Latest news with #Art+Water
Axios
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Where bay meets brush: Pier 29 reimagined as hub for SF's artists
A new project on San Francisco's waterfront will deliver the city's largest artist studio and exhibition space — a move many hope will be a turning point for the arts community. State of play: Despite SF's rich legacy, the arts scene has largely been overshadowed in recent years by the tech sector and the doom loop narrative. Limited funding and high costs of living, including rent and supplies, have also forced artists out of the city. Yes, but: A vibrant arts and culture scene is critical to San Francisco's comeback, the mayor's office has said. The sector generates $1.45 billion in economic activity annually, a 2017 study found. It also drives conversation around innovation and promotes self-expression. Driving the news: The Community Arts Stabilization Trust's (CAST) new partnership with the San Francisco Port Commission will transform Pier 29 from a long-vacant warehouse to a cultural hub that houses exhibitions, residencies, performances and other creative events. Zoom in: CAST, known for its pop-up activations across the city, will manage a 47,000-square-foot indoor event and art space as well as a 23,000-square-foot outdoor area that overlooks the bay. A residency program called Art + Water will provide "pod" studio spaces to emerging local artists in six-month cohorts, with a focus on providing access to underserved and under-resourced artists. "At a time when studio space is ever-less affordable, and art instruction costs a fortune, Art + Water will bring both together in one radically accessible space," author Dave Eggers, who will spearhead the residency with San Francisco Arts Commission member JD Beltran, said in a statement. Pier 29 has largely remained vacant since its use during the America's Cup races of 2013 and currently serves as a location for occasional parking and infrequent special events. CAST is investing $300,000 of its own funds for tenant improvements, while the Port is contributing $500,000. Key components of the facility include: A walk-in gallery with rotating exhibitions that will allow visitors to view working artists and purchase local art. An exhibition space on the Embarcadero with artworks curated by Rene De Guzman. A publicly accessible venue that will be available for other arts and culture organizations to put on free and low-cost programming. What they're saying: "We've been approached by a number of artists over the years for large-scale open spaces, things they could really imagine building out for these otherworldly experiences that they produce for the audience," CAST CEO Ken Ikeda told Axios. "But of course, they've been cost prohibitive, or there have been other challenges, and that's where we stepped in." Film screenings, music shows and art barges — the possibilities are endless, Ikeda said. "We see this as a constantly reimagined space, and also a space that won't feel stale, because every time you come back ... it's going to look and feel different," he noted. The intrigue: Part of CAST's goal is to enable a "higher level of clustering" so that art spaces become regularly frequented destinations, Ikeda told Axios. It could anchor a whole row of restaurants and help facilitate community development that becomes a district of sorts, he suggested. "It's not just the economic benefits, but it's also for sustainability, which is our focus," he said. "We need to make it difficult to deny the impact of arts, and therefore make it difficult to displace them." What's next: The lease is a two-year term, but CAST will have the option to request a two-year extension once it expires.
San Francisco Chronicle
23-04-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
Massive art and culture hub coming to S.F. pier that's been empty for more than a decade
On a mission to claim some of downtown San Francisco's languishing commercial buildings as affordable spaces for the city's artists and culture groups, the Community Arts and Stabilization Trust has set its sights on a vacant pier. On Tuesday, the community-centered real estate organization, known as CAST, scored approval from the city's Port Commission to reimage a roughly 100,000-square-foot warehouse that spans Pier 29 and has largely sat vacant for more than a decade as artist studios and cultural programming. The lease deal is for a two-year activation term, which will begin following a six month construction period in which CAST plans to make improvements to the property. The organization also has an option to request a two-year extension of its lease once it expires. CAST's proposal for Pier 29 includes a partnership with Art + Water, a new organization by the Hawkins Project, which is a local nonprofit associated with the philanthropic endeavors of author Dave Eggers and artist J.D. Beltran, who also serves on the city's Arts Commission. Eggers is the co-founder of 826 Valencia, a youth writing center located in the city's Mission District. At Pier 29, Art + Water will occupy some 30 'art pods' designed by CAST, which will span just over half of the existing warehouse. Some of the remaining space will be sublet to other arts groups, and a portion will be built out as convertible space for cultural programming and events that can accommodate up to 2,500 people. Once the project is completed, it will become San Francisco's largest combined studio and exhibition space, according to the Port. It will also provide a vacant warehouse that has been empty since the 2013 America's Cup. The building was previously used for storage and parking, and burned down prior to the sailing competition but was quickly rebuilt, said Port Director Elaine Forbes. 'It was an amazing historic rebuild — we did it in nine months. It's a beautiful building that we haven't had much activity in,' she said. Activating the stretch of the waterfront between the cruise ship terminal at Pier 27 and Fisherman's Wharf at Pier 39 has been a growing priority of the Port, Forbes said. 'We recognize there's this beautiful historic waterfront that isn't very busy, frankly, in that section and all the way up to Pier 39. We really want these piers to be able to welcome the public more and bring residents in and visitors in,' Forbes said, but added that the warehouse was designed for 'breakbulk' shipping — a method of transporting oversized and heavy cargo — and is therefore limited in regard to its future uses. On the flipside, the warehouse's large, barn-like open spaces and high vaulted ceilings provide flexibility for artistic and creative endeavors. CAST's plan to convert the warehouse into a work and exhibition space for artists was 'just a great fit for us,' she said. The organization will invest about 300,000 of its own funds for tenant improvements, along with a $500,000 contribution from the Port. 'We get two years of low-cost artist studios, with hundreds and hundreds of subsidized artists coming to work in this waterfront venue. There's event space and creative space. And it just feels like such a nice match between what we have in this historic pier and how we could open it to the public for use,' Forbes said. David Keenan, CAST's director of special projects, said that the organization has been working with the Port for nearly a year to secure the Pier 29 building. 'It's 100,000 square feet of open floor plan space that's kind of ideal for arts production, exhibitions and events. But, to actually get through regulation, we had to show that we are not going to impose a lot of impacts on the building … in order to not trigger major building code upgrades,' Keenan said. 'It's challenging for arts groups that are trying to maintain premises but keep them affordable.' Commercial real estate prices in San Francisco have toppled due to the pandemic-induced downturn — in the Financial District, office vacancy reached a historic high of 37% last year. While tech firms and other companies have dumped thousands of square feet of once coveted office space on the market, CAST has seized upon the rare opportunity to own and lease real estate to serve the arts community in the heart of downtown. Earlier this year, CAST purchased the historic Warfield Building in the city's Mid-Market neighborhood — once a tech hotspot that housed companies like Uber, Zendesk and X Corp. (formerly Twitter) and Block (formerly Square), all of which have exited the neighborhood in recent years — with plans to reposition the property as an arts and independent media hub. And at the end of last year, CAST pounced at the opportunity to buy foreclosed property in the SoMa neighborhood that was once earmarked for a 16-story co-living tower. That building, located at 457 Minna St., will now provide space to community organizations serving the neighborhood's Filipino community. 'We are really trying to be an active player in a down market,' said CAST CEO Ken Ikeda. 'Our objective is to participate when we can reset the floor of affordability. We're really busy.' City leaders have been hyperfocused on reviving the city's battered downtown in recent years, and have hailed efforts to support arts organizations taking space in the office-heavy economic core as one part of the solution. It's a stark but refreshing reversal to the years leading up to the pandemic, which saw many arts and culture groups being priced out of the area. Last year, two San Francisco nonprofits submitted plans to build 100% affordable housing specifically for artists at 1687 Market St. The 100-unit housing project is slated to include a community center, studio space and a theater. It is funded by a $100 million gift from an anonymous benefactor. 'Our arts and culture are driving San Francisco's comeback, and this new space at Pier 29 is another exciting step in the right direction,' Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a statement to the Chronicle. 'By partnering with the Community Arts Stabilization Trust, we're creating the largest artist studio and exhibition space in the city — right on our iconic waterfront.'
