Events in the Oakland Area
Excelsior & Bayview Artists Meeting--May 8th at 6pm
As many of you may have observed in the 2006 registration materials or in ArtSpan's April newsletter, Excelsior and Bayview have been included in the final weekend of October, along with Hunters Point. Some artists have taken the time to write and call in to express their viewpoints, and ArtSpan is pleased to announce that we have scheduled a meeting time and location to discuss issues concerning the artists impacted by the redistricting.
Public Glass has agreed to host this forum on Monday, May 8th at 6p.m. ArtSpan will provide refreshments and Public Glass will open up their current exhibition for the night of the event. Public Glass is located at 1750 Armstrong Ave. Directions can be obtained on their website at http://en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=74041590&u=678966
Please call ArtSpan to let us know if you will be able to attend by calling Sharon Troy to RSVP at 415-861-9838.
Finally, in case you missed ArtSpan's Executive Director, Dyana Curreri-Ermatinger's response to these frequently asked questions in the last edition of the newsletter, please review the following few paragraphs, which explain the new strategy and the topic areas for the May 8th meeting:
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Why are artists in the Excelsior being asked to switch (again!) to Weekend 4?
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We reviewed last year's surveys from artists, and listened to many remarks during the four Open Forums this spring that indicated that attendance at Hunter's Point had actually been steadily moving downward over the past 3 years and that attendance in Bayview and Excelsior was much lower than other locations on their weekend. Of course, this is all circumstantial and word of mouth, but it is all we have to work with. We thought we would take a proactive response to this trend.
While many of the reasons for the attendance downturn at HP were perceived to be external (lack of public transportation due to cutbacks; perception by public that this was a dangerous neighborhood due to several homicides last fall; the discussion that the Point would be closing to the public due to retrofitting etc), other factors pointed to an element of public boredom - that no event can retain the public interest forever. The public are fickle. We need to constantly attract new audiences to our event, or eventually we will lose momentum and sales. We have a PR strategy that was rolled out during the forums which we believe will do that.
Given the attendance downturn, we think this is an opportunity to position the fourth weekend as a new look at fresh artists in the area of the City that includes the Excelsior and Bayview. New venues might entice people out there again and that would be a benefit to everyone concerned. What we heard from artists in the area surrounding HP was that it did not really matter what weekend they were positioned in, the attendance seemed to be really low. Also, when the 4th weekend assignment was tried before, there was no attempt to modify the PR approach.
Of course we will need to do some cross marketing with flyers and maps in all the exhibitors' facilities and make sure that we point out the new venues available on the fourth weekend on the maps etc. Overall, the switch might result in increased PR for the Excelsior and Bayview. We would like to know what you normally do to publicize the group and we will work with you to increase the output.
That's what we are offering to the folks in the Excelsior. We are also trying to find a studio in the Excelsior to set up a meeting with artists who might be affected by the switch to talk about this. After the considerations are discussed, if the group is still adverse to changing weekends - well, we will let you do your thing and wish you good luck!
Other things we'd like to discuss at this meeting:
Establishing a baseline for attendance, since these figures were apparently never reported. Can artists in the Excelsior district tell us: How many visitors came to your studio last year? How many sales were results of those visits?
What other benefits came as a direct result of Open Studios (commissions etc.)?
We plan to have volunteers doing informal surveys with visitors this year so that we can better gauge the general issue around low attendance at HP, Bayview and the Excelsior.
Let me know if you have other ideas for building visibility and bear with us as we work through the constantly changing set of circumstances that affect the success of Open Studios.
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