THE TENDERLOIN PROJECT

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to Butter Gallery over the weekend for the opening of The Tenderloin Project in Miami.  This was the fourth Living Exhibition, and once again it was incredible to see such a positive response to the project.  This was a unique exhibition as it was the first time that I was able to display works of art that were done by residents of The Tenderloin community, as previously showcased on the blog at the end of last month.  This is the future for the project – creating access to the arts for community residents and to allow their voices and their work to be seen and heard throughout the world.  A very special thanks to everyone who came out for the opening and an extra special thanks to Paco of Butter Gallery for making the show happen.  The exhibition will continue to live through the end of August before traveling to New York…

I’m a little late with sharing the entire Miami experience for The Tenderloin Project.  But below are some photos of us setting up Living Exhibition #4 for the project at Butter Gallery this past week.

It was great honor to be featured as one of six “sharp-eyed local visionaries” in the Bay Guardian’s annual photo issue this week.  For the article they featured a photo from The Tenderloin Project and asked me to write a little about what the photograph meant to me.

From the issue:

The six photographers showcased in our annual collection of Bay Area visions include a trio of young artists with new visions of portraiture. Cover artist Dean Dempsey mixes realism and artifice to reimagine a personal history involving lost limbs. The photos of Amanda Lopez and Parker Tilghman are supercharged by a love of California and of queer life, respectively. The issue’s other three artists — Seza Bali, Sean Desmond, and Katherine Westerhout — reveal otherwise unseen (and in at least one case, tricky) beauty within the local landscape.

The first Tenderloin Project workshop took place last week over at the Community Arts Program in The Tenderloin.  This is the beginning of the final step for the project, whereby I’ll be donating supplies, time and materials back to the Tenderloin community on behalf of The Tenderloin Project.  This to aid in providing access to the arts for community residents.  CAP is the primary organization that I am going to be working with, and I couldn’t be happier that their incredible and important program is able to exist.  From their website:

Hospitality House takes great pride in its Arts Program. It is the only free-of-charge fine arts studio for homeless and poor artists in San Francisco. Each year, the Community Arts Program (CAP) offers more than 250 artists the materials and space necessary to create, house, exhibit, and sell their artwork. But more than the art that is made here, the CAP is a progressive and crucial component of the programs offered at Hospitality House because it helps relieve the intangible, private effects of poverty. For those navigating through the impersonal social service system, self-expression and imaginative talent can be stifled and ignored. The CAP exposes people to creative resources that would otherwise be unobtainable to them. These materials are the tools that provide an often-neglected outlet for creative freedom and, subsequently, they serve to enhance self-esteem and ambition.

Here are some photos from the first workshop that we did.  I’m so grateful for the response to the project and to see all of the creativity energy that has been added to the project.  My thanks to everyone who came out to participate, especially to Mike Kershnar and an extra special thanks to Ivan and Mini who run the program and made the workshop possible.

Very excited to announce that Living Exhibition #4 for The Tenderloin Project will be taking place at Butter Gallery in the Wynwood arts district of Miami.  The opening reception for the exhibition will take place on Saturday, August 14th at 7pm, and the show will run through September 10th.  More details to come.

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the opening last Friday for The Tenderloin Project at ABV Gallery in Atlanta.  The response to the show and the project was incredible!  Amazing to hear such positive feedback from everyone who attended and to realize that a project like this can travel from San Francisco to Atlanta and still hold relevance.  The feedback was a success in and of itself, and it was great to see so much art from the project selling as well.  Everything will now remain on display at the gallery until July 25th.  A special thanks to gallery owner Greg Mike for hosting the show, and to everyone at the ABV team, Tommy, Ash and Priscilla, for their hard work and for helping me to realize my vision for the installation.  A very special thanks to Homa as well for her help in producing the exhibition and for documenting the adventure.  Enjoy the photos below…

Arrived in Atlanta yesterday to install the third living exhibition of The Tenderloin Project at ABV Gallery.  Here are some photos from day one…

ABV Gallery will be hosting the 3rd Living Exhibition for The Tenderloin Project in Atlanta, Georgia. The show will open on Friday, June 25th with an artist reception and will run until July 23rd. On display will be 49 photographs from the project by the project’s creator, Sean Desmond, along with a dozen collaborative art pieces by artists such as Mike Giant, Apex, Greg Mike, Oliver Black, Hugh Leeman, Mark Bode, D Young V and more. Original photographs, silk screened prints and a range of garments produced by SF-based clothing brand, Black Scale, will all be available at the show.

Living Exhibition #2 has now come to an end at Black Scale.  Thank you to everyone who came out and supported the project over the last month, it was a huge success.  The next exhibition for the project will open on Friday, June 25th at ABV Gallery in Atlanta.  Here are some final photos that I snapped today from the Black Scale exhibition.

“I have this unbelievably like five-year-old’s belief that art is just absolutely magic…And that good art can do things that nothing else in the solar system can do.”

-David Foster Wallace