On Sept. 16, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 812, legislation designed to help all Californian cities focus on having more affordable housing for artists in cultural districts.
The bill ensures that a certain percentage of units of a residential development are to be affordable housing to reserve for artists.
Up to 10% of those units, including the units reserved, are located within one-half mile from a state-designated cultural district.
“Affordable housing” is dedicated to moderate to extremely low income households, and “artist” is defined as “the creator of any work of visual, graphic or performing art of any media”, according to AB 812.
Downtown San José’s South of First Street (SoFa) neighborhood is one cultural district of San José that will be affected by this bill.
Jared Gacusan, lead museum experience representative for the San José Museum of Art said Museum Experience Representatives watch over the galleries, make sure everything's in place and most importantly, interact with guests.
He also said they are trained to know about the exhibitions, with training in art history and talk about the artwork to guests.
Gacusan works in silkscreen printing or digital print, as well as mixed media.
“Equipment like that needs its own facility. I've worked in multiple different [artist] studios as an employee, and I’m also now renting, myself,” Gacusan said.
Gacusan said he used to print out of his parents’ garage for a long time in the industrial press, and it was just hectic.
Gacusan also said he was constantly scared of setting his own house on fire.
Mae Cariaga, lead museum experience representative and artist, works in textiles.
She said she does embroidery, weaving, beatwork and fabric manipulation, using fabric, textiles, and other fibers.
“Doing [art] from home can be a little difficult, because I have a weaving loom. It's not the biggest loom, but it could use some space,” Cariaga said.
Cariaga said she also dyes some fabrics, and sometimes does rust dyeing, but it can be a little dangerous, and she doesn’t want to expose her family to any harmful substances.
She said she needs a well-ventilated space, or at least a space of her own.
“So I can at least put myself in danger and no one else,” Cariaga said.
She said chemical rust dyeing is where you take metal and you put it on fabric. Traditionally you use vinegar, it will rust, and the rust will stain the fabric. The rust that comes out from vinegar is black rust, which is unstable and potentially cancer causing.
Gacusan recalls his experience living and owning a studio in San Francisco.
“A lot of artists will live in their studios under the radar, but those places aren't coded for living: there's no area to bathe, there's limited bathrooms,” Gacusan said. “I had friends who were doing this for months on end. It's tough. It's a tough life, and they're in there trying to make a living from their artwork.”
However, Gacusan said he has similar concerns as Cariaga, not knowing who is eligible for this affordable housing and what kind of credentials are required in San José.
Cariaga said she likes the idea behind the bill.
“I'm all for artists,” Cariaga said. “Getting affordable housing because a lot of times you can either afford a studio or housing . . . I'm mostly concerned if this is going to be just another form of gentrification.”
Gacusan said a major benefit from the bill is the affordable housing is close in proximity to the cultural center of the arts in San José.
“You bring influence from everything that's around you,” Gacusan said. “Museums here- MACLA, the ICA- a lot of art institutions can be helpful for artists living in the area, so they have resources as well.”
MACLA, or the Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, and ICA, or Institute of Contemporary Art San José, are museums located in the SoFa cultural district of Downtown San José.
Gacusan said the San José Museum of Art always benefits from having an art community, and do events with local artists, like their collaboration with Content Mag last month.
“We had local street art up in the lobby of the museum, so pulling those people in, it's always gonna be cool,” Gacusan said.
Cariaga works on her art from home, and takes care of her parents on top of that.
“I can't just have certain materials laying around,” she said. “It's actually really hard for artists to live at home with family and to do their work. Because, you know, you just need that space.”
Studio arts senior Tali Koransky does ceramic leaning towards sculpture, and recently started glassblowing.
Glassblowing is the inflating of molten glass by blowpipe, allowing the glass to be manipulated, according to a dmgschoolproject.org webpage.
Koransky said she thinks a lot of people could benefit from the bill.
“I personally am not in a position where I need to rely on that kind of stuff, but I think it's a really great outlet for other artists in the area,” Koransky said.
Koransky said being an art student is very expensive, because for every class each semester you must buy at least $100 worth of face supplies.
She said costs add up, and a lot about being an artist today is working with what you have.
She also said having more affordable housing would benefit, and hopefully flourish the art community a little bit more not only in San José but in California as a whole.
“Just having an allocated space where you can really work on your ideas, where you can be completely creative and not worried about other things, other work is super important.” Koransky said.
