Voices of the Community

"The interesting thing about a Land Trust is that it's a split title, we'll split the title and the land trust will own the land forever. And then we'll either sell or lease the housing or creative space on top of it to artists" - Meg Shiffler Welcome to the finale of our series on affordable housing for the creative workforce, brought to you in partnership with Arts for a Better Bay Area and the...

"The resilience that we have to live through booms and busts and pandemics and continue to serve the community, continue to drive foot traffic, continue to create economic opportunities for local people to have jobs and work and express themselves is just incredible. So if you're struggling with a storefront or a vacancy or empty space, just remember to think about the arts” - Julie Phelps In this...

“It's about forcing the city to make sure that they build affordable housing. And there's lots of, programs that we have in the Citywide People's Plan that can make, huge steps towards, building affordable housing” - Dyan Ruiz This episode is part of our ongoing Special Series on How the Arts and Culture sector is coming back from the covid 19 pandemic. In our co-production of Arts for A Better Ba...

"I think the action and the continuity of the coalition from Prop S to Prop E went from 40 organizations to 140 organizations. That was something that was huge” - Vin Seaman In this seventh episode of our series focusing on the arts and culture sector's recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, we bring you highlights from the Co-Production of Arts For A Better Bay Area (ABBA) State of The Arts Summit,...

“ Bringing the scale of human life to the community again so that we can kind of start seeing our humanity and our everyday Experiences ” - Melissa Abercrombie This episode is from our November 4th 2023 live event co-production with the Petaluma Arts Center, our broadcast partners KPCA 103.3fm and Petaluma Community Access TV and BAVC Media. This special event was focused on exploring the question...

“I think really being open minded and also really trusting artists is a really big, important factor because. Artists know what they're doing, at least when it comes to making the artwork, that's why people hire them and allow them to have the most creative freedom as possible, really. Usually allows the project to be as best as it can be or as good as it can be” - Meredith Winner This episode is...

"So of course, the pandemic was a struggle for all of us, and so we all know the arts organizations are the first to close and last open, especially the performing arts are really still struggling" - Rachel Osajima This episode is the long form of our one-on-one interview with Fernando Pujals, the Deputy Director of the Mid-Market Business Association & Foundation and a great deep dive into how he...

"There's been a lot of talk about, how do you make this sustainable, and there's not one answer, but one piece that is core to that, is really galvanizing and cementing around this notion that arts and culture is already right here and we need to lean into it and value it and uplift it. And in that way it won't be able to be ignored'“ - Fernando Pujas This episode is part of our special series on...

"So looking at how do we build an ecology where affordable housing isn't just a place you stay, it's a place you stay and work and build a business and raise a family and, you know, build the economic resources,for the next step. " - Josh Simon This episode is part of our special series on how the arts and culture sector is coming back from the Covid 19 pandemic and features voices from our co-pro...

“One of the things that I, would say to this community coming from a repressed community is let’s turn to each other, not on each other. Let’s bond together, and find our commonality, not our differences. Because the enemy, I’ve seen the enemy in Arizona, and it is not us. So when we have small differences with each other, let’s recognize them for what that is, and let’s stop this San Francisco bi...

"It's all about partnering artists with small businesses to create site specific installations and that way create more exposure both for the business and for the artists and also to revitalize those corridors" - Vanessa Wilson This is our second episode from the co-production with Arts for a Better Bay Area of the re-launch of the State of the Arts Summit "Rebuilding Our Communities," on June 28t...

“This is a time when the art community's creative expertise and skills and talents are being relied upon. And finally, really seen as major contributors to the local economy.” – Maria Jensen This interview with Maria Jensen is part of our co-production with Arts for a Better Bay Area  of the re-launch of the State of the Arts Summit on June 28th, 2023. You can watch the wonderful interview conduct...

"A clean city is not what San Francisco is. San Francisco is a messy city. It’s politically messy, it’s diverse. It fights amongst itself. It is San Francisco and it’s never not gonna be. So, let’s lean into the right kind of messy of San Francisco and artists can get messy. So, let’s get messy." — Jonathan Moscone, Executive Director,California Arts Council This interview with Jonathan Moscone is...

“This is a time when the art community's creative expertise and skills and talents are being relied upon. And finally, really seen as major contributors to the local economy.” – Maria Jensen This is our first episode from the co-production with Arts for a Better Bay Area  of the re-launch of the State of the Arts Summit on June 28th, 2023 . This episode features the opening and keynote speakers ma...

"We wanna incentivize and give board love too. I think the board is often like the scary people or viewed as the scary people behind the curtains that are doing the work or maybe overseeing or assessing” - Michelle “Mush” Lee, Youth Speaks Our first episode of the special series titled "Insights for Building Your Nonprofit Arts and Culture Board" features these three exceptional nonprofit arts and...

"There's still a lot of public resistance to the idea of giving people in homelessness cash, because, the public doesn't trust people in poverty or people in homelessness, I think that has to be corrected and addressed" - Dr. Jiaying Zhao One of the topics we have focused on through our special Covid-19 series is our unhoused neighbors' lives by organizations and governments experimenting with pro...

“I volunteer at a safe sober space. I serve on the board of a retreat for healing that happens once a year. I serve on the Board of StartOut which helps LGBTQ + entrepreneurs gain access to mentorship and resources and fundraising to increase our representation as founders of companies. I will always do this work, because these are the same kind of organizations that empowered me to have the life...

“ It breaks my heart as a mother and a teacher almost the, majority of people who are unhoused are families with children. Sleeping in cars, sleeping in garages, and that these families, these moms and dads, aunts and uncles, they work, but again, they can't get enough together to secure safe and affordable housing ”-Elizabeth Softky Welcome to our annual holiday show and fundraiser. As we bring t...

"It’s the chemistry of people, who come from very different backgrounds, you have gay, transgender, straight, and different talents and different abilities coming together and making this music and magic"-Shavonne Allen This episode features the voices of the founder of ABD Productions and the Sky Watchers Ensemble program, Anne Bluethenthal, along with the members of the Sky Watcher Ensemble, Sha...

“We provide education to encourage people to vote and participate in government”-Michelle Moritz Welcome to our 2022 Election Show. Given all the propositions on both a State of California level as well as the usual too many propositions to understand on the City of San Francisco level we wanted to bring together two wonderful subject matter experts to help us better understand both the Pros and C...

“The Compton, Cafeteria Riots and Felicia Elizondo's life living in the Tenderloin in the 1960s and trans sex workers who were fighting for their right to survive, connected with the ideas that were coming out of my mind”-Adrienne Price In this our one hundredth episode of our special series on the impact of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic on our nonprofit's small businesses and local government, we...

“I think the, first one that stood out to me is unlike some other cities, the San Francisco city government, is not pushing for these downtown office to housing conversions”- Sarah Wright This is part three of our three episodes exploring how the Covid-19 pandemic is impacting San Francisco's downtown neighborhood and economy along with the efforts to address the issues in the reinvention of downt...

“San Francisco’s tax structures are incentivizing companies to, in some cases just move entirely out of San Francisco”-Anna Tong This is part two of the three stories we are covering on how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the downtown of San Francisco and the efforts to address the issues and the reinvention of downtown San Francisco. In this episode we feature the voices of two local reporters...

“I always say that music is a healthy thing that we do. It's something that we strongly believe that even the flowers and the plants and the trees really enjoy having music being played for them”-Mauro ffortissimo One of the topics we’ve covered in our two plus years of producing this special series on the Covid-19 Pandemic’s impact on our community is the impact the pandemic is having on our live...

“We heard of neighbors helping neighbors, of people dropping off food on their friends’ doorsteps, of mutual aid groups, of people becoming champions and ambassadors in their community and, showing the way to access resources and support”-Elena Fairley As millions of families accessed and received billions of dollars of financial support from the US Federal Coronavirus Relief CARES Act Fund, milli...