Save Lorraine Hansberry Theatre – Stop The Academy of Art’s Mindless Real Estate Speculation

The Lorraine Hansberry Theatre has been a cultural landmark since 1981; not only for the city of San Francisco, but for the entire country. In its current home at 620 Sutter Ave., the future of the company – indeed even run of the current show playing in the theater – are now in jeopardy due to a thoughtless and entirely inexcusable move by the San Francisco Academy of Arts.

Lorraine Hansberry is the only remaining African-American theater company with its own stage on the west coast, but the importance of the company reaches far beyond San Francisco and even California. Many world-class artists, writers, designers, and technicians have helped make Lorraine Hansberry Theatre what it is today; a unique, thriving, and vitally important artistic institution. Ticket sales for its recently completed 26^th season were up 40%, and founders Quentin Easter and Stanley E. Williams had been looking forward a bright future and building on that momentum.

It could all be stopped short because the Academy of Art College wishes to build a gym for the private use of its students, (the Academy now leases the building housing the theater and is in negotiations to buy the property outright).

That would be a hilariously funny joke were it not, apparently, the very real intentions of the Academy of Art. Can anyone see the irony here?

Of course you can, except the Academy who either can’t or simply doesn’t care about the community they supposedly support.

The idea of art schools isn’t a bad one in theory, of course. I am sure that among the hundreds of pierced, black-leather-clad wanna-be’s with bad attitudes and entitlement complexes, a few genuinely talented people rise to the top and actually find careers as artists in their chosen field (that is to say that working behind the counter at the Gap for a fashion design student doesn’t count).

The truth is that there are too many art students and not enough jobs. So we have an abundance of pierced, black-leather-clad ex-students with bad attitudes, a “portfolio”, no job, and parents that are $80,000 or more poorer than they were before the whole exercise began.

This isn’t unique to the Academy of Art. But my only professional experience with the Academy was when I offered their audio design students an opportunity to interview for the position of sound operator at Grace Cathedral. Admittedly not the be-all end-all position for audio designers, but it would give a chance for real-world experience, working in an acoustically magnificent space (for now), and the chance to work with various musical styles and sound applications.

Not one student replied. I guess getting up early on Sunday mornings was just too much to ask to start building a resume and a career. Give me a break.

I don’t wish this to degenerate into an ad hominem argument, it isn’t the student’s fault that the management of the Academy is more interested in real estate speculation than truly supporting the arts community in this town. I just have to ask, what is more important, supporting a premier theater company with a national reputation, or a gym for privileged art students?

If the students need exercise, perhaps the Academy could park some of it ubiquitous busses that spew carbon dioxide and make them walk wherever it is they seem to be going all the time. Or perhaps the Academy could sell it dozens of properties scattered all over the city and build an arts college in one location where all the students could come to learn, interact, and work at their craft instead of spending time on a bus.

But I guess that wouldn’t play too well in the Academy’s business model. In fact, perhaps the Academy of Art should open a new course: real estate speculation 101.

Stop them!
Contact the Academy of Arts at (415) 274-2200 or (800) 544-2787, email them at info@academyart.edu, or write them at  79 New Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94105-3410. Tell them they must allow the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre to remain in their home of twenty years and continue to serve the arts community in this city and across the nation. Surely this is more important than a gym and yet one more piece of real estate for Academy.

Let the Supervisor Aaron Peskin know how you feel
(415) 554-7450 – voice
(415) 554-7454 – fax
Aaron.Peskin@sfgov.org

We must act quickly, however, as the Academy has plans to take over the space as early as next month.