After speaking with several deans of art programs, it became very apparent that kids who have direct exposure to the most talented creative minds in their field are more likely to get into programs of their choice in the future. In Fall 2020, we will host the first Bay Area Kids Art Festival with proceeds benefitting &Art& and Center for Youth Wellness, a charity founded by Nadine Burke Harris, California’s first Surgeon General. The event will have kids art making projects, food, music, and a reading room. Mike Krieger, co-founder of Instagram will play a set of kids rock’n’roll tunes with Jim Fairchild, the guitarist of Modest Mouse, among other great participants.
Through &Art&, secured a partnership with Untitled, San Francisco to sponsor a 3-year emergency fund for artists facing crisis in an economically-divided city.
In Summer 2019, Micki Meng and Calen Barca-Hall, Chief Installer at Wattis Institute, will publish an ACCESS TO TOOLS book for artists and art workers as a resource guide for art making in a city with near untenable production conditions. It is not a phone book, but a careful selection of top vendors useful in our field. Organized by a banded group of hiring managers, head preparators, installers, production experts, and curators, the A list has been used by trade professionals for years. On the last page, there will be a verbal code, which can be used for pre-negotiated discounts at selected locations. The intention is to publish an updated edition annually in a limited edition run.
In Spring 2020, &Art& is curating a fundraising exhibition with proceeds benefiting a WOMXN’S CHOICE FUND for artists and art workers including stipends for childcare, post-partum depression, and more. The exhibition is titled Stretched, and looks at the threshold of mind, limitations of body, and material in art-making (the potential of painting, for example). Text is co-written by Sarah-Lehrer Graiwer, a writer and curator based in Los Angeles who recently published Lee Lozano’s comprehensive monograph.
In Dec-Jan 2020, during high season for the San Francisco art world, Minnesota Street Project (a three warehouse art district with artist studios, galleries, art services, and offices totaling over 100,000 square feet), will donate a pilot space for &Art&. Minnesota Street Project is founded by Andy and Deborah Rappaport, longtime art philanthropists.
Every Tuesday at 2pm, an art professional will call in to the gallery and provide advice for a young artist.
Micki currently guest lectures in art programs across the Bay Area. In the past she has advised in the Curatorial Practice MA program at CCA. She is frequently invited to speak for events and panels with a focus on Bay Area transitional states, the politics of art and infrastructure, artist’s rights, next generation engagement, and the ever so popular subject of art and technology.