"Call for Beauty" -- A Contemporary Art Exhibition at Root Division Gallery--Reception (Sat., Jan. 14, 2017)

With artists Rodney Ewing and Ron Moultrie Saunders of the 3.9 Art Collective, I co-curated "Call For Beauty," an exhibition featuring the work of more than two dozen San Francisco Bay Area black artists. The exhibition opened Jan. 11 and will be on view at Root Division Gallery until Feb. 18, 2017. 

Saturday's reception will include performances by artists Anthony Julius Williams and Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo. Drop by! The reception begins at 7 p.m. and the performances start soon after. We wrap up at 10 p.m.Rodney, Ron, and I are members of the 3.9 Art Collective. Formed just prior to the 2010 census, the 3.9 Art Collective took its name from a report in The San Francisco Bay View, a weekly newspaper that predicted that the city’s black population would decrease dramatically—to 3.9 percent of the total population. While the number of black San Franciscans has not fallen to this level, there has been a black migration out of San Francisco, driven by wave after wave of gentrification, stubborn social inequities, and the under resourcing of minority communities. The 3.9 Art Collective has adopted this statistic as an act of resistance and a commitment to the ideals and narratives of a diverse San Francisco.

The 3.9 Art Collective mission is to create and claim space to display their work; to nurture young artists of San Francisco; to develop educational programs for students; and to write about and curate exhibitions meant to generate productive, cross-cultural dialogues.