October 10, 2001 Z Space Studio 1360 Mission St., San Francisco, CA Presentations
by:
Most on-line Bay Area residents don't need a lesson in "what is Craigslist.org". Programmer Craig Newmark created San Francisco's Craigslist website in 1995, and for many of us, like a $3.00 expresso and $4.00 super burrito, Craigslist has become a part of our daily routine. We all may have different personal descriptions
of Craigslist:
The site itself provides this "in a nutshell"
description:
Craigslist has since branched out to other cities, from Boston to Melbourne. And just when I think I have Craigslist figured out, they have added something new. In keeping with their community based spirit,
Craigslist has launched Craigslist Foundation with this mission:
Last month Craigslist Foundation held the
Craigslist Foundation Nonprofit Venture Forum at Z
Space Studio. At the forum, five local nonprofit arts organizations
had 10 minutes each to pitch to an audience of potential funders. This
was the first "all arts organizations" venture forum.
Each participating arts organization was required to fill out an application on-line and describe how they are "committed to social change, not social service". Ten semi-finalists were then selected. The semi-finalists went on to participate in try-out presentations and received feedback on their presentations and message from a professional team of advisors. The five finalists were then selected and given a rehearsal with a drama coach a few weeks before the actual presentation.
When the audience was seated, the five finalists began their presentations:
The Crucible is an educational sculpture studio, foundry and metal fabrication shop offering hands-on learning for all ages and experience levels. Founded in 1999 "by a small group of artists, trades people and business leaders determined to break down the barriers which separate the arts from the worlds of business, industry, and everyday life", the Crucible offers classes in MIG, TIG and arc welding, iron and bronze casting, mold making, neon sculpture, glass working, ceramics, stonecarving, blacksmithing, machining, jewelry and kinetics. The Crucible provides studio space for 16 artists and also holds events such as gallery openings including the current exhibit Furniture Art (through December 7th). The Crucible manufactures short-run metal fabrication commissions.
The Crucible's current needs include funding for the Crucible Facade Project. The facade, on Ashby Avenue, includes a mural by M. S. Hove. Currently, this facade plan is a fire-hot, mostly-red mural of the imagery of the arts that are taught at the Crucible. The plan is to include a neon and steel sign of the Crucible logo. (Check our events page for information about the mural dedication celebration to take place on December 1st.) The Crucible also needs help with funding for new staff positions and expansion of the foundry so that they can utilize the 500 and 250 pound bronze furnaces donated by U.C. Berkeley's foundry.
Flyaway Productions performs apparatus-based dances that expose the range and power of female physicality. The organization supports ongoing investigations of women's social and cultural identity, with particular focus on how women's identities are shaped by physical strength. Flyaway Productions provides apparatus-based dance performances and training for the public. This type of dance incorporates risk, spectacle and "social potency".
"In our workshops, we teach how to make the body stronger; we teach partnering between bodies that are differently sized; we teach confidence and the value of each individual toward the whole; we encourage physical and artistic expression as a means toward self-knowledge; and we teach women and girls to embrace their bodies as holy and meaningful. Flyaway chooses dance as an arena within which to challenge long held ideas of women's inferiority. This is our innovation." Flyaway Productions premieres one to two works per year in its home season. Flyaway Productions also tours nationally, including performances at the Boston Dance Umbrella's International Aerial Festival, Ohio State University, Lane Community College, The Improvisation Festival/NY, SUSHI Performance Space in San Diego, and at the Aerial Dance Festival in Boulder, Colorado. A bit more locally, Flyaway Productions will present "Unmoored #2" (November 10th -11th) in Santa Cruz. The 418 project has commissioned Flyaway Productions to create this quartet for four women which will center around a suspended steel umbrella. The current needs of Flyaway Productions include funding for professional salaries for artists, directors, collaborators and staff and funding for the institutionalization of a training program for women/girls.
Streetside uses storytelling to build community and inspire students to write, read and tell their own stories. Their program offers a blend of storytelling, theatre and autobiographical writing that helps kids meet innumerable California State Standards in Language Arts while providing the many benefits of arts education. Streetside offers a two-week storytelling program during two-hour sixth-grade language arts classes. With a dynamic blend of storytelling, theatre and autobiographical writing, the program explores a different theme each year. The children each write an autobiographical story. At the end of each year Streetside produces and anthology. Christine Young (Project Director) reads a story from the anthology, titled "My First Time Flying on My Bike". As enthralled as I was with the story and the way that a child can pick up on details in life and communicate these details to others - I am also absolutely sure my fifth grade child would read this book cover to cover and then read it again! Christine Young gives a heartfelt presentation and includes a quote from a child who was in the program: " I learned that my story can be useful somehow." I cannot help but get a sense of how exciting it must be to help children get to this point in their writing skills. Since the requests for Streetside's services have far outweighed what the organization can currently fulfill, Streetside has begun a Teacher Training Program where facilitators help teachers learn how to incorporate storytelling and theatre into their classrooms and use these techniques to teach writing to youth. Streetside's current needs include $20,000 to hire two new facilitators and $5,000 towards production expense of the student anthology. Streetside also needs pro bono web design, graphic design, book design, and accounting services.
The Professional Enrichment Program (PEP) is a coalition of leading San Francisco Bay Area arts organizations partnering to sponsor professionally-oriented theatrical activities which enable and support people from non-traditional groups, particularly members of the disabled community. Professionalism, Skilled Performers, and emPowerment, are the thoughts that come to mind after listening to Pamela Walker's impassioned explanation of the mission of PEP. Before you even think, "nonprofit organization for the disabled," Pamela Walker turns that idea inside out and shows you that PEP is about giving their members the skills to compete with mainstream performers and break down the barriers as well as dispel misconceptions regarding professional performers from the disabled community. During a frustrating attempt to cast skilled performers with disabilities for a production at The Magic, it was discovered that there was a marked difference in the professionalism of the performers with more disabilities than those who were less disabled. PEP was formalized in 1997 to help integrate disabled performers with those from the mainstream. PEP offers affordable classes, programs, and training materials. PEP encourages diversity, facilitating working relationships with theater workers form various experience levels - disabled and non-disabled alike. PEP's 2001 goal is workshopping its Alchemy Works Project. PEP has a goal to complete a full production in 2002. The organization feels that their members would be best served by being able to participate in a full performance, since this would raise skills beyond what is learned through workshops and classes. They also believe that this will provide an opportunity for their members to perform with skilled professionals. Since skilled professionals do not need to attend classes and PEP's target population is not beginners but rather those who have had their careers blocked by barriers, the performance would be a way to get the two groups together and enhance each group's skills along with enhancing each group's understanding of the other. PEP needs $45,000 to do the future shows and also needs in-kind or financial support to do a six month strategic planning process ($15,000) which will "give (PEP) the blueprints for building bridges beyond the current projects and help (PEP) plan for sustainability".
CELL (Collectively Explorative Learning Labs) is the artists and educators collective which sustains CELLspace, a multidisciplinary arts center whose mission is to provide a safe and supportive public environment for the exploration of art, education, performance and community building. The final organization to present was CELLspace. CELLspace, located on Bryant Street in the Mission, currently houses a dance/theatre/performance space, eight visual artists' studios, classroom spaces, a wood shop, an audio-visual production lab, a digital-video editing lab, a visual arts gallery, a sewing loft, a sound studio for recording/rehearsal, a metal shop and a craft loft. CELLspace conducts a variety of on-site classes and the gallery holds monthly exhibits.
CELLspace's lease will continue until 2013, which means most of the fundraising efforts will go towards facility improvements and developing outreach programs. The landlord has also offered to sell the adjacent lot. CELLspace is looking for funds to underwrite a strategic planning process to create a building for Community Workers Affordable Housing, which will house artists, teachers and social service workers. In response to the California energy crisis, CELLspace would like to become a model of sustainability and urban permaculture with an array of solar panels, wind generators, water catchment and rooftop storage tanks that will water rooftop gardens. They would like to work with local youth to install the equipment. This would help make CELLspace sustainable and at the same time provide a training opportunity for youth in a field of work that should see substantial growth in the near future.
-- Sheilah Navat
sheilah@sanfranciscoartmagazine.com For more information about the Craigslist Foundation and its venture forums, visit: http://www.craigslistfoundation.org.
Craigslist Foundation Nonprofit Venture Forum is also supported by artAngels, building "a network of Bay Area Art Angels through our community events, monthly e-newsletters, and community web site." |
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At
October 10th's forum, information booths from each presenting group were
set up around the room. With food catered by 
The
Crucible
Flyaway
Productions
Streetside
Stories
Professional
Enrichment Program
CELLspace
After
each presentation, funders were encouraged to ask questions, and at the
end of all the presentations there was time to look at all the booths and
meet with the organizations. This was a wonderful opportunity for these
organizations to find assistance that they may not have otherwise had the
opportunity to receive. After the event, Jonathan Youtt (CELLspace) expressed
gratitude that the Craigslist Foundation provided the participating organizations
with a full copy of the attendees so that they may do follow-up with potential
funders. Jo Kreiter (Flyaway Productions) told SFAM, "the Forum offered
me an opportunity I have been seeking. I have had a lurking sense of potential
support from people in business, marketing, high tech, as well as the foundation
network but I had not been able to identify and meet those people. With
the Forum event, Craigslist Foundation is fostering community, care, and
real support... I am hopeful and enthusiastic as I start to follow up with
people I met."
Photos
from the Craigslist Foundation Nonprofit Venture Forum were taken by 