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Westin Teruya and Kimberley Arteche are partnering with Kearny Street Workshop to create Means of Exchange, a project that engages with small businesses in San Francisco’s rapidly changing South of Market neighborhood to co-create art products and pop-up businesses; and to document their community presence.

South of Market has long been home to a variety of small stores, businesses, and manufacturers, many of them Asian American- or Filipino-owned. The artists will spend time meeting, building trust, and offering artmaking activities to these enterprises. They then will work closely with a few of them to exchange skills, work with particular media, or gather neighborhood histories. Each artist anticipates working with two to four businesses to co-create artworks that highlight different facets of South of Market life. Means of Exchange culminated in September 2018, with an exhibit at SOMArts that was part of the United States of Asian America Festival 2018, and with a walking tour of the neighborhood. A documentary film will be completed later in the year.

Kearny Street Workshop works to present, produce, and promote art that empowers Asian Pacific American artists and communities. It is pan-ethnic and multidisciplinary. Both Westin Teruya (2008) and Kimberley Arteche (2015) have been featured in its annual APAture festival. Teruya’s ongoing practice centers on paper sculpture installations that examine the social dynamics, textures, and histories of specific sites and communities.

This work was presented in September 2018 as part of Betweenscapes, the visual arts exhibition portion of the United States of Asian America Festival 2018: Regenerative Community.