Southern Exposure Artists Grants & Workshops Publications & Public Programs

RESOURCES FOR ARTISTS AND ART COLLECTIVES

One of SoEx’s primary missions is to support the professional development of artists so they are able to live and work in the Bay Area. Renowned for world-class art schools, museums, and a burgeoning artist population, the Bay Area has only a handful of organizations that nurture and support a healthy community of local artists. Each year SoEx provides more direct funding to artists than any other Bay Area organization of its size, doing so through a series of grants, workshops and teaching opportunities that enhance artists’ ability to make a living with their art while extending their knowledge and practice to others. In 2008, approximately 23 percent of SoEx’s budget went directly to artists.

In 2007 during the organization’s nomadic years, with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, SoEx launched the acclaimed Alternative Exposure Grant program, providing $50,000 in grants annually to local artists and groups working in the visual arts. Through the Alternative Exposure program, which underscores the belief that the artist’s voice is critical to the health of the arts community, grants provide support for the work of unincorporated groups, burgeoning art venues and gathering spaces, publications, collectives, and one-day events. In addition to the organizations grant opportunities, every SoEx exhibiting artist receives a stipend that ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, depending upon the size and complexity of their projects.

SoEx’s commitment to funding, employing, and supporting artists helps Bay Area artists remain focused on their practices in one of the most expensive cities in the United States. Recognizing the vital role that artists play in San Francisco, SoEx also provides professional development workshops for artists, including SoExchange: Artists Teaching Artists, a professional development workshop series that works to fill the knowledge, network and resource gaps that can hinder an artist’s growth; and a partnership with several local nonprofit arts organizations and New York–based Creative Capital to bring its nationally recognized Professional Development Program (PDP) to the Bay Area. In 2008 SoEx co-hosted and presented the PDP program in the Bay Area to 24 local artists. The PDP program features a comprehensive menu of workshops, which includes a flagship weekend workshop, as well as day- and evening-long workshops aimed at helping artists break patterns of crisis management and increase satisfaction in their art practices and careers. These workshops use an integrated approach to address the topics of marketing/public relations and fund raising, with a particular emphasis on strategic planning.

Alternative Exposure Grant Program
In 2007 SoEx launched the Alternative Exposure grant program in response to the inspiring work they were witnessing at the ground level by individuals and small groups. With funding from the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Arts, the Alternative Exposure Grant program underscores the belief that the artist’s voice is critical to the health of the arts community, and through grants which provide support for the work of unincorporated groups, burgeoning art venues, and gathering spaces, publications, collectives, and events. SoEx’s Alternative Exposure program provides $50,000 in grants annually to local artists and groups working in the visual arts. Offering individual grants of up to $3,000, SoEx provides direct support to a range of locally grown artist-centered projects, and extends their reach to as many new artists and audiences as possible. Projects can include an exhibition or exhibition series, a public art project, a one-time event or performance, the ongoing work of a venue or collective, the publication of writing directly related to the visual arts, an online project or publication, an artist residency, a series of screenings, and more.

SoExchange: Artists Teaching Artists Professional Development Workshop Series
SoEx’s SoExchange is a professional development workshop series that seeks to fill the knowledge, network and resource gaps that can hinder an artist’s growth. Curricula are developed based on the organization’s understanding of artists’ needs as well as requests from artists. Led by arts professionals, practicing artists, curators, gallerists, and administrators, workshop topics include everything from copyright basics to how to find the right venue for one’s work.

Partnership with Creative Capital’s Professional Development Program
In 2008 SoEx partnered with several local nonprofit arts organizations and New York–based Creative Capital to bring its nationally recognized Professional Development Program (PDP) to the Bay Area. The program features a comprehensive menu of workshops, which includes a flagship weekend workshop, as well as day- and evening-long workshops aimed at helping artists break patterns of crisis management and increase satisfaction in their art practices and careers. These workshops use an integrated approach to address the topics of marketing/public relations and fund raising, with a particular emphasis on strategic planning.

Artist Teacher Training Workshops
Since 2006 SoEx has provided annual workshops that prepare artists to be teachers by fostering innovation in arts teaching methods, developing curricula, and exploring progressive thinking in art and education. These workshops aim to ensure that all artists are trained to meet the state and national arts standards and that all curricula developed for SoEx’s Artists in Education programs meet these standards.

Artists must apply to the program, but those accepted attend for free. Fifteen to 30 artists attend each workshop, and many go on to teach in one of SoEx’s programs. The workshops are developed and taught with local community partners who have developed methods of training artists and teachers.

Publications and Public Programs
Expanding on SoEx’s gallery, public programming, and arts education, the organization also runs Southern Exposure Publications, which encourages critical writing about the arts, publishing and distributing printed materials that stimulate dialogue and engagement with artwork. In concert with Southern Exposure Publications SoEx hosts public programs, events, workshops, artists' talks, screenings, and symposia that generate a forum on contemporary aesthetic, sociopolitical and cultural issues.

Support
Were it not for the support of SoEx members and the organization’s dedicated Bay Area audiences, in addition to individual donors and grants, SoEx would be unable to engage in the multitude of projects and shows it presents annually. Building on this support base and working within the traditional and creative SoEx framework, each year the organization hosts two widely popular Bay Area events, the Monster Drawing Rally and the Annual Art Auction, both of which provide collectors with the opportunity to acquire great work at affordable prices, and to meet the artists they support.

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For more information or images contact:
–Wendy Norris, Norris Communications
(415) 307-3853, wendy@norriscommunications.biz

–Courtney Fink, Southern Exposure
(415) 863-2141, director@soex.org