts scene: The beach goth band The Growlers performed secret concerts, punk rock bands recorded albums, and bike messengers idled between deliveries.

Using the space now are an artist who paints sideshows and city life, a mechanical engineer who builds lighting contraptions with LEDs, and a DJ who creates digital art to be projected during performances.

But now that legacy is threatened. The artists who live at Engine Works were recently notified that they are being evicted under the Ellis Act, which allows property owners to exit the rental market and displace their tenants in the process…

But the artists’ residency faces another problem. The Engine Works building, a warehouse with a corrugated metal exterior, might not be meant for habitation. Three complaints filed with the city in 2016 and2018 allege that the building has been illegally used for living instead of commercial purposes. The complaints also describe blocked exits, construction work done without permitting, and hazardous electrical work.

The complaints were investigated by the Department of Building Inspection and ended with the city posting “orders of abatement,” which means that some violation has occurred and needs to be addressed.

Artists living in informal housing is nothing new: Numerous now-legal artist spaces across the city, including Project Artaud and Developing Environments, started through people illegally occupying studio spaces offering affordable rent.

Such informal living arrangements used to be very common in the city, said Debra Walker, a police commissioner and longtime San Francisco artist who lives in Developing Environments, but successive waves of gentrification have slowly displaced artists, who can’t afford to live and work elsewhere… (more)

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How we Saved the Building

by Bob Pacelli

It was 1981, and the balloon payment we had used to buy Project Artaud ten years earlier was coming due. We had no money to pay for it and were going to lose the building.
Wells Fargo said they’d give us a loan if we got the building up to code. We were under a condemnation order. This building had never been a place where one could legally live, work, and hold public assembly. There was no code in SF that would allow this so we had to write one and get the city to accept it and change the zoning laws.

Continue reading “How we Saved the Building”

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Artists Salon

Florencia and Brian & Project Artaud  invite you to the next
Artists Salon Saturday April 20, 2024,  3-6pm
The Sculpture Studio – 401  Alabama St. #123

All Welcome!!! Especially Artaudians!!!!! Join us to celebrate music, and creativity with these three extraordinary artists. This is a project Artaud Community outreach event, please come and share with the community

3PM – Kitten on the Keys Special guest appearance by musician Sebastian Law Bay Area Native, musician Suzanne Ramsey aka Kitten on the Keys has been performing stateside and internationally -everywhere from sleazy bars to the award winning film “Tournee” at The Cannes Film Festival. She plays piano, accordion and sings bawdy cabaret originals, unexpected covers, and forgotten gems of yesteryear.  www.kittenonthekeys.com

4PM – Brian Goggin will give a brief  update about The Last Ice Project and share stories about his recent scouting trip to Greenland.

4:15PM Ed Holmes  Art Talk – Legendary artists of the SF counterculture:  (performer, comedian, father of the St Stupid’s Day Parade) in conversation with poet, author, cartoonist, Hal Robbins (aka Dr. Hal).

5:15PM – Kitten on the Keys 

There will be time before, during, and after to mingle and foster community.  Please consider bringing a beverage to share for the bar and cash for tips for the artists.

P.S. This is a regular series (3rd Saturday of each month) showcasing supporting and celebrating local artists, musicians, poets and scientists. If you or someone you know would like to be featured at an upcoming Salon, please reach out to us. We support BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and other less represented folks. Email: gogginartsalons@gmail.com

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Cine Latino on Mission could become arts spaces, rooftop theater

by OSCAR PALMA : misisonlocal – excerpt

The 111-year-old building formerly housing Cine Latino at 2551 Mission St., between 21st and 22nd, played its very last movie back in 1987. In the last few months, its century-old facade, long derelict, has been replaced by a sleek, modern-looking three-story structure with floor to ceiling windows facing west to the shiny marquee of the Alamo Drafthouse theater.

The 9,225-square-foot ground floor will become retail and an art gallery, according to the architect in charge of the project. But that is not all: The owners are also planning to refurbish the top two floors to create individual artist studios, and may add a rooftop theater to the building…

The application specifies that all the spaces on those floors are intended for work spaces and not for housing purposes. In addition, the city issued an elevator permit last year and a fireproofing one in 2022.

Charles Hemminger, the architect working with the family on the project, said that the owner of the building, Vera Cort, who passed away on Monday, decided a year ago that she wanted to make the second floor spaces for artists…(more)

RELATED:

Vera Cort, longtime Mission landlord, dies at 82

 

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Local Theaters Search for Spotlight

by : potreroview – excerpt

With live entertainment dormant over the past year, theater companies have shifted to offering shows online, a tactic that hasn’t generated significant revenues. As operating losses grow, ongoing uncertainties brought by the pandemic make it difficult to plan for whatever seasons lie ahead.

PlayGround pivoted to the web at the start of the public health crises. When Potrero Stage, the venue it operates on 18th Street, went dark last March due to COVID-19 restrictions, the company was celebrating its 25th anniversary, featuring its annual New Works Festival. The production morphed into the PlayGround Zoom Fest which, with 50 offerings over six weeks, laid claim to being the country’s largest live-streamed offering of new works, with actors performing in separate locations.

“It ended up being an experiment in what worked and what didn’t,” Artistic Director Jim Kleinmann said. “We were one of the lucky ones. We figured out the tools and we were able to use a lot of what we learned during that time.”…(more)

It is good to se how some of the theaters and event venues pivoted to survive. I suggest people in Artaud who have survival stories to tell, contact the author and share them. This article leaves out a few local Mission Theaters that may have some stories to tell. You may want to reach out to them too. The way the unions handled the change is interesting. Who knew that internet acts fall under the Screen Actors Guild. Read the article for more details.

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Breweries Need a Stiff Drink

By Bettina Cohen : potreroview – excerpt

Decreased sales and increased costs are threatening the survival of San Francisco’s breweries. On Second Street, 21st Amendment’s recorded message indicates that the brewpub is temporarily closed. On Howard Street, ThirstyBear Organic Brewing’s website states, “ThirstyBear has gone back into Hibernation. Hopefully just a short winter nap!?”…

San Francisco had an explosion of independent craft breweries in the past decade. Magnolia expanded from its Haight Ashbury location to Dogpatch in 2013, near where Triple Voodoo opened the following year on Third Street. Harmonic Brewing launched a year later on 26th Street. Gathering places to drink beer brewed onsite added to neighborhood character, supplied bars and restaurants with libations, and helped fuel the City’s celebrated hospitality industry…

More than a year into San Francisco’s public health order to mitigate COVID-19 transmission, bars and restaurants have been hobbled by recurrent easing and retightening of operating restrictions. These establishments aren’t buying kegs like they did when social interaction wasn’t linked to a potentially fatal virus…

Sales to grocery stores and directly to customers through curbside pickup or delivery have replaced some lost revenue, but at a steep cost increase. Instead of distributing beer in kegs, breweries pay more for packaging liquid product into aluminum cans. Greater demand for aluminum for canning has resulted in a 27 percent cost rise since COVID struck, according to the Bay Area Brewers Guild. Smaller breweries that don’t have canning equipment rely on Can Van, a mobile canning company, to drive up and perform this service.

Magnolia invested $200,000 in its own canning line. Reccow remarked that the installation conjures the American Can Company, which in the last century built and occupied the American Industrial Center building that houses the Dogpatch brewery.…(more)

The return to former use of warehouses is the subject of interest here. And the American Can Company. After I saw this article and the one that follows on Local Theaters, I reached out to the authors with some questions and suggestions on more coverage on these subjects. Bettina is taking comments on the empty office spaces now.

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Bay Area mommy musicians shelter in place with a song in their heart

By Andrew Gilbert : sfchronicle – excerpt

…. Meklit Hadero’s experience of sheltered-in-place motherhood has been shaped by the push and pull of throwing herself into a new job while mourning the loss of her old one. The singer-songwriter was set for a full season of gigs with her Ethio-jazz influenced band, including a showcase performance at California WorldFest in July, all of which were canceled. As her musical vocation evaporated she was settling into her new job as chief of program for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a position she took on while pregnant with her son (León, who’s now 9 months old).

Instead of anticipating rescheduled concerts (“What will the live music industry even look like after this?” she says), Hadero has turned her music inward. “Shelter-in-place has made music more something for me and the baby,” she says. “We’re constantly singing together. He sang in tune at 4 months. He’s an insane little musician, incredibly rhythmic. He syncopates vocally.”

Considering that León’s father, Marco Peris Coppola, is the percussionist in Hadero’s band and a founding member of the Balkan brass band Inspector Gadje, the tot’s rhythmic chops shouldn’t come as a surprise. As with all the musical families sheltering in place, the influence of nature and nurture will be harder than ever to tease apart…(more)

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Working at Home

One of my most popular blogs is beauxartisans.wordpress.com. Every time I post an article it seems to generate new readers and a lot of them are helpful and creative sites. The last article I posted on the push for more people to work at home after the pandemic attracted this reader. homeindependence.wordpress.com,  with a number of sites and a lot of information on how to work at home. I think this may be of interest to some of us who don’t want to commute.

The article I posted is one of many on the subject. Most exciting for us is how the employers are reacting to the idea. This article covers the Silicon Valley Leadership Council, made up of the largest employers who have been leading the push for unlimited growth and density in the region. The members appear to be embracing the concept of work at home. It looks like many of us will have the choice. It also looks like the dense housing YIMBY push for stack and pack housing and office development will be on hold soon as well.  Coronavirus Impact: Santa Clara Co. proposal would allow more employees to work from home after pandemic