Recology San Francisco, Art at the Dump

A work by Terry Berliner, a 2012 artist in residence at the SF dump.

1. The Recology Artist in Residence Program is good for San Francisco citizens and artists alike. The studio is located at the San Francisco Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Center near Candlestick Park. As if 24-hour access to the choicest trash around isn’t enough, the Recology also provides a monthly stipend, equipment, and an exhibition and reception as fine as any gallery in the city. Children and adults can have access to the artist through a tour on the third Saturday of the month. Be sure to check out the three-acre sculpture garden by former artist-in-residence after learning about the city’s three bin (recycling, composting, garbage) system.

2. The de Young offers the public an opportunity to meet the monthly Artist-in-Residence, on site Wednesday-Sunday, 1-5 p.m. The March Artist-in-Residence, Joy Broon, who creates three-dimensional Specimen Boxes, will be onsite until April 1st. Visitors are encouraged to create their own assemblage boxes at the museum, taking advantage of Broom’s collage resources in the studio, which include everything from maps to beeswax.

3. Usually wine only mixes with art at exhibition openings, but in less than hour’s drive, Artesa Vineyards and Winery offers visitors the best of both worlds. For $10, visitors can enjoy a wine tasting flight while admiring the work of Artist-in-Residence Gordon Huether, exhibited throughout the building. Huether seems to be enjoying everything the winery has to offer, considering it “to be the finest example of contemporary architecture within a fifty mile radius.”

4. You don’t have stop by the GLBT Historical Society in the Castro to see what the Artist-in-Residence E.G. Crichton has been working on. Crichton has been matching living artists to the archives of the dead, prompting each artist to invent a response in any medium. Her ongoing project “Lineage: Matchmaking in the Archives,” is available online.

5. The Montalvo Art Center’s Lucas Artists Residency Program offers 10 discipline-specific live/work studios. Located in Saratoga, the Montalvo sits on 175 acres and offers visitors a sneak peak inside the program on “Final Fridays!” On the last Friday of the month, a different resident presents his or her work during a free event open to the public. Stop by the Historic Villa on February 24th at 6pm and see what musician Bobby Previte and writer and performance artists Andrea Kleine have been up to.

6. The Yosemite Artists-in-Residence Program is currently on hold while the Wanona cabin that houses artists is being repaired. Nonetheless, artists should regularly check for updates. From Tolume Meadows to the Mariposa Grove of giant Sequoias, taking in Yosemite’s iconic landmarks are guaranteed to inspire artists. Collectors benefit, too. Can’t afford Albert Bierstadt or Ansel Adams prints of the majestic state park triumphed by President Lincoln? I suggest you track down any artist who displayed their work in the Yosemite Renaissance XXVI show—I’ve got my eye on Alan Fong’s June Lake, Sierra—and support a painter directly.

7. Does a $26,000 and health insurance sound good? While Stanford expects the ten Wallace Stegner Fellows to put that money towards a residence close to campus, artists are exempt from curricular requirements. Other than attending workshops, five poets and five fiction writers are expected to focus solely on their writing. While there are certainly a lot of MFA graduates enjoying the good life in Palo Alto, one can find a former policy analysts and professional roller bladder among the 2011 fellows.

8. The Kala Art Institute in Berkeley doesn’t provide housing, but accepts diverse mediums. Whether artists are working in printmaking techniques, photo-processes, book arts or digital media, applications are accepted four times a year. The Residents artists receive 24-hour access to the studios, as well as a 20% discount on classes. There are ample opportunities for exposure, form exhibitions in and outside of Kala. The next deadline is April 30th.

9. Whether the 35 Artists in Residence decide to live-in or out, the Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito offers a stipend up to $500 a month. All disciplines are welcome to apply, including visual, performance, writing, interdisciplinary, music, composition, sound, film, video, new media, social practice, and architecture. Five meals a week are provided to those who choose to remain on site, staying for an average of two months in shared housing. Whereas most residencies entail an exhibition component, the Headlands urges artists to focus less on the outcome and more on the creative process.

10. Located just 40 miles south of San Francisco, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program offers over 60 artists refuge for four to five weeks. Open to emerging, mid-career, or established artists, those selected are offered a retreat from urban distractions. There is no public transportation to Djerassi, hidden away in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and cell phone access may prove a little spotty, but WiFi in the common areas will provide access to the “real world.” With an onsite chef on the weekdays and stocked kitchens on the weekend, artists can retreat to their house or barn, replete with wood burning stoves. If this sounds like the ideal setting for your creativity to flourish, the timing is excellent: general applications are due on February 14th.

Alexis Coe writes about arts and culture in San Francisco. Most recently, she was the Research Curator at the New York Public Library. Follow her on twitter @alexis_coe