Artists fundraise to buy permanent art complex in the Tenderloin

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On Thursday afternoon, Juthaporn Chaloeicheep was blow-drying prints onto four T-shirts at the Community Arts Program studio at Sixth and Market streets. The prints are from artwork by Douglas Jones, her 9-year-old son, which he painted at the studio. And the shirts are a surprise for Jones’ birthday party guests tomorrow. 

Chaloeicheep and Jones, who live in an apartment near Polk and Eddy streets, came across the art space five years ago when they were getting off the bus. They fell in love with the space and arts community there immediately. 

“It is free, and the space is safe for storing his artwork,” said Chaloeicheep, who was homeless for 20 years before the city’s Homelessness Outreach Team helped her find housing in 2013. Here, she said, other artists mentor Jones on how to get his projects from scratch to the finish line. “It’s different than just me, someone who doesn’t do art, buying supplies for my kid and letting him paint at home,” she said.

Jones is just one of hundreds of artists who have benefited over the last 11 years from the Community Arts Program, an incubator for low-income artists in the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods. Artists both craft and exhibit their artwork in the space, a 3,350-square-foot leased ground floor and basement at 1009 Market St.

But such spaces have a precarious life, dependent on landlords keeping the rent in check. But now, if Hospitality House, the nonprofit organization behind the 50-year-old arts incubator, is able to raise about $3 million, the artists will own the three-floor building and make it their permanent home. 

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity and a dream come true,” said Joe Wilson, executive director of Hospitality House. For over 50 years, the Community Arts Program has been a haven for low-income artists across the city, mostly in the Tenderloin and South of Market area. Previously based at Leavenworth and Turk streets, the program offers free studio spaces five days a week for artists to create art and workshop their portfolios, and a gallery space for showcasing work that features current social issues and subjects near to the artists’ hearts. 

But, like a lot of other nonprofits in the city, the organization has struggled with financial stability. Purchasing the building, organizers say, would ensure the nonprofit could remain an asset to the community for years to come.

So far, Hospitality House has been able to raise roughly $600,000 for the purchase — but that leaves them a long way from their $3 million target. That figure includes an estimated building purchase price of $2.25 million to $2.5 million, as well as additional funds for accessibility improvements, including adding an elevator, Wilson said. 

To help hit that goal, on June 5, the nonprofit is officially kicking off a capital campaign, “Home Is Where the Art Is,” at its 39th annual art auction. 

The auction features visual art from 159 artists who have been supported by the incubator over the past year. “It’s magical,” Wilson said of the annual auction night. “For one night, they are not poor artists or homeless artists. They are just artists.”

But this year, the evening will take on an extra layer of meaning as participants come together with the goal of making the building a permanent community hub: A quarter of the sales from the art — which includes photographs, paintings, ceramics and charcoal drawings — will go directly to the artists, Wilson said, with the remaining 75 percent toward the building purchase. 

The building was previously purchased in 2015 as a space for community art assets by the Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST), a nonprofit that prevents low-income artists and community-based nonprofits from getting displaced, and helps them secure affordable, permanent spaces in San Francisco. 

CAST was able to purchase the property in 2015 with the help of the federal New Markets Tax Credit program, a financing tool spurring cash investment from private investors into low-income communities in exchange for tax credits. The credit, which totals 39 percent of the original investment amount, is in return claimed by the buyers over a period of seven years. 

CAST fulfilled the requirement on its end by leasing the space to a community incubator (the Community Arts Program) for seven years at a below-market rate. Last year, with those seven years complete, CAST offered Hospitality House, its long-time renter, the chance to purchase the building.

For now, the two upper floors are leased by Luggage Store Gallery, a nonprofit arts organization — staff offices and meeting space on the second floor and a gallery space at the top floor. Once the purchase is completed, artists with the Community Arts Program will also be able to use the two upper levels of the building, which measure approximately 3,420 square feet, doubling the original rental space. Wilson said they would work out a lease agreement with Luggage Store Gallery if they are willing to stay. 

“We need more artists, but we can’t accommodate that with the current space,” said Sylvester Jr. Guard, a staff member with the Community Arts Program who helps clients coordinate their art supply and ensure the safety of clients and the space. 

Guard, 44, started out as a client with the program in 1994 when he was 14 years old, and became a full-time employee about five years ago. As an artist, Guard loves painting murals and skateboards, making tattoos, doing carpentry, and making ceramics. He said with the limited space of only the basement and ground floor, the program can host, at most, 15 people at a time. 

“It’s sad when we have to turn people away,” Guard added. 

If Hospitality House pulls off this purchase, they may be part of a larger trend. In the Tenderloin and South of Market, community-based nonprofits have begun to purchase properties in the hopes of establishing permanent homes and offering more stable services and resources. With the help of CAST, CounterPulse, an art incubator located at 80 Turk St., was able to buy its building last year, after leasing the space since 2016. 

“For a lot of artists in the Tenderloin and SoMa, poverty and homelessness have always been the challenge,” Wilson said. “That’s one of the reasons Hospitality House made its home here and wants to make it a permanent one.”

Haley Summerfield, the space’s program coordinator, said the staff is open to hearin what the community artists want to do with the new space, if ever acquired. “It is about what they desire for the space and how we can accommodate it for them,” Summerfield said. 

Charles Blackwell, 70, has been working with the Community Arts Program since 2003. As an artist, he mostly works with ink and oil pastels, but lately, he has also been doing some experimental artwork with glue. On Thursday afternoon, sitting next to Guard on a corner sofa in the basement, Blackwell said he was excited for the potential purchase, throwing out more ideas for the upper floors — a gallery, or even a theater for plays, and open mics at the top floor. 

“It is all about keeping the arts and culture alive in this place that’s severe with poverty and insanity,” Blackwell said. “It is very needed.”

Guard agrees. He thinks that the space is not only for artists, but also for people to sit down and feel like they are a part of the community. “Even if you are not an artist, you can just come in and clear your mind,” he said.

People sometimes forget that the Tenderloin has a lot of families and kids, just like Jones, Guard said. “The Tenderloin can be a mess, but you see the hidden gems in a lot of people,” Guard said. “And sometimes, a little kindness can go a long way.”

You can make a donation to Hospitality House here and read more information on the auction here.