SF Art Guide, a weekly guide featuring the grassroots and local arts movement, is celebrating its one-year anniversary of connecting the city’s art scene to those who love it.
Its anniversary party will be held Thursday night at Voss Gallery at 3344 24th St., on the corner of Bartlett Street, as part of SF Art Week.
In the past year, the Art Guide has featured a total of 1,074 events in 50 issues, while its Instagram account received more than 30,000 views per month, according to its editor-in-chief and owner of Voss Gallery, Ashley Voss. “After I saw that, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is needed!’”
In San Francisco, “we do have other publications around, but they tend to prioritize the larger galleries and museum exhibitions,” Voss said. “So if you don’t necessarily have those resources, you’re just starting out trying to make rent, there’s like no free resource for local galleries to promote their shows.”
Voss started out on Instagram — for accessibility and because visually based — as a “labor of love” in her spare time. “Lots of caffeine over here,” she said. The situation intensified especially after Voss started publishing a weekly guide on a website so people could see everything going on in the week; Instagram only allows a limited number of photos in a carousel post, and she sought to advertise many more events than that.
“The artists and galleries are trying to keep the art scene alive here, and show people San Francisco isn’t dead,” said Voss. “Like, ‘Look at everything that’s going on each week. Here it is in a comprehensive guide.’”
Her Art Guide usually goes online on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, depending on her workload. Most San Francisco art events happen on Thursday nights. And it takes an average of 10 to 15 hours of her volunteer work.
But “I have dreams,” said Voss, who’s making plans for the Art Guide, moving forward. That could include artist and gallery interviews, finding a way to keep the guide sustainable instead of being “a side hobby,” and including submission forms for people to share their upcoming events so she doesn’t have to scour the web. “The website is definitely a work in progress,” she said.
“I’m freaking some people out because, technically, some people are like, ‘Oh, well, isn’t this kind of counterintuitive, because you’re promoting other galleries in the city when you should be focusing on your own?” said Voss. “I don’t think so. I think there’s a place here for everyone in the arts community in San Francisco.”
“What I love about San Francisco is just its grassroots energy,” she added. “The community is resilient and comes together, especially around the arts scene. The art scene here is so small. It’s just a little family.”
The anniversary party is taking place on Thursday, Jan. 16 between 5 to 8 p.m. at Voss Gallery.