Project Title: Crossing the Street
Recipient Organization: Friends of the San Francisco Public Library
Lead Artist: Kate Connell and Oscar Melara
Genre and Data Awarded: Visual Arts, June 2007
To Be Completed: Summer 2009

With Crossing the Street, artists Kate Connell and Oscar Melara aim to use both the process and product of collaborative artwork as a means of building community in their neighborhood, San Francisco’s Portola District. In collaboration with their neighbors, the artists will produce a set of handmade books that explore the past, present, and future of the little known neighborhood in Southeast San Francisco. The books will be presented with an exhibition documenting their development and celebrated in a culminating storytelling event at the grand opening of the Portola Branch Library–the neighborhood’s first permanent library–in summer 2009. They will then be kept in the Library and also made available in electronic form on a website, serving as a lasting artistic tribute to and a first-voice record of the community.

Content for the books will come from several sources: the artists will draw on ideas and oral histories generated by their neighbors; the branch library staff will invite patrons to tell their stories and describe the kind of books they’d like to read about the neighborhood; and the staff of the library’s San Francisco History Center will suggest themes for the books and identify complementary resources. The artists will match content to accordion, tunnel, pop-up, and other book structures, and will design books for a variety of ages. Through this process of making the books, the artists hope they can bring neighbors together for “enriched personal exchanges” that deepen community ties.

Melara and Connell intend to pay special attention to the stories in their neighborhood that have been overlooked and untold. The lead artists write, “As collaborating artists who are also a bus driver and a librarian, we see our artwork as a public service with the same intention as our day jobs—to work together with our community. The experience of our daily lives is the focus of our collaborative work, which began ten years ago.”

The project represents the third artistic collaboration by Melara–a busdriver, silkscreen printer, illustrator, and cartoonist–and Connell–a librarian, mechanized sculptor, and curator. The first work, The Nacimiento Project, centers on their artistic and cultural community and draws on the community storytelling tradition of Central America. The second, Our Work Life, focuses on the people they work with. Done in conjunction with the Labor Archives and Research Center at San Francisco State University and supported by the Creative Work Fund, Our Work Life highlighted local labor history in colorful murals displayed first on SamTrans commuter buses and later in locations around the Bay Area.

The San Francisco Public Library is dedicated to free and equal access to information, knowledge, independent learning, and the joys of reading for San Francisco’s diverse community. The branch libraries strive to maintain grounded in their communities. As Brian Bannon, Chief of Branches for San Francisco Public Library writes, “The importance of branch libraries lies in their connection to the communities they serve. They provide a respite for intellectual stimulation, reflection, and socialization. Each branch is thoroughly woven into the fabric of the community.”

The library system receives community support through the non-profit Friends of the Library, who created a special Portola Branch Renovation Committee to help engage the community in the construction of their own branch. Committee members capture the diversity of the neighborhood and include residents ranging from Chinese American middle school students to Italian seniors who families have been here for generations as well as both of the lead artists. Members of the committee will be an important source for guiding and shaping this project.

Resume Highlights: Kate connell

Collaborations

• “Our Work Life,” (with Oscar Melara) (2001-2004)
  
• “The Nacimiento Project,” (with Oscar Melara) (1995-2006)
  
• “Loss of Limb,” collaboration with musician Bruce Ackley, ProArts Gallery, Oakland, CA (1993)
  
• “From Here to There,” collaboration with musician John Santos,” Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA (1990)
  

Selected Exhibitions

• “Mybrary,” Build, San Francisco, California (2003)
  
• “Tributos y Memorias,” Encantada Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2001)
  
• “Fish,” Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station, CA (1996)
  
• “Catalog Card Wall,” San Francisco Main Library, installation by Ann Hamilton and Ann Chamberlain and participating community members (1996)
  
• “Annual Dia de los Muertos Exhibition, Galer_a de la Raza, San Francisco CA (1994, 1977-89)
  
• “Issue of Choice,” LACE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (1992)
  
• “Telling Stories,” Prieto Gallery, Mills College, Oakland, CA (1992)
  
• “The Shrine, A Place of Worship,” Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, CA (1992)
  
• “The Forbidden Self,” Capp Street Project, San Francisco, CA (1991)
  
• “Art from the Heart,” University Art Gallery, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA (1991)
  
• “US Hands off Cuba,” Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA (1990)
  
• “Mermaids and Myths of the Sea,” San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA 1989
  
• “Fantasia Majica,” Guadalupe Cultural Center, San Antonio, TX, 1989
  
• “The Funny Show,” San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1989
  
• “Dia de los Muertos,” Alternative Museum, New York, NY, 1988
  Exhibitions Curated
  
• “Fabulous Stories: Women’s Obituaries,” Madeleine Haas Russell Gallery, City College of San Francisco (co- curator) (2001)
  
• “Life Lessons: Four Bay Area African American Artists, Madeleine Haas Russell Gallery, City College of San Francisco, (curator) (2001)
  
• “Hecho en la Mis_on: Anti-Gentrification Posters from the Mission District,” Madeleine Haas Russell
• Gallery, City College of San Francisco (Curator) (2000)
  
• “El Caribe, the First Invasion,” Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, CA (Exhibitions Coordinator) (1992)
  
• “Cajas, Nichos y una Maleta, Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station, CA (Co-curator) (1989)
  Residencies
  
• Galería de la Raza, California Arts Council grant, (1989-92)

Resume Highlights: Oscar Melara

Collaborative Projects

• “Our Work Life,” (with Kate Connell) (2001-2004)
  
• “The Nacimiento Project,” (with Kate Connell), San Francisco, CA (1995-2006)
  Selected Group Exhibitions
  
• “Klak* Pow! Whine!: Comix, Cartoons and Manga from City College of San Francisco,” Madeleine Haas Russell Gallery, Rosenberg Library, City College of San Francisco (2001)
  
• “Arte Chicano,” Casa de las Americas, Havana, Cuba (1988)
  
• “Buscando America,” Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA (1987)
  “A Traves de la Frontera,” Universidad Autónoma de Mexico, Tijuana, Mexico and Mexico City, traveling exhibition (1983)
  
• “Raza Poster Artists,” Self-Help Graphics, Los Angeles, CA (1982)
  
• “Nuestro Calendario,” Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, CA (1980)
  
• “The Fifth Sun, Contemporary/Traditional Chicano and Latino Art,” University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, CA, traveling exhibition (1977)
  
• “Images of an Era: The American Poster, 1945-1975,” Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., traveling exhibition (1975)
  

Collections

• California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
  Ethnic Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA
  

Experience

• Cartoonist, Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1574 Newsletter, (1990-present)
  
• Art Director, Channel 58, Sacramento, CA (1988-1990)
  
• Freelance graphic artist, accounts included Kodak, Caltrain (1980-1990)
  
• Founding member, Co-director, Educator and Artist, La Raza Silkscreen Center, San Francisco, CA (1969-1980)