Gray Area Foundation for the Arts

American non-profit arts organization

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|

Formation| 2006
Founder| Josette Melchor
Headquarters| San Francisco

Executive Director

| Barry Threw
Website| www.grayarea.org

Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit art organization which hosts media art festivals, exhibitions, music events, software and electronics classes, a media lab, and a resident artist program. It is the only institution in San Francisco dedicated to art and technology.[1]

## History

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### Founding & Nonprofit Formation

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Josette Melchor and Peter Hirshberg initially opened Gray Area Gallery in San Francisco's South of Market (SoMa) in 2006,[2] following a conversation about the lack of proper venues for the exhibition of new media and technology-based art works.[citation needed] By 2008, the gallery had incorporated as a non-profit and was renamed the Gray Area Foundation for The Arts.

### Tenderloin Location

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In 2009 Gray Area relocated to 55 Taylor Street, as an anchor tenant in a three block redevelopment project to create an arts district in San Francisco's Tenderloin.[3] This 8,000-square-foot location originally included an adult theater, bar and liquor store and was transformed into a gallery space with artist studios, new-media lab, café and artists' boutique.[4] The property owner Jack Sumski invested more than $1M for improvements in the building to prepare the site for Gray Area.[5][6] The space allowed Gray Area to expand its exhibition platform to include artist residencies, educational workshops, and symposiums.[7] In this location, Gray Area served as part of a coalition of city agencies, arts organizations and community service providers attempting to revitalize a neighborhood that historically struggled with the effects of substance abuse, addiction, and poverty.[8][9]

### Market Street Location

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Gray Area later moved to the Warfield Building at 923 Market Street, investing roughly $60,000 in renovations. They were ultimately forced to move due to competition for real estate in the mid-market neighborhood, following the city's payroll tax breaks incentivizing startups, restaurants and developers to move into the area.[10]

### Mission Location

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In 2014 Gray Area moved to their present location at the historic Grand Theater at 2665 Mission Street.[11] The organization renovated the theater, converting it from a vacant retail space into a performance space and cultural incubator.[12] In 2019 Josette Melchor transitioned her role from Executive Director to board member, and Barry Threw assumed the role of Executive and Artistic Director. [1]

## Gray Area Festival

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Launched in 2015, the Gray Area Festival is the first International media arts festival in San Francisco. It normally features an art exhibition, daily talks and evening performances.

After the #ReviveTheGrand campaign, the first Gray Area Festival took place in 2015. With initial presentations by Jane Metcalfe, Michael Naimark, Golan Levin, Camille Utterback and night events by Shigeto, Alessandro Cortini, and others.

In 2016, the 2nd year of the Gray Area Festival focused on a prompt by Buckminster Fuller and a holistic approach to the arts. The event had the Refraction Exhibition.

In 2017, the 3rd year of the Gray Area Festival focused on the challenges to the optimism of the future.[citation needed]

The Gray Area Festival returned in 2018 with a focus on Blockchain, Distributed Systems and Art as the main theme. The event opened with the Distributed Systems exhibition curated by Barry Threw. The next two days, July 27–28, they hosted daytime talks around the festival theme with night-time audiovisual performances.[13][14]

The Gray Area Festival 2019 focused on experiences including augmented reality, virtual reality and XR. Curated by Barry Threw, the 2019 festival centered around the Experiential Space Research Lab, ISM Hexadrome and a robotic exoskeleton performance, Inferno. [15][16][17][18]

The 2020 Gray Area Festival was held virtually through the coronavirus pandemic as the Gray Area Festival 2020 "Radical Simulation". Professor D. Fox Harrell from MIT and Ruha Benjamin keynoted the festival.[19] The festival featured Anti-Gone by Theo Triantafyllidis, Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Phazero, LaTurbo Avedon, Lawrence Lek, Morehshin Allahyari and Stephanie Dinkins.[20][21]

The 2021 edition of Gray Area Festival was titled "Worlding Protocol", and featured McKenzie Wark as a keynote speaker.[1]

## Programs

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### Education

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Gray Area hosts an ongoing series workshops and classes covering topics such as creative coding, decentralization of data, and foundation skills for producing technology driven artworks.[22]

### Art Exhibitions

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Gray Area has hosted several notable art exhibitions. In 2016 they mounted DeepDream: The Art of Neural Networks, representing the first exhibition of art created by Generative Adversarial Networks, a form of artificial intelligence. In 2018 they launched Distributed Systems, featuring NFT and blockchain art, preceding the historic sales and public interest in the technology of 2021. In 2023 they hosted TECHS-MECHS, a solo show by celebrated Mexican-Canadian new media artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Located within the predominantly Latino Mission district, the exhibition challenged the stereotype of "Mexican Art" by paying homage to Mexico's lesser known tradition of experimentation within technology and culture.[1]

### Artist residency

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The first five resident artists (Alphonzo Solorzano, Gabriel Dunne, Ryan Alexander, Miles Stemper and Daniel Massey) moved into the space in July 2009. In 2010, three of these resident artists remained (Gabriel Dunne, Ryan Alexander and Daniel Massey).[23]

### Gray Area Incubator

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The Gray Area Incubator is a membership program run by Gray Area for creators developing work in art and technology. The membership lasted for six months. Artists work in the disciplines of Visual Media Arts, Creative Code, Virtual & Augmented Reality, Civic Engagement & Digital Activism, Social Entrepreneurship, Data Science, Sound & Audio, and Software & Hardware.[24]

### Partnerships and projects

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Gray Area Foundation for The Arts has partnered with the MIT Senseable City Lab to produce a multi-faceted series of community initiatives and symposiums called Senseable Cities Speaker Series.[25]

City Centered Festival brought together artists, educators and community leaders within the Tenderloin district using 'locative media'.[26]

Syzygryd is a collaboration with three other arts organizations (Interpretive Arson, False Profit Labs and Ardent Heavy Industries) to create a large scale interactive art piece to be unveiled at the 2010 Burning Man event.[27]

Gray Area partnered with Gaian Systems to produce the Experiential Space Research Lab (2019-2020), with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The selected twelve artists (Bz Zhang, Celeste Martore, Jonathon Keats, Kelly Skye, Kevin Bernard Moultrie Daye, Orestis Herodotou, Rena Tom, Romie Littrell, Stephanie Andrews, Stephen Standridge, Yulia Pinkusevich) co-created a 2020 exhibition titled The End of You.[28][29][30][31]

The annual Recombinant Festival is held by Recombinant Media Labs (RML) at the Grand Theater since 2016 in partnership with Gray Area,[32] as a multi day event dedicated to audiovisual performances and spatial experimentation.[1] The partnership between Recombinant Media Labs and Gray Area dates back to 2009 when the then Tenderloin gallery space became the official home of RML.[2]

## Media coverage

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Gray Area's Josette Melchor was selected as one of the five innovators showcased on Ford's The Edge of Progress Tour.[33]

After the 2016 Oakland "Ghostship" warehouse fire, Gray Area raised approximately $1.3 million from over 12,000 donors which it distributed to 390 applicants, ranging from deceased victims' next of kin, displaced residents, people injured in the fire, as well as chosen family within marginalized communities.[34]

## References

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1. ^ a b c d e "Gray Area Stays With the Trouble | The Brooklyn Rail". brooklynrail.org. 2024-07-29. Retrieved 2025-05-11.
2. ^ a b SF Weekly (2009). "Arts groups create new music opportunities in the Tenderloin". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
3. ^ Knight, Heather (February 21, 2009). "Arts district to transform lower Taylor Street". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 8 February 2011.
4. ^ San Francisco Chronicle (30 September 2009). "An art gallery blossoms on seedy Taylor Street". The San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 15 September 2010. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
5. ^ San Francisco Business Times (24 May 2009). "Mid-Market arts district may finally premiere". Archived from the original on 1 December 2010. Retrieved 6 January 2011. `{{cite news}}`: `|author=` has generic name (help)
6. ^ Mid-Market Street Monitor (2009). "Examiner on Mid-Market Street revival". Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
7. ^ "February 21st 1pm-4pm: Groundbreaking Ceremony". Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. Archived from the original on 2009-02-24. "1:00 -1:30 p.m.: Doors opens, wine & refreshments 1:30 - 2:00 p.m.: Overview of plans for Taylor St. with Executive Director 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.: Open for preview of gallery *10:00 p.m - late: "Night For Day" Celebration at The Compound with Osborne (Spectral)"
8. ^ SF Gov: Office of the Mayor (2010). "Mayor Newsom Announces San Francisco Arts Commission Awarded $250,000 Grant..." Retrieved 6 January 2011.[permanent dead link]
9. ^ SF Examiner (2010). "Steve Falk: Mid-Market Street's best new hope can happen". Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
10. ^ Cutler, Kim-Mai (2014-05-30). "Arts And Tech Non-Profit Gray Area Is A Symbol For A Changing City". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
11. ^ Hom, Annika (2023-03-13). "Mission Moves: After 30 years, Grand Theater sign shines anew". Mission Local. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
12. ^ Hirsch, Daniel (2015-04-13). "A Touch of Gray: Mission Street Theater Gets New Digital Life | KQED". www.kqed.org. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
13. ^ McDermott, Matt (25 July 2018). "Gray Area Festival brings Eartheater, Patricia to San Francisco". Resident Advisor. Retrieved 5 Aug 2018.
14. ^ Kost, Ryan (23 July 2018). "Mission District's Gray Area exists where art, technology intersect". Retrieved 5 August 2018.
15. ^ Renée Reizman (2 August 2019). "The Future of Conceptual, Immersive Art Hasn't Quite Arrived". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 19 Aug 2020.
16. ^ Nina Tabios (21 June 2019). "The Future of Conceptual, Immersive Art Hasn't Quite Arrived". The Bay Bridged. Retrieved 19 Aug 2020.
17. ^ Peter Lawrence Kan (23 July 2019). "Enter Hell in a Robotic Exoskeleton, at Gray Area Festival". SF Weekly. Retrieved 19 Aug 2020.
18. ^ Nastia Voynovskaya (18 July 2019). "Enter Hell in a Robotic Exoskeleton, at Gray Area Festival". KQED. Retrieved 19 Aug 2020.
19. ^ "Gray Area Grand Theater: Gray Area Festival 2020". Mission Local. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
20. ^ "Gray Area Festival: Radical Simulation". September 23, 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
21. ^ "Gray Area Festival at Gray Area / Grand Theater in San Francisco - September 26, 2020".
22. ^ "Gray Area Stays With the Trouble | The Brooklyn Rail". brooklynrail.org. 2024-07-29. Retrieved 2025-05-10.
23. ^ Gray Area (2010). "Artists". Retrieved 6 January 2011.
24. ^ "Incubator Membership - Gray Area Art & Technology". Gray Area Art & Technology. Retrieved 2017-10-25.
25. ^ Gray Area (2010). "Senseable Cities Speaker Series". Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
26. ^ "City Centered website". 2010. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
27. ^ "Syzygryd.com". 2010. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
28. ^ Black, Eli (2020-02-12). "12 artists collaborate at Gray Area to immerse you in the environment". Mission Local. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
29. ^ Calore, Michael. "Duuuuude. What Happens if the Earth Gains Consciousness?". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
30. ^ Procter, Richard (2020-02-25). "'Uncanny Valley' Explores AI's Potential". SFWeekly. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
31. ^ Hunter, Katie (2020-01-16). "A New Wave of Interactive Art Is Taking Over San Francisco". Medium. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
32. ^ Bromfield, Daniel (2018-11-29). "Review: Gas looms through the trees at Recombinant Festival". 48 hills. Retrieved 2025-06-11.
33. ^ "The Edge of Progress Tour: Technological Art and Robotic Filmmakers in San Francisco". 2009. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
34. ^ Jones, Kevin (18 April 2017). "Gray Area Distributing Remaining Funds From Ghost Ship Donations". Retrieved 24 July 2018.

## External links

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* Official website