Wallace Commissions

Through a partnership with The Wallace Foundation and Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, we have solicited the first eight of 50 working papers/artistic responses about deepening, expanding, and diversifying cultural participation reaching the changing demographic of the Bay Area with evolving technology, hoping to generate new ideas and spark conversations between regional artists and arts organizations.

 How rapidly changing demographics and/or evolving technologies impact the ways in which artists and arts organizations across the region connect with audiences.

These commissions are a part of a larger initiative supported by The Wallace Foundation to encourage systemic and sustainable structural change in the relationships of Bay Area arts organizations to their audiences. This four-year funding partnership also includes seminars, workshops, technical assistance, development of a regional shared mailing list, and expansion of the SFArts.org website.

Below are the first individuals commissioned responding to 'how rapidly changing demographics and/or evolving technologies impact the ways in which artists and arts organizations across the region connect with audiences.' We invite to you explore their projects by following the links below.

• Joaquin Alvarado, director of the Institute for Next Generation Internet at San Francisco State University, considers the collision of technology and demographics and how they relate to arts nonprofits. Click here to download a PDF of Economies of Representation.

• Paul S. Flores, writer and performer, creates a bilingual performance text addressing the dilemma and effects of land use for traditional Mexican-American, Chicano, and other U.S.-born Latinos from San Francisco. Click here to download a PDF of the script.
• Keith Knight, humor-based cartoonist and graphic novelist, draws a cartoon strip about the flight of black residents and artists from San Francisco. Click here to download a PDF of Moving B(l)ack to San Francisco.
• Pia Moriarty, Ph.D., anthropologist and composer, writes on what can be learned from immigrant participatory arts. Click here to download a PDF of Participatory Arts: The Stranger Brings a Gift.
• John Santos, composer, bandleader, and educator, writes on what role evolving technology plays in how music is perceived and disseminated. Click here to download a PDF of Music and Technology.
• Fred Setterberg, author, creates a piece of short satirical fiction steeped in the changing demographics of the Bay Area. Click here to download a PDF of Class Traitor.
• Tiffany Shlain, filmmaker and founder of The Webby Awards, creates an online video conversation via Facebook for people to propose in five phrases what they think are the most pressing issues of our day. For more information, please visit the Moxie Institute website. To participate in "What's Your Issue?" please log in to Facebook. Once you have logged in, visit http://apps.new.facebook.com/moxieinstitute/myissues_videos.php/.

• Peggy Weil, digital media artist and professor of interactive media at University of Southern California, created a hypertext diagram and essay. Click here to visit her website and access the diagram.

To view the PDFs on this page, you will need Adobe Reader.  Please visit the Adobe website to download the latest version for free.