Art Yap

Today's guest is Demetri Broxton, someone who I think practices radical attention in his artistic practice as well as in his general disposition toward the creative community he builds at Root Division as executive director. Demetri is an Oakland-born artist who takes photographs of ancestors, some named, some lost to time, and brings them back through an act of almost impossible attention. Bead b...

CCA — California College of the Arts — is closing. Vanderbilt University is buying the campuses. And decades of art education, community, and institutional memory are being sold off with them. In this episode, recorded at Goat Hall in San Francisco's Potrero Hill, I sit down with two people who lived it from the inside: Elizabeth Travelslight, who taught in CCA's Critical Studies program and was a...

The night before Valentine’s Day, artists gathered at SOMA Arts to talk about saving the San Francisco art scene. It felt less like a policy meeting and more like couples therapy. In this special Art Yap episode, Shawna asks three simple questions:  When did you fall in love with the SF arts ecosystem?  What broke your heart?  And why are you still here? From naked violinists in backyard performan...

Today on Art Yap, I’m talking with someone whose mind seems to run on two beautifully interwoven tracks — sharp, crystalline analysis and expansive creative instinct. Lauren Frankel is a musicologist-turned-nonprofit-arts-worker-turned-data-nerd-turned-cultural-strategist, and honestly? She’s one of the most interesting arts workers I’ve talked to in a long time. She loves spreadsheets and opera w...

In this episode of Art Yap, I sit down with Richard Koscher (RMK)--artist, filmmaker, creative director, and bold experimenter--whose newest project GHOSTS OF THE ICE asks us to look directly at what's disappearing. Using thermochromatic paint and custom-engineered frames, RMK creates artwork that literally vanishes with heat--mirroring the way climate change is quietly erasing the world around us...

Today’s guest is Connie Wurz (formerly Connie Wood), Curator in Charge of Graphic Design at the SFO Museum—and someone whose work quietly shapes how millions of people experience art and information every day. Connie’s design work isn’t just beautiful—it’s empathetic. It meets people where they are: in motion, in stress, in transit. Whether it’s a traveler sprinting to a gate or someone pausing fo...

Today’s guest is Jackie von Treskow , Senior Program Manager for Public Art at the San Francisco Arts Commission. Jackie’s journey into the arts wasn’t a straight line—it involved mythical Asheville forests, fringe pirate radio, writing hard for SF from LA in a master’s program, and non-profit hustle. We talk about what it really means to make art public, how monuments shape our collective memory,...

“A room without books is like a body without a soul." And honestly… a mall without art or bookstores? Same energy.   Today we’re heading into Daly City’s Westlake Shopping Center—yes, my childhood stomping grounds—for a conversation about how community spaces can transform not just a neighborhood but a whole way of life. I’m joined by Raquel Espana, founder of the Peninsula Book Collaborative, a n...

This week’s guest is Tina Wiley Crawford , recruitment manager at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. She is also a talented graphic designer, a champion for youth programs, and—by her own words—a Swiss Army knife of skills. In this episode, we talk about why claiming “artist” can feel weird, why thank-you notes still matter, and how to get your foot in the door—without selling your soul or st...

In this week’s episode I head down to the dump to trash talk...pardon me, talk trash with Deborah Munk , who’s been running the Artist in Residence program at Recology San Francisco for over 25 years, and Bryan Keith Thomas , an incredible artist, educator, and deep thinker about materials, memory, and community. We talk about how trash becomes treasure, how art can teach sustainability through st...

Today’s guest is Micah Ruiz, the founder of Orion Custom Framing . Micah is the kind of person who makes you feel like you can build something beautiful from scratch—whether it’s a frame, a business, or an entire life. Micah grew up homeschooled in a town of 400 people, the son of a pastor, with no formal arts education—but with a punk mindset that carried him from a teenage summer job in a rural...

Today’s episode features Allison Gamlen , a lifelong arts advocate who now serves as the Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator for the San Mateo County Office of Education. We talk about growing up in the wings of the symphony and Kabuki theater, what happens to the brain when children are denied creativity, and how California’s Prop 28 is giving public school students a shot at becoming the next...

Today’s episode features Anna Lisa Escobedo a true community building baddie from LA. Anna Lisa’s creative project management connects artists with opportunities, each other, and the public. She pours herself heart and soul into making the arts accessible to everyone. And at the time of this recording she is on that job market, so scoop her up fast if you are looking to improve your organization’s...

In today’s episode I sit down with LE BohemianMuse in her beautiful sunlit SF studio in the mission. LE is first generation Ghanian Bay Area-ian, and I just love talking art and life with her.  She’s a philosophical soul who is a multifaceted storyteller at heart. A creative force by nature, LE has no trouble blending her art practice with a streamlined business strategy. Hopefully you are just as...

Today’s guest is Craig McIntire—a self-taught painter, a practicing speech-language pathologist, and the kind of person who instantly feels like a friend you’ve known forever. He’s warm, funny, endlessly curious, and has a deep love for people (and Halloween, though sadly we didn’t get to that part). I could listen to him tell stories about anything and everything. In this episode, we talk about h...

In today’s episode I sit down with Stella Lochman, a joy-driven community programming visionary with deep roots in San Francisco, the city where she was born and raised. Carrying forward the legacy of the city’s progressive and thoughtful artists, Stella offers a utopian perspective on our current cultural moment—along with simple tangible ways we can show up for one another through a model of mut...

Today’s guest is Jonathan Carver Moore—a gallerist, curator, and unapologetic advocate for emerging artists, especially artists of color and queer voices. Jonathan runs his namesake gallery in San Francisco’s budding Mid-Market arts corridor, where he’s created a space that’s as bold, joyful, and fiercely intentional as the work he champions. In this episode, we talk about what it means to create...

Shawna Vesco Ahern gabs, gossips, and otherwise chitchats with San Francisco Bay Area arts and culture baddies about how they build community through creativity—and the winding life paths that led them there. Art Yap guests bring fresh perspectives on curation, arts project management, community programming, arts funding, legislation, marketing and more.  Click here to view the episode transcript.