Creativity Explored: Old Friends/New Friends: Live Reading and Dance Performance

Old Friends/New Friends takes inspiration from Creativity Explored’s generous four-decade history in the Mission district in San Francisco. Over the course of the summer 2023, Creativity Explored artists, in workshops along with guest artists, including several original participants of the fabled Mission School, have created work about their community, friends and neighborhood.

On Thursday, November 9th, join us for an evening of art, featuring introductions with Curator Natasha Boas, live readings by artist Amanda Eicher, and a dance performance by Emma Lanier and Cauveri Suresh.

About the live reading:

Surprise reading with Old Friends/New Friends artist Amanda Eicher and Mission neighborhood Adobe Books founder Andrew McKinley.

Known affectionately as The Living Room of the Mission, Adobe Books and Arts Cooperative, Inc. (“Adobe Books” or “Adobe”) was founded in 1989 by Andrew McKinley at 3166 16th Street. The store became a bohemian nexus for a large and rotating cast of artists, musicians, writers, readers, thinkers, and whoever was looking for an old comfortable couch and a place to feel welcome. With an open heart and open door, Adobe Books has played host over the years to an innumerable number of memorable afternoons and evenings.

About Amanda Eicher:

Amanda Eicher is an artist, educator, and arts administrator who has lived and worked in the Bay Area since 1999. Currently the Executive Director at NIAD Art Center, Amanda has also worked at Creativity Explored as a teaching artist. In 2001, she collaborated with Andrew McKinley and the Adobe Books community (which includes many CE artists) to open The Back Room Gallery, a one-room project space dedicated to installation work by emerging artists, where Amanda was a curator through 2003 before passing curatorial duties to a series of collaborative and cooperative groups, one of which continues to maintain The Back Room presently.