Artists United: Spring Open Studios in the Mission

There is a new effort on the part of over 8 artist collective buildings (all pretty much within walking distance) in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, to gather their forces together and emerge as the newest and coolest arts district in the city. It's called Mission Artists United and their first Spring Open Studios was this past Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Everyone opened at the same time and there were big red dots on the sidewalk connecting the buildings.

I am located at one of those buildings. Friday night's Preview night went very well. There was a nice crowd there and I sold several paintings as well as smaller impulse item buys. I made sure to have a full range of price points so everyone could feel like they get something if they wanted to. Saturday the weather was great but the foot traffic was light and the majority of visitors were other artists making the rounds. Which is fine, but just different. Sunday was another good selling day and also a day some friends I had not seen in awhile stopped by to say hello. It was sunny and warm again on Sunday.

It can be an exhausting weekend (and it was) but very worthwhile. I had a great weekend. Often it is only two times a year (Spring and Fall Open Studios) that a large segment of the Ba Area art lovers will come out and make the rounds to see what artists are working on. Counter to much of the apprehension on the news, people still love art and still want to buy art, even if they can't spend what they did a couple of years ago. Art lovers will always find ways to get more art in their life and there are still a lot of people out there who want to support artists making art they love.