50-year-old gay bar The Stud faces closure as rent triples

by Marke B. : 48hills – excerpt

Building sold, rent hiked, and owner ready to retire: Will the SF nightlife classic survive?

UPDATE: Artist and nightlife fixture Mica Sigourney aka VivvyAnne ForeverMore!, hostess of Club Some Thing at the Stud, has announced he is forming a community co-op to buy the club. For anyone interested in supporting the effort, contact Sigourney at: saveourstud@gmail.com and join the Facebook group here. 

One of San Francisco’s oldest gay bars, The Stud, sometimes called “the Stonewall of San Francisco,” faces an uncertain future: its building has been sold, the rent will triple in September, and the club’s owner has announced he will retire and move to Hawaii.

At an emergency community meeting called by owner Michael McElhaney this evening, a cavalcade of club kids representing the ’60s through today — many of whom had attended the Stud’s 50th anniversary celebration just last week — gathered at the SoMa bar to hear the shocking news and propose ideas for the future. Ever since an enormous glass luxury condo building sprang up next to the one-story Stud building, hand-wringing has been rife about the future of the venue.

“In 1987, when I walked into the Stud, I knew I wanted to move here,” said an emotional McElhaney, originally from Hawaii, seated on a bar stool and “taking deep breaths of tequila” on the club’s small stage. “When the opportunity came up to buy it a few years later, there were these incredible obstacles,” including substantial debt. “But there I was, this young kid fresh out of art school who just wanted to do it anyway, to keep this magical thing alive.”… (more)

This is indeed a test of the new legacy business legislation. Can the community save the Stud as one of the longest living cultural icons of San Francisco art scene?

Saturday Is Flax Art & Design’s Final Day On Market Street

by Nuala : Sawyer hoodline – excerpt

Flax Art & Design‘s flagship store is in its final week in San Francisco, after 39 years in business at the corner of Market and Valencia streets…

This development doesn’t mark the end of Flax: The art store is in the process of moving to Oakland, and will open at 1501 Martin Luther King Junior Way on Monday. Flax also has a new outpost at Fort Mason, for those who’d rather not cross the Bay…

In the meantime, inventory at the Market Street location has already thinned, with some items heavily discounted, including canvases. The famous paper room is empty and cordoned off, and some paper sheets that remain are going for $1 each.

But despite the end of an era, employees at the shop were chipper, reminding customers who expressed sadness at the move that they could still go to Fort Mason or Oakland for their Flax fix.

Flax’s final day on Market Street will be Saturday, so swing by 1699 Market St. before then if you want to pay one last visit to the art store’s flagship location… (more)

On the Eve of Demolition, an Artist Covers His Longtime Family Home in Photographs

by Gary Sweeney :dwell – excerpt

For Gary Sweeney, selling the Manhattan Beach home that has been in his family for 70 years was a matter of letting go of countless memories. When the new owners expressed their plans to demolish the house, Sweeney decided to cover the facade with blown-up photos of his family as an ode to the structure’s history… (more)

Project Artaud Third Floor Gallery

 

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Paintings and Found Objects on the Third Floor Project Artaud Gallery.

New Map Charts Changing Landscape for Arts in Bay Area

By Lakshmi Sarah : kqued – excerpt

With the rising cost of living in the Bay Area, arts organizations across the region have been forced to leave their premises in search of more cost-effective space. KQED has been closely following the impact of escalating rents and forced evictions on the local creative community and the effects of the displacement of artistic activity on the area as a whole.

Over the past couple of years, we have produced dozens of stories for the web and for broadcast, looking at both the flight of arts organizations from their homes, and how forward-thinking institutions and individuals are exploring creative ways of helping artists to continue to work in the Bay Area.

We have gathered our coverage from early 2014 until now into a user-friendly interactive map (see above) as a way to help our audience better understand the important issues at hand.

The red dots on map show locations we’ve written stories about focusing on the disappearing arts. These include artists being pushed out of gallery spaces such as the closing of Studio 17 in which approximately 70 artists who rented studios in the Redlick building could not secure new leases.

In contrast, the green dots show new and emerging spaces for artists such as Social Hall SF and the Tenderloin Museum. The link on each point in the map will take you to the original KQED story where you can learn more.

We need your help!

This map is a work in progress and we plan to continue to update it as we develop new stories at KQED. We’d love your help in expanding this map’s reach. If you know of an arts organization we have missed, please tell us about it in the form below or tweet your suggestion to @KQEDArts.

MCDONALD’S RIPS OFF SAN FRANCISCO ARTISTS

By ALEX MAK : brokeassstuart – buzzfeed – excerpt

David is a contributing writer at www.brokeassstuart.com as well as sfweekly and others, Kristina is a photographer at Sf Station. Their photo series made fun of all the stereotypical engagement photos you see in your facebook feed, at all the same clique and picturesque San Francisco locations, the Palace of Fine Arts, running on Baker Beach…or waving from a trolley car etc…

The piece made nearly everyone smile and it was picked up by many major media outlets after Jessica Misener published it on buzzfeed.  The huffington post, people.com and others ran it while crediting the artists for their work.  And now, a month later…it was picked up by McDonald’s.  Only McDonald’s isn’t a publisher sharing an artist’s work, they are a massive corporation trying to trick you into equating ‘love’ with cheap hamburgers.  Check out how they blantantly copy Kristina Bakrevski & David Sikorski’s concept for their advertisements on twitter:…

You know how the Fat Jew got busted and called out this month for stealing real comedians material for his own personal and financial gain? Justice Served! David Sikorski who came up with the concept and licensed the pictures assures us that no one from McDonald’s approached him or Kristina about their work. One of McDonald’s so-called ‘creatives’ (contracted or otherwise) simply ripped off this work & concept, they didn’t even bother changing the shots or poses.  At the very least they should apologize and share what they were paid for ‘designing’ this campaign with the people whoactually, designed this campaign.  Let’s call out McDonald’s, this is their twitter account https://twitter.com/McDonalds… (more)

The Way You Make Me Feel: Curating Loss and Resilience as the City Goes “Boom!$$$$”

yourmusegallery – excerpt

Heidi McDowell, Matt Frederick, Randy Beckelheimer, Katja Leibenath, Sarah Newton, Andrew McKinley
Artist reception Thursday, July 16^th, 6-9 pm, 614 Alabama Street 
Exhibit runs July 8^th– September 13^th  

The Way You Make Me Feel addresses the impact of soaring rents, pending evictions, and growing homogeneity on San Francisco’s dwindling bohemian class. Echoing the uncertainty felt by many artists and outliers who have called SF their home for decades, the exhibit seeks to create an environment that elicits communal longing, shared memory, and a gnawing, visceral sense of instability…

“It’s like anyone who doesn’t make a lot of money has been ‘hung out to dry,’” says Shantzis, whose gallery is dedicated to both affordable art and helping to sustain local artists. She notes this definition of the idiom “hung out to dry” in theWiktionary: To abandon someone who is in need or in danger, especially a colleague or one dependent…. (more)

Opening photos: