Christopher editied the video "San Francisco 2000: The Gentrification of Our Livelihoods 1.0."
Christopher has taken some of the footage from Megan's 2000 project "Better Homes and Gardens" that shows her distributing “Home” signs throughout the 16th and Mission Streets area and overlaid it with interviews and recordings from the SF Supervisors’ Finance Committee meeting, October 4, 2000 of Bay Area artists that Megan did with Gordon Winiemko for their installation "WE LOSE SPACE/YOU LOSE CULTURE!" at the San Francisco Art Commission Grove Street Gallery in 2000.
It provides a very sad and poignant foreshadowing to the current crisis of gentrification in SF - a cautionary reflection on the changes that have happened in the Mission District over the past 15 years. We thought it was really bad back then; however, watching this footage now a decade and a half later what stands out is how diverse the neighborhood looked then – and accessible to a broad range of cultures and incomes – and that was on Valencia Street! Probably 85% of the small businesses, orgs, and SROs Megan went in and gave signs to were owned/run by people of color and served low- to middle- incomes.
It’s also eerie and tragic how the interviews/recordings of artists/ arts administrators from 2000 could easily have been taken from today. The only reason the crisis in 2000 didn't escalate to where we're currently at then is because the dotcom market crashed 6 months after these interviews.
The pieces provides a good idea as to what we can expect unless more legislative measures are taken to protect the people, organizations, and small businesses left that have created the vibrant, diverse, and progressive culture historically known in the Bay Area.
Interviews and recordings from SF Supervisors’ Finance Committee, October 2000 include:
Nadia King, Photographer, Videographer, Dancer
Michael Med-o Whitson, Co-Director of 848 Community Art Space (now CounterPULSE)
Debra Walker, Artist
David Lawrence, Multi-Media Artist
Jared Kaplan, Dancer, Emerging Choreographer
Keith Hennessy, Co-Founder, 848 Community Art Space (now CounterPULSE)
Trisha Lagaso, Executive Director, Southern Exposure Gallery
Karen Garmen, Book Artist
Peter Rothblatt, Associate Director, Rhythm & Motion Dance Studio
Meg Mack, Artist
Jaime Cortez, Program Manager, Galeria de la Raza; Artist, Writer
Debbie Mink, Dancer, Devilettes
Sonny Smith, Musician, Writer
Jo Kreiter, Dancer, Choreographer, Performer, Flyaway Productions
Benji Whalen, Artist
"San Francisco 2000: The Gentrification of Our Livelihoods 1.0" Edited by Christopher Statton "Art Strikes Back!" Performance Series organized by Lise Swenson and Megan Wilson, Mission District, San Francisco, CA, 2000; Music by Sonny Smith; video footage by Lise Swenson, David Lawrence, Gordon Winiemko; and Julie Konop.
Nancy McNally, Artist
Megan Wilson, Artist; Grant Writer, Oasis For Girls
Will Johnson, Songwriter, Musician
Krissy Keefer, Co-Founder Wallflower Order (Dance Brigade); Lease-holder, Dance Mission
Geoff Chadsey, Artist, Curator at Southern Exposure Gallery
Rachel Kaplan, Artist; Founder, AARGG (All Against Ruthless, Greedy Gentrification)
Todd Edelman, Artist, Writer; Volunteer, ATA (Artist Television Access)
Katie Barnhill, Dancer
Scott MacLeod, Writer, Performance Artist, Visual Artist
Nicole Hickman, Artist In Education Coordinator, Southern Exposure Gallery, Graduate Student, Stanford University, Cultural Production
Mark Gregory, Musician, 17 Evergreen
Victoria McNichol Kelly, Visual Artist, Actor, Dancer
Aaron Noble, Artist, Co-Founder, Clarion Alley Mural Project
Jill Weinberg Pfeiffer, Artist, Co-Founder, Oasis For Girls