SPEAKERS
- Stephen C. Wagner, Professional Development Educator
Stephen C. Wagner has studied art since the age of six, including workshops at the Witte Museum, Trinity University, and private study, all in his hometown of San Antonio, TX. During his early years, Stephen showed his work in many venues, including juried shows, art fairs, coffeehouses, and art galleries. He obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Arlington in painting and graphic communication. Stephen has exhibited and sold his art in galleries in London, Chicago, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Laguna Beach, San Diego, Seattle, New Orleans, Palm Springs, Sun Valley, and Kauai. His artwork is included in the permanent collections of the Riverside Art Museum and the Museum of the Living Artist, and in the corporate collections of Johnson & Johnson and Kaiser Permanente. www.sfartistnetwork.org
- Al Cosio with SFMOMA
Alfonso Cosio has been with the SFMOMA since 2008; currently as Corporate Art Coordinator at SFMOMA Artists Gallery. With a passion for the arts and a supporter of the Bay Area arts community, Alfonso is co-founder of the arts and artist consultation firm Cosio Delaunay and arts journalism websites San Francisco and Oakland Art Enthusiast, the debut of the national Art Enthusiast™ enterprise. Alfonso is also an executive board member of The Yerba Buena Alliance, whose mission is to foster relationships and cultivate community in the Yerba Buena neighborhood of South of Market. www.sfmoma.org
- Andrea Schwartz with the Andrea Schwartz Gallery
Andrea Schwartz graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1977. Her background as an artist has assisted in her understanding of the perspectives and idiosyncrasies of the art world. For over twenty-five years the Andrea Schwartz Gallery has supported work that is challenging and at the forefront of contemporary practice, representing a select group of mid-career artists from the Bay Area and throughout the country. The range of work includes paintings, works on paper, photography and sculpture. www.asgallery.com
- Jack Fischer with Jack Fischer Gallery
Jack Fischer is the owner of Jack Fischer Gallery at 311 Potrero Avenue in San Francisco. His gallery exhibits work from a diverse group of artists that fall under the rubrics of 'outsider, folk, contemporary, naive, visionary, self-taught, and intuitive.' Jack graduated with a BFA from Hunter College, part of the City University system in New York. www.jackfischergallery.com
- Joan McLoughlin with The McLoughlin Gallery
Leaving a successful career in medical device startups, Joan McLoughlin decided to follow her dream and open an art gallery. The mission of the McLoughlin Gallery is to show work that has bold, bright color, work that is unique and work that creates an emotional response. International, local and domestic artists are shown with a strong interest in sculpture, film and mixed media. www.mgart.com
- Olivia Ongpin with Fabric8 & Luna Rienne Gallery
Olivia Ongpin is the co-founder of Fabric8 and Luna Rienne Gallery, a San Francisco-based gallery and boutique that has worked with hundreds of independent artists and designers since its inception as an online business in 1995. Now located in the Mission District, fabric8 exhibits traditional gallery shows as well as features a constantly-rotating collection of small, affordable works. Olivia represents artists and also offers small business consulting services. She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in American Studies. Olivia received the SF Bay Guardian Small Business Award for Diversity in Business (2005) and was chosen as one of the Top 25 Women On The Web (2000). - www.fabric8.com
- Piero Spadaro with Hang Art Gallery
Originating from San Francisco, Piero Spadaro holds a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he majored in General Fine Arts and minored in Art History. In 2003 Spadaro began working for Hang Art Gallery as an intern. He continued working with the gallery through college as an Art Consultant, Sales Manager, and he became Owner and Director. In 2011 Spadaro maintains Hang Art’s reputation as a destination for art enthusiasts since it’s founding in 1998. Spadaro sits as an active committee member of Central City Hospitality House Art Committee and oversees all charitable donations made by Hang Art including, but not limited to, Art for Aids, Visual Aid, and Spectrum. www.hangart.com
- Danielle Fox with Slate Gallery
Danielle Fox (Principal Partner and Managing Member, Slate Art LLC) has over twenty years of experience as an art historian (PhD, Northwestern University), writer, editor, independent curator, Deputy Director of Business Development at Sothebys in London, and communications and project manager for Artakt Art consulting in London. Danielle founded SLATE contemporary gallery in Oakland in 2009, and SLATE Art Consulting with Shelley Barry in 2013. These positions have allowed her to develop relationships with artists all over the Bay Area, to curate over sixty-five temporary exhibitions in both gallery and office environments, to advise both commercial and private clients regarding permanent acquisitions, and sales at auction. In addition to her work with SLATE Art, she is a member of the San Francisco Art Dealers Association, Art Table, and Oakland Art Murmur’s Advisory Council. http://slateart.net
- Chandra Cerrito with Chandra Cerrito Contemporary
Chandra Cerrito is a curator and gallery director in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her BA in art history from Princeton University in 1991 and her MFA in sculpture from California College of the Arts in 1994. As an independent curator, she has created and managed exhibitions for institutions such as the David Brower Center in Berkeley, Dorsky Curatorial Programs in Long Island City, NY, di Rosa in Napa, and the Sonoma Museum of Contemporary Art and Sonoma County Museum in Santa Rosa. In 2007 she established Chandra Cerrito Contemporary in Oakland’s Uptown gallery district.
Chandra Cerrito Contemporary features exhibitions and site-specific installations by regional and national artists. The gallery highlights work with conceptual strength, refined craftsmanship, contemporary vision, and art historical relevance. Artist talks led by curators, critics and other arts professionals foster community dialogue and education. Chandra Cerrito is a member of the San Francisco Art Dealers Association, Oakland Art Murmur and ArtTable and regularly participates in international art fairs throughout the United States. www.chandracerritocontemporary.com
Chandra Cerrito Contemporary features exhibitions and site-specific installations by regional and national artists. The gallery highlights work with conceptual strength, refined craftsmanship, contemporary vision, and art historical relevance. Artist talks led by curators, critics and other arts professionals foster community dialogue and education. Chandra Cerrito is a member of the San Francisco Art Dealers Association, Oakland Art Murmur and ArtTable and regularly participates in international art fairs throughout the United States. www.chandracerritocontemporary.com
- Jennifer Ferris with STUDIO Gallery
Jennifer Ferris is the owner of STUDIO Gallery on Polk Street in San Francisco. The gallery showcases the work of both emerging and more established artists living in the Bay Area. The gallery is entering its tenth year and strives to make the art-buying experience fun, comfortable and accessible. She also co-founded 23rd Street Gallery in Noe Valley, which has become one of the largest figure drawing studios in the area. Prior to starting STUDIO Gallery, Jennifer worked in corporate America for twenty years, spending half that time as a management consultant in Silicon Valley. She has been on the organizing committee for the Hospitality House Art Auction for the past five years and is president of the Polk District Merchants Association. www.studiogallerysf.com
- Kim Larson with Modern Eden Gallery
Kim Larson is the Gallery Director and Co-Owner at Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco's historic North Beach neighborhood. Opened in June 2010, the gallery features monthly exhibitions of established and emerging artists. The gallery's contemporary aesthetic ranges from realism to surrealism with a strong focus on illustrative painting and representational sculpture. Kim Larson is also an artist and jewelry designer. Her passion for art started at a young age and continues today with her private art collection. www.moderneden.com
- Craig Zaretsky with Campfire Gallery
Originally from Forest Hills, New York, Craig Zaretsky moved to San Francisco in 1994 and began Artspace Services, placing local artists and curating shows in over a dozen business locations. In 2000, he became the full-time gallery manager at Rizzoli Gallery, the new adjunct gallery space to Rizzoli Books retail location off Union Square. With his wife, Rachel Ybarra, Craig opened Campfire Gallery in the San Francisco Mission District in 2012. Campfire Gallery is a mixed gallery and retail space with a focus on contemporary art. In addition to rotating shows featuring local and national artists, the gallery carries a distinctive assortment of prints, art books, cards, jewelry and hand-made objects. www.campfiregallery.com
- Alex Farkas with UGallery.com
Alex brings a unique and slightly off-center aesthetic to the gallery. His love of art traces back to his hometown Jerome, a tiny arts community in northern Arizona. Alex grew up creating sculpture in his uncle's woodworking studio and learning about the art business in his mother's gallery. In college, he trained his eye by travelling the world to experience first-hand the art he studied. Alex is passionate about working with artists to navigate the gallery world and connect with patrons. He holds degrees in Art History and Entrepreneurship from the University of Arizona, and currently lives in San Francisco. www.ugallery.com
- Leah Drake, Website & Search Engine Optimization Specialist
Leah Drake is an SEO specialist in San Francisco. She works with website owners to optimize every page with expert content and the right keywords. Leah also enjoyed her past work experience in art retail sales and content marketing. At home, she grows veggies in the garden and blogs about science.
- Martha Zlatar, Artist Success Coach
Martha has advised emerging and mid-career visual artists on realizing their artistic goals for the last 12 years. She coaches on clarity of vision, relationship with money, embracing the business owner within, time management, unleashing your creativity and many other issues relevant to artists and art entrepreneurs. Martha’s passion for psychology, business and the arts led her to launch ArtMatch, an art business and creativity coaching practice that supports creatives on becoming more “business savvy” and “professionals” on becoming more “creative”. Her 26 years of diverse business experience took her to the worlds of Market Research, International Business, Event Management & Promotion, Training and Meeting Facilitation and Art Business Consulting (New York City, Brussels, New Orleans and San Francisco). Aside from running her private practice, she was also a Consultant for the Small Business Development Center in San Francisco and Oakland. Martha also lectures on the Business of Art, Marketing Alternatives for Your Art, Unleashing Your Creativity and co-facilitates creativity workshops like Crouching Tiger Hidden Artistand Walking in This World. www.artmatch-coach.com
- Raeeka Yaghmai, Empowerment Coach and Professional Opera Singer
Raeeka Yaghmai is a professional opera singer and an expert empowerment coach for professional creatives. Her coaching programs help successful and established creatives to preserve, promote and increase their potential. Her transformational "Successful Musician Mindset" (SMM) helps artist at all levels to get rid of the self-doubt & the infamous ''starving artist" mentality, by building, empowering & sustaining their core confidence and mindset, so that they can perform at their optimal level, & create a prosperous, successful & happy life. She has been invited to work with the students of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, The Complete Package Performer Summer Intensive Program as well as BASOTI (Bay Area Summer Opera Theater Institute) and share her coaching program. In 2014 she was guest speaker for the prestigious San Francisco Design Center. Her Coaching company “Creating with Confidence” offers individual and group classes. www.raeeka.com and www.creatingwithconfidence.com
- Priscilla Otani with Women's Caucus for the Arts
Priscilla Otani is a San Francisco-based artist working in mixed media. She has been Exhibitions Chair for the Pacific Center for the Book Arts and Northern California Women's Caucus for Art. Her exhibition work includes Effects of War, Women on War, Cutting Edge Books and Women Artists on Immigration. She has curated several global postcard exhibits and presented a workshop at the 2009 Mexican City United Nations conference. She is currently President for the National Women's Caucus for Art and International Committee Chair, representing Women's Caucus at the United Nations. www.mrpotani.com
- Michael Yochum, Gallerist and Arts Advocate
Michael Yochum has been a financial professional in San Francisco for nearly 30 years. In recent years, he has been a volunteer and a Board Member with ArtSpan, whose programs include SF Open Studios, Art for City Youth and the Artist Workshop series. Mike studied art history as an undergraduate at Middlebury College in Vermont and at International Christian University in Tokyo. His graduate studies in Japanese Art History were completed at Columbia University in NYC.
In 2009, Mike founded SF Art News, a blog that supports San Francisco art and artists, providing comprehensive listings of SF art openings, artist blogs as well as original articles about SF artists. SF Art News guides the popular Tour des Artistes, a thrice annual tour of select SF working artist studios (and a fundraiser for ArtSpan). He posts on Twitter and Facebook about San Francisco art happenings. http://sfartnews.wordpress.com
In 2009, Mike founded SF Art News, a blog that supports San Francisco art and artists, providing comprehensive listings of SF art openings, artist blogs as well as original articles about SF artists. SF Art News guides the popular Tour des Artistes, a thrice annual tour of select SF working artist studios (and a fundraiser for ArtSpan). He posts on Twitter and Facebook about San Francisco art happenings. http://sfartnews.wordpress.com
- Meg Shiffler with the San Francisco Arts Commission
Meg Shiffler assumed the role of SFAC Galleries Director for the San Francisco Arts Commission in 2005. Prior to her tenure at the Arts Commission, Shiffler worked in New York as a freelance curator, researcher and consultant for the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Andrea Rosen Gallery and the Ursula Meyer Art Conservancy. She co-founded the multidisciplinary art center Consolidated Works in Seattle, WA, and was the Gallery Director from 1998 to 2003; prior to that, she was the Director of 20th Century Masterworks at Meyerson & Nowinski Art Associates, and the Gallery Director for MIA Gallery, both located in Seattle. Meg attended the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in New York. http://www.sfartscommission.org/about/staff/
- Susan Pontious with the San Francisco Arts Commission
Director of the Public Art Program and Civic Art Collection Susan Pontious received her MA from UC Irvine and her MFA in Painting from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She began her career in public art as an artist on a mural project, where she was inspired by the way an artist’s work could be incorporated into the life of a community. She has served as the Executive Director of Public Art Works, an independent nonprofit agency that sponsored temporary and permanent public art projects in Marin County, and on the Public Art Advisory Boards for the City of Oakland and Alameda County. She also served on the Advisory Board for the Bedford Gallery and currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Public Art Program in Walnut Creek and as a National Peer in Art for the General Services Administration, a federal agency. http://www.sfartscommission.org/about/staff/
- John
Kraft, Marketing Professional and Visual Artist
John Kraft splits his time between his passion for visual arts and his consulting work in the areas of Social Media, Marketing and Brand Development. John has served in management roles in a number of Fortune 500 companies, including Apple and Autodesk. In 2001, he founded an interactive design and brand consulting firm and later joined Sp3d as Partner and Vice President of Media Strategy. Currently, he holds the position of Senior Manager, Sales Communications for Autodesk and also serves as Social Media and Creative Director for The SanSail Group. With nearly 20 years experience as a visual artist and marketing professional, John has a true understanding of the challenges faced by independent artists and the power of Social Media in promoting one’s work. www.johnkraft.com
- Melisa Phillips, Professional Artist
Melisa Phillips is a San Francisco fine artist who utilizes Instagram to successfully market her artwork to a 900+ following. She shares what she’s learned about using this popular application with others who could benefit from her techniques. Instagram User: melips/Melisa P
http://www.thickpaint.com
http://www.thickpaint.com
