Making a Scene: 50 Years of Alternative Bay Area Spaces

Making a Scene: 50 Years of Alternative Bay Area Spaces spotlights a rich history of Bay Area artist-run, independent and alternative spaces, as well as the pioneers and contemporary trailblazers of social justice who utilized these spaces as a catalyst and megaphone.

Archival material from more than 20 individuals and spaces, and art and installations by more than 30 current and historic Bay Area artists, unite the featured spaces’ disparate, yet overlapping and contingent histories of cultural engagement, community development and social justice. Featured artists and activists created and activated alternative spaces during a time when the United States was alive with radical movements that uprooted and exposed various levels of police brutality, discrimination, and lack of representation for their communities and continue to do so today.

Making a Scene includes a direct call-to-action that invites the Bay Area to contribute to the collective memory of the region’s spaces in two ways, transforming the exhibition into an incubator for exploration, discovery and contribution. In partnership with Bay Area Society for Art & Activism, exhibition visitors can contribute audio, scan newspaper articles, and catalog lost stories and histories to a Wiki Site, “Collective Memory.” And building on its current partnership with SOMArts, Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) will install a temporary broadcast studio within the exhibition in which visitors can record their impressions of the exhibition, share memories of the community arts spaces on view or just “make a scene.”

Making a Scene exhibition July 9–August 20, 2015. Gallery hours: Tues–Fri, 12–7pm and Sat, 12–5pm. Free opening reception with performances and artist talks Thursday, July 9, 2015, 6–9pm.