Staff & Board

Darryl Smith (founding member, 1987): Artist, curator, Co-Founder, Co-Artistic Director 509 Cultural Center, Co-Founder annual In the Street Festival; Member of the City of SF Arts Task Force (appointed by Supervisor Jake McGoldrick); advisory board member, 6th Street Photography Workshop.

Derek Song is the co-owner of Park Life Gallery (a hybrid retail/gallery concept), publisher of  Paper Museum Press, co-founder of the Annual SF Art Book Fair, and former board member of the Roxie Cinema.

Jacqueline Francis, Ph.D.  is Chair of the Graduate Program in Visual and Critical Studies at California College of the Arts (San Francisco campus). She’s also Board President of the Queer Cultural Center and serves on the curatorial advisory committee at Root Division. She’s a member of the 3.9 Art Collective of San Francisco.

Katherine Sofos Looper, ED Tenderloin Museum, community activist and owner of the Cadillac Hotel.

Laurie Lazer (founding member, 1997): Artist, curator, Co-Founder, Co-Artistic Director 509 Cultural Center, Co-Founder annual In the Streets Festival,  The Bay Area Consortium for the Visual Arts, Recipient, Goldie Award (1995), Tender Champ Award (1991), Headlands AIR (2003), advisory board Break the Silence Mural Project.

Mark Johnson is currently Professor of Art at San Francisco State University.  He is the Principal Editor of ‘Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970’ (2008: Stanford University Press), ‘AT WORK: The Art of California Labor’ (2003: California Historical Society) and ‘The Saburo Hasegawa Reader’ (2019: UC Press), as well as co-editor of multiple other titles.  He has organized exhibitions in Europe, Asia, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Paula Pereira, artist, T.W. 5  collaboration,  photography professor Cal State Hayward, Headlands AIR (2015), de Young Residency (2016)