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SF Hiring 60 Artists to Cheer You Up Over the Holidays

New murals will be popping up plus performances in SF’s Shared Spaces
By - posted 11/19/2020 No Comment

The San Francisco Creative Corps pilot program will provide economic opportunities for 60 visual and performance artists, who are underemployed due to COVID-19, while also promoting public health during global COVID-19 pandemic.

This holiday season, performing artists, including actors, musicians, and dancers, will be deployed as Community Health Ambassadors to creatively promote COVID-safe behavior. The Community Health Ambassadors will be deployed to areas have the greatest need for COVID-19 outreach, including Shared Spaces corridors, streets with outdoor restaurants, parks, and other high foot traffic areas.

The City will also engage 30 visual artists to beautify storefronts with public health-themed murals in neighborhoods experiencing high rates of COVID-19. The first round of San Francisco Creative Corps’ Community Health Ambassadors will start this Saturday, November 21. The program will bring on 30 ambassadors who will be activated throughout the city on weekends during the upcoming holidays.

In collaboration with the City and its three partner organizations, YBCA will train the Community Health Ambassadors on COVID-19 safety protocols and communications. YBCA will provide a workshop to support the ambassadors in developing their own unique projects, which can take any form they wish, from live music to drive-by-dance-a-thons to comedian sets.

The City is working with Paint the Void, a Bay Area initiative to match local artists with boarded up businesses to create murals as a response to the “void” left behind by COVID-19. Paint the Void will solicit local visual artists and match them with boarded up businesses to create temporary murals that encourage public health and safety conscious practices in neighborhoods affected most heavily by COVID-19. Artists that live in or have strong ties with the neighborhood selected for an installation will be prioritized. Murals will highlight behaviors that protect the community: wearing masks, avoiding gathering in large numbers, and staying indoors. Illuminate SF, an organization dedicated to expanding the City’s light art, will provide temporary lighting on many of the murals.

San Francisco visual artists are invited to submit their work to Paint the Void in order to be considered for this pilot by filling out this short form. For more information on the San Francisco Creative Corps Community Health Ambassadors, please contact aescobedo@ybca.org.

San Francisco Creative Corps complements San Francisco’s other efforts to support artists, including a new universal basic income pilot program for San Francisco artists, which will start early next year. The Arts Commission will also provide arts organizations with funding to reopen safely and will fund the creation of an online Arts Hub, which will serve as a one-stop-shop for artists and organizations looking for financial assistance, professional networking, and employment opportunities. Additionally, the Arts Commission has opened four other grant programs for artists, arts organizations, and cultural facilities.

Read more at the Office of the Mayor.