{"id":667999,"date":"2026-10-28T17:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T17:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/667999\/"},"modified":"2026-10-28T17:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T17:22:10","slug":"san-franciscos-galleries-explore-alternative-routes-for-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/667999\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco\u2019s Galleries Explore Alternative Routes for Survival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Feature<\/a><\/p>\n

Amid a cost-of-living crisis and the closure of local arts organizations, some are turning to different models to foster community, from nonprofit status to retail businesses. <\/p>\n


\n \"Max
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Max Blue<\/a><\/p>\n

\n October 28, 2026
\n \u2014 5 min read\n <\/p>\n

\"San
\n Kevin Cohya Valor and family at Cushion Works, 2026 (image courtesy Cushion Works)<\/p>\n

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 No one ever said the business of art would be easy. In San Francisco, the landscape has felt particularly demoralized in recent years. A cost-of-living crisis<\/a>, paired with a seemingly absent collector base and the closure of local art schools<\/a>, has spurred an exodus of artists and galleries<\/a> alike. Those who are sticking around are turning to alternative models to survive and foster community, from nonprofit status to retail business.<\/p>\n

Last year, Cushion Works<\/a>, in the Mission District, acquired nonprofit status and launched a membership program<\/a> to help keep the lights on. That wasn\u2019t gallery founder Jordan Stein\u2019s initial goal when he opened the space in 2018.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think of it like a gallery, and I\u2019ve never had a business model,\u201d Stein told Hyperallergic. Instead, he said he\u2019s interested in exploring \u201cwho has lived here, what has been made here, and what can we learn from that?\u201d<\/p>\n

His program includes a range of Bay Area artists, from local legends R. Crumb and Dewey Crumpler to outsiders like Betty Bailey and BJ Newton to Whitney-exhibiting artists like Grace Rosario Perkins and Dionne Lee.<\/p>\n

\"\"Heavy Batter exhibition walkthrough at Cushion Works (image courtesy Cushion Works)<\/p>\n

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Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feature Amid a cost-of-living crisis and the closure of local arts organizations, some are turning to different models…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-667999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}