What role do we each play in sustaining the region’s robust creative ecosystem? How do we support artists being able to stay in the Bay Area—living outside of the art market-dominated cities? From institutions, residencies, and foundations to private and corporate philanthropists, what does investment in the artistic community look like? How do artists foster a culture of mutual aid, community-building, and sustenance of future Bay Area arts practitioners? Join the panelists to explore why they each choose to call the Bay Area their creative home and how the artistic community remains vibrant.

Abigail Turin speaks with Michael Jefferson on collecting design. From their first pieces to the collections they’ve helped shape, Turin and Jefferson swap stories of the excitement of chasing down an elusive work, funny conversations with designers, and reliable resources that contribute to building a unique collection.

Generative AI tools have captured the popular imagination and their ubiquitous use now raises new questions about long standing intellectual property laws. How do we deal with this new wave of innovation, and how does it impact the way in which art is owned, shared, and collected? Join intellectual property lawyer Andy Gass to learn about what the relationship between AI and intellectual property means for art, artists, and the medium in which they create.

The Bay Area has long been a hub for artist published books and zines. Join four people from the artist publishing field with roots in the Bay Area to learn about their practices with artist-books and zines. Each panelist will discuss their practices and share why the Bay Area has been so important in shaping their work.  Learn more about historical artist publications from the Bay Area as well as some of the local inspiration that has influenced the making of zines.

Join Christopher Bedford and Thomas Campbell for a lively moderated conversation exploring each director's path to leadership and the lessons, challenges, and invaluable community connections fostered along the way.

Look at things differently. LOT-EK's inspirational art and architectural work reconsiders our modern economy through the icon of globalization, the shipping container.

Join the artists for an informal conversation among longtime friends. Touching on their art, practices, and recent exhibition Sitting on Chrome, currently on view at SFMOMA, they will expand on their shared interests in the visual language of lowriders and the practice of cruising, discuss how they have engaged with the archive to bring light to Latinx histories in California, explore how concepts of hybridity have informed their work, and reflect on the role of collaboration in their practices.

Troy Carter and David Hornik live in different worlds but view their jobs the same way – find something nascent but amazing and help it blossom. Troy has spent decades helping some of the world’s great musicians flourish (Lady Gaga, John Legend…). David has spent decades helping some of the world’s great entrepreneurs flourish (Splunk, BILL…). Troy and David bring this same philosophy to finding and nurturing great artists. Join Troy and David as they chat about how their professional worlds collide with their passion for contemporary art and vice versa.

Bringing artists and curators from the Bay Area together, this conversation focuses on how worldbuilding and storytelling practices foster community spirit and reshape Asian American narratives. This talk features three artists whose diasporic practices are tools for demanding agency by imagining alternative histories/futures through spirituality, collective healing, and magical realism.

The Bay Area has historically led conversations around neuro-diverse artists. Three Bay Area progressive independent art centers – Creativity Explored, Creative Growth, and Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development (NIAD) –  have expanded representation for developmentally disabled artists. This conversation will convene contemporary artists and curators who work with and for these three organizations to celebrate the power of art to change lives.