Arts Complex Minnesota Street Project to House Displaced Galleries
by Sarah Hotchkiss
The much-anticipated Minnesota Street Project, Deborah and Andy Rappaport’s ambitious Dogpatch neighborhood arts complex, announced its starting line-up of commercial galleries and project spaces Wednesday.
The roster includes a number of galleries displaced from their original spaces by rising rents and landlord evictions, like Bass & Reiner Gallery(former tenant of Studio 17) and Rena Bransten Gallery (former tenant of 77 Geary). Other starter tenants include Casemore Kirkeby, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, Et al. etc., Jack Fischer Gallery, Nancy Toomey Fine Art and Themes + Projects.
And the list isn’t entirely about the white-cube scene. The San Francisco Arts Education Project, a nonprofit that posts working artists in San Francisco schools to teach theater, dance and visual arts to children, is another “charter member.”
While many galleries will relocate to Minnesota Street entirely, Et al. will expand — opening “a new gallery concept” at the complex while retaining their subterranean Chinatown space. Never ones to keep things simple, Et al. etc. will host two concurrent exhibitions at all times: one organized by Et al.’s directors Facundo Argañaraz, Jackie Im and Aaron Harbour, the other by a gallery from outside the Bay Area.
By its opening next spring, the complex will also host 30 private studios ranging from 250 to 800 square feet, “as well as 4,000 square feet of communal workspace and resources, including a wood shop, digital media lab, traditional printing presses, kiln, and other specialized tools and services,” the website proclaims. Minnesota Street Project iscurrently accepting applications from those with a serious studio practice (this translates to an expected 25 hours per week of studio time, a luxury for many working artists).
The project’s website also outlines “a comprehensive, concierge-based art-collection management service” for everyone from individuals to institutions.
In the meantime, programming continues at Minnesota Street Project’s off-site pop-up gallery at 2291 Third St., with an opening this Saturday of artwork made in another, scrappier type of art complex, Oakland’s studio and residency program Real Time & Space.