Article by caroline schachter

Gentrification and Art: SF

By: Caroline Schachter

A collection of houses spread across a hill located in the outer sunset district of San Francisco.

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an Francisco–an art lover’s utopia. With museums, galleries, and studios on every street, how would one not want to live here? Although this beautiful city is packed with an abundance of wonderful qualities, there is one flaw in it’s creation. With a rising population of over 830,000 people and only 47 square miles of land, one of the most beautiful cities is becoming extremely overcrowded. It is becoming more and more difficult to keep stacking houses on each other, and with increasing cultural and consumer values due to gentrification, not only are the prices rising, but the diversity of the art scene is being threatened as well.

In the heart of this major gentrification problem is 3 Fish Studios, located in the outer Sunset District of San Francisco. 3 Fish Studios is

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an art studio, mainly focused on prints (the activity or occupation of making pictures or designs by printing them from specially prepared plates or blocks) and California pride themes. Owners of 3 Fish Studios, Eric Rewitzer and Annie Galvin, know firsthand what it is like to live and be an artist in a city with such high housing demands. Eric and Annie are both artists that have been pursuing art careers since they were teenagers.

In the late 80s, after Annie went to art school in Dublin, Ireland, and Eric went to art school in Michigan, they moved to San Francisco.

After a couple of years of finding their voice in the art community, Eric and Annie

started showing their work from their house. They later decided to quit their previous jobs to pursue their art careers full-time.

Annie describes San Francisco as “a very expensive city to live in and a lot of artists are getting pushed out” (Galvin), but also believes that “if you can make it work in San Francisco, if you can manage to stay here and be an artist, there’s people who love art in this town and who will buy art, and so that keeps us in business. I mean, people walk in everyday and buy work from us which is amazing. And it’s the best city in the world” (Galvin).

But the question is, how do you make it work in

“It’s just what I love to do everyday” -Annie Galvin

Eric Rewitzer lays out a linoleum cut and canvas, preparing to create a new print.

San Francisco? Eric reveals, “There’s a lot of things you need to know about being an artists that they don’t teach you in art school. It is a lot more than just knowing how to draw. It is knowing how to run your practice like a business and that’s a pretty tricky thing to figure out on your own.” With the art scene continuously changing, artists like Eric and Annie are learning to self-represent with the materials they are given. It is important that artists in San

Framed prints displayed on tables for visitors to be welcomed by.

Francisco are able to continue creating new art and figuring how to stay relevant when the city is changing so fast.

San Francisco has been a hub for artists for as long as it has been around, but in the 1960s, conceptual and minimal art began to make its way into the city.

All over the city, modern art museums and exhibits started to become popular. Important messages, often controversial political issues were being shown through this new

Black ink being rolled onto the linoleum cut in preparation for a new print

kind of art, but so were new cultures from other places and current events. These new forms of art were very modern and visually appealing, and caused the art scene in San Francisco to grow larger and faster. Not only was the art scene expanding, but so were the number of art lovers. More people became interested in this modern art and were moving into the city.

In the 1990s, Clarion Alley was created. Clarion Alley is a one block alleyway in

Annie Galvin, sitting at the front desk of the studio, ready to assist customers

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Clarion Alley in San Francisco

Daniel Doherty, 2015, Everything Must Go!, painted mural, Clarion Alley SF

Ivy Jeanne McClelland, 2014, This City is Not For Sale, painted mural, Clarion Alley

the inner Mission District of San Francisco, established by a group of six resident and artist volunteers. These artists were inspired by the murals of Balmy Alley in the early 1970s, which was an expression of the outrage over human rights and political abuse and social struggles in Central America.

However, different from Balmy Alley, Clarion Alley is not focused on a single

theme, but instead focused on their two goals: aesthetic variety and social inclusiveness. Clarion Alley is filled with murals painted by various different artists in the city. When walking through this alley, the bright colors and abstract paintings catch your attention, and almost force you to stop and admire the cultural importance of the mural. One popular theme that is noticed when walking through the alley is the housing issue throughout the city.

Many of the murals display messages; for example, Christopher Statton

and Megan Wilson created one that says, “housing is a human right.” This mural exposes the affordable housing crisis, specifically in San Francisco. According to The New York Times, this crisis is of course being caused by lack of building because of the extremely restrictive zoning and environmental laws across the entire Bay Area, and the high demand for housing due to the natural attractiveness of the city, but one of the main problems that contributes to this issue is the increase in rent by landlords.

Because of these landlords’ greed, housing is becoming less of a human right and more of a privilege, often only offered to the wealthier people residing in the community. This

“rich privilege” is brought up again in another Mural, painted by Megan Wilson.

This mural reads, “Tax the Rich.” Megan describes the meaning piece in her artist statement: “Tax The Rich is part of my ongoing work in support of the need for a fundamental shift from freemarket capitalism to a new way of being that’s rooted in

compassion, generosity, and true equality for all beings.

The current model puts profit before all else and is literally destroying the environment, health, and wellbeing of the planet and all its inhabitants” (Wilson). This piece uses the classic Louis Vuitton brown color in the background, bringing up the topic of rich affluence, and uses San

Francisco Giants colors for the words to represent the issue of capitalism specifically in San Francisco. Housing is not the only issue that is being exposed through the art in this alley. For example, one mural

by Erin Feller displays the words, “Men! All of You: Put Your Guns Down,” shedding light on the controversial topic of gun violence. One of these

Nina, 2015, Mobb Girl, painted wall mural, Clarion Alley SF

Art Hazelwood, SF Print Collective, WRAP, 2016, Affordable Housing/ Vivienda Asequible, painted wall mural, Clarion Alley SF

Christopher Statton & Megan Wilson, 2016, Housing Is A Human Right, painted wall mural, Clarion Alley SF

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masterpieces that stood out to me the most was the mural by Hospitality House that reads, “We All Deserve A Happy And Safe Community,” on a large banner, being held up by a diverse group of people in the streets of San Francisco.

Many of the people in the mural were holding signs in the background that said, “We stand with Orlando,” “Black lives matter,” “Affordable housing for all,” and “Living wage jobs.” In the sky is a collection of large art tools “painting the sky” rainbow.

With a paint can that says “community power,” a marker saying, “Mutual Respect,” a pencil labeled, “Self Determination,” a paint tube that says, “Dignity,” and a paintbrush that reads, “Resilience,” the artist shows a clear message that with art, community power, mutual respect, self determination, dignity, and resilience, communities across the nation can be safe and healthy.

San Francisco is a place where art is constantly changing and thriving, but this art is often compromised because of lack of affordable housing. It

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Bay Baes, 2016, Untitled, painted wall mural, Clarion Alley SF

is becoming harder and harder for many artists to stay in the city because of the extremely high rent they have to pay.

Many people can even argue that gentrification is good for the city, however, it is also causing the art scene in the city to love its cultural diversity.

Eric from 3 Fish Studios reflects, “Artists have

always historically found less expensive places to do their craft, and those places are disappearing, but I think there are some real legit constructive, successful efforts to find places for those artists”

Works Cited

Galvin, Annie. Interview by Charlotte Laurance and Caroline Schachter, 26 Apr. 2017 Iglesias, Tim. “Opinion | The San Francisco Area Affordable Housing Crisis.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 June 2016. Web. 28 Apr. 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/opinion/the-san-francisco-area-affordable-housingcrisis.html?_r=0 Littleboy, John. Interview by Charlotte Laurance and Caroline Schachter, 23 Apr. 2017 Statton, Christopher. 2016, “Housing Is A Human Right - The Gubbio Project.” painted wall mural, Clarion Alley http://clarionalleymuralproject.org/mural/housing-human-right-gubbio-project/ Feller, Erin, 2016, “Men! All of You: Put Your Guns Down.” painted wall canvas, Clarion Alley. http://clarionalleymuralproject.org/mural/men-put-guns/ Wilson, Megan. “”Tax The Rich” Clarion Alley Mural Project., painted wall mural, Clarion Alley http://clarionalleymuralproject.org/mural/tax-the-rich-2013/ Hospitality House, 2016, “We All Deserve A Healthy And Safe Community.”, Painted wall mural, Clarion Alley San Francisco. http:// clarionalleymuralproject.org/mural/deserve-healthy-safe-community/ Rebitzer, Eric. Interview by Charlotte Laurance and Caroline Schachter, 26 Apr. 2017

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