We are “Making a Scene!”

The Bay Area Society for Art & Activism documents 50 years of alternative Bay Area spaces

From July 9–August 20, 2015, the Bay Area Society for Art & Activism‘s fiscal sponsor, SOMArts Cultural Center, presents Making a Scene: 50 Years of Alternative Bay Area Spaces. As a key contributor to the exhibition, the Bay Area Society for Art & Activism will be opening up our Collective Memory: Art & Activism Archive to support online and offline efforts to gather, organize, and share archival material from Bay Area alternative spaces and this monumental exhibition.

“Making a Scene…spotlights a rich history of Bay Area artist-run, independent and alternative spaces, as well as the pioneers and contemporary trailblazers of social justice who utilized these spaces as a catalyst and megaphone. Archival material from more than 20 individuals and spaces, and art and installations by more than 30 current and historic Bay Area artists, unite the featured spaces’ disparate, yet overlapping and contingent histories of cultural engagement, community development and social justice.” – Melorra Green

Modeled on Wikipedia, the Collective Memory: Art & Activism Archive is an online regional archive for socially-engaged art practices and creative political activism. This community archive documents the prolific and longstanding tradition of art and activism in the Bay Area to provide inspiration for future generations of artists and activists. We invite everyone to recall and contribute historical work as well as to document current work by artists and activists on this collaboratively edited site. Drawing on the rich resources of Collective Memory, the archive also provides content for arts-integrated social justice curricula for Bay Area teaching artists, educators, and their students.

Did you ever make a scene?

If you were/are part of an artist-run, alternative Bay Area space, please consider sharing your stories and historical material.

As part of SOMArts Cultural Center’s exhibition Making a Scene: 50 Years of Alternative Bay Area Spaces, the Bay Area Society for Art & Activism will be hosting two live History Collection Labs where we’ll be providing digital image scanners, cameras, audio and video recording, and technical support equipment to facilitate contributions from the public to Making a Scene and the Collective Memory: Art & Activism Archive. Memories, stories, flyers, photos, documents, and shoeboxes welcome.

More information about the exhibition here. Visit the Collective Memory Art & Activism Archive here.

Submit a Scene! →

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