YBCA Announces “Art, Action, Change: YBCA Creative Corps Initiative”

Image: Daniel Freeman, still from Home Frequencies Video Quilt, video, 2024. Featuring painter Sean Shelly.

From Congolese dance classes to youth-led murals, discover the intersection of art, action, and community empowerment with an exhibition and programming that is free to the public.

San Francisco, CA—(Aug 1, 2024) – Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is excited to announce Art, Action, Change: YBCA Creative Corps Initiative, an exhibition that celebrates the Bay Area’s creative community. Over the last year, YBCA provided 48 artists with a living wage to support creative collaborations with nonprofits in their communities as part of the Creative Corps Initiative Awards (CCI), a partnership with the California Arts Council (CAC). The grants were provided to support the creation of work that raised public awareness about one of four key issues: civic engagement, climate justice, community health and wellness, and social justice. Working within their local communities, these artists created powerful works that reflect on topics most meaningful to them and the partners they collaborated with. From August 16 through September 15, YBCA invites visitors in to discover what the artists created, and to participate in a robust slate of artist-driven programming inspired by these projects.

The exhibition will celebrate all 48 artists, through recognition of their projects, screenings, and special programming that continues to bring to life many of these ongoing artworks. Twenty of the participating artists will have works presented in the gallery that spans a variety of media, including photography, painting, video, screen-printing, textile work, and more. By bringing these artists together, the exhibition not only sheds light on the vibrancy of the region’s artistic ecosystem, but also foregrounds these artists commitment to, and passion for, the neighborhoods that they call home.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a Thursday night movie and dinner series that will present films created by several of the artists during the program, paired with a related meal. The film topics include the history of African Americans in San Francisco, the power of art when used within the federal corrections system, and art in the Tenderloin neighborhood, among others.

In addition, a series of free public programs will take place on weekends throughout the run of the exhibition, including performance art, dance, music, and opportunities for civic engagement. Among the programs slated to take place are a Bay Area Hip Hop and R&B showcase, a drum circle and sound healing session, a youth-led mural painting project, spoken-word performance art, and participatory salsa.

YBCA is committed to uplifting artists and communities in the Bay Area, and to being a gathering place for people to experience art in all its myriad forms. Through its work on this program, YBCA is able to affirm its mission to nurture artistic expression by providing funding for artists to do integral and powerful work within their own neighborhoods. Art, Action, Change: YBCA Creative Corps Initiative offers a powerful moment for YBCA’s communities to gather and to celebrate the ability of art to uplift one another’s voices.

For more information visit www.ybca.org.

About YBCA:

Opened to the public in 1993, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) was founded as the cultural anchor of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens neighborhood. Our work spans the realms of contemporary art, performance, film, civic engagement, and public life. By centering artists as essential to social and cultural movement, YBCA is reimagining the role an arts institution can play in the communities it serves. For more information, visit ybca.org.

YBCA is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11:00am to 5:00pm. Admission to Art, Action, Change: YBCA Creative Corps Initiative is free to the public and tickets can be reserved in advance at ybca.org. Admission to all exhibitions is free every Wednesday and on the second Sunday of each month. YBCA is also free from 5 to 9pm on the first Thursday of each month.

MEDIA INQUIRIES

Abby Margulies
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614-827-5810