Our friends at Spacecraft forwarded this info to us about a unique opportunity for the San Diego art community to show united support for more affordable work space for local artists and a more vibrant  local art community in general.

From San Diego artist Chris Warr:

 My friend Cheryl Nickel is heading up a committee that is working to build affordable work/live art studios in San Diego.  This would be a space where artists could live, create, collaborate, network, and show and do so at a significantly affordable rate.  Almost all major metropolitan cities have at least one space of this nature, and its fine time we get one in San Diego.  The group Art Space (google them to learn more), who has designed and built many of these facilities throughout the US and in Canada, is interested in building a space for us.  They will be giving a talk and answering questions at 7pm on December 10th at the World Beat Center in Balboa Park.

The issue at hand is that this project will not happen without the city’s cooperation.   The city is in question as to whether or not there is a demand for this type of space in San Diego and it should be no surprise that they are hesitant to put funding and effort towards the arts.  The significance of the arts in culture, economics, education, etc. and in other words its general necessity in society can all be argued, and backed up on paper by numerous facts derived from the extensive library of studies and research done on this topic.  However our artistic community’s’ demand for opportunity and facility can only be expressed by our presence.

Here’s where you and I come in:
What we need is an overwhelming amount of people; artists of all forms and supporters, to show up to this meeting on December 10th.  There will be a number of city council members at this meeting, they will be taking note as to how many people attend and it can quite seriously make or break this project.  Is there enough artists in San Diego who would benefit from or need a space like this?  I would think the response to this question would be a resounding “hell yes!”  We need to flood the World Beat Center and pour out the door so that there can be no doubt that there are gobs of artists who are chomping at the bit for an affordable space/means to create their work, and that the time to meet this need is long over due. Please come, and please inform and bring as many people as possible.  The success of this project is dependent on it.