Mid-Market arts center caters to low-income residents

By Isaiah Kramer
The Guardsman

Robert Stockland muses over sheets of charcoal drawings, his fingertips black with charcoal. Just beyond his gaze, a man is painting a self-portrait. In the back of the room, a 6-foot-3-inch man sculpts on a table strewn with mounds of clay.

The studio space is silent save the sound of the artists working undisturbed.

All three men are working as part of the Community Arts Program, the only service in the city providing a free facility and free materials to low-income or homeless artists, and everyone else.

“People come here to escape whatever they need to. I come all the way from Napa,” Stockland said. He sells his drawings on the Embarcadero as a licensed street vendor.

The space below the Luggage Store Gallery at 1009 Market St. houses an art showcase, recently donated computers, shelves fully stocked with materials, a screen printing machine and an operable kiln for firing clay.

This is a new location for the arts program, having temporarily moved from its 146 Leavenworth address while renovations are made to the historic building.

But the Community Arts Program isn’t new. It’s been offering means for creative expression since 1967 when it was called the Hospitality House. Today, the Central City Hospitality House provides services for low-income individuals.

Among the efforts to elevate the notoriously blighted mid-Market to a laudable arts corridor, the Community Arts Program stands alone in catering to the people of central Market Street.

These residents, who live near the poverty line in the affordable housing units around mid-Market, also benefit from social services in the area.

“The people here have amazing stories and personalities,” arts program staff member Meredith Connor said. “They are beautiful and inspiring to work with.”

The arts program plans to hire a fine arts teacher and incorporate workshops using the computers for graphic design, Connor said.

The Community Arts Program offers weekly creative writing classes. Lessons on the pottery wheel or help setting up materials are available on request.

“Its good to give people space,” Connor said of her instruction method. “I show them and let them explore on their own.”

The Community Arts program is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. All proceeds from art sales go directly to the artists.