500 Capp Street announces the adoption of a forward-looking vision for collective leadership at The David Ireland House, representing a more inclusive and contemporary pathway for institutional management in the art world. For the first time, a collective of five people will be sharing oversight of the organization as co-leaders. This move away from the traditional model of artistic directorship centers equity, inclusion, transparency, wellbeing, and collaboration—principles the organization came to understand as best suited to its artist-driven ethos, the changing requirements of museum management and sustainability, and its mission to encourage artistic experimentation, support new modes of living, and build community.

“Artists find their own approaches to living and working,” says David Wilson, Board Chair and 2021 Artist in Residence at 500 Capp Street. “Being an artist-led organization, the character and spirit of our work already revolves around openness to each other’s ideas, collaboration, and thinking broadly and creatively about how we engage community. Our hope is that this ethos will now permeate every aspect of our work. We are energized by the already positive impact on our operations and its further possibilities. We are working towards a cutting edge vision of leadership, and with the community’s support, we can achieve it.”  

In 2023, 500 Capp Street initiated a series of external programs and internal workshops to investigate how colonial histories resonate in the art world today including its power dynamics. As a result of these inquiries and inspired by recent, bold examples in other cultural capitals including models like Zurich’s Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, staff and Board coalesced around a collective model of leadership—one that does not separate decision-makers from workers, levels hierarchies and pay, and is sustained by shared responsibility, mutual support, and creative, collaborative problem-solving. 

500 Capp Street’s collective management team includes:

• Amy Berk, Education
• Alexander An-Tai Hwang, Operations & Programming
• Lian Ladia, Curatorial, Exhibitions & Programming
• Justin Nagle, Collections & Facilities
• Gui Veloso, Communications & Community Partnerships

The organization is also supported by a Creative Counsel, Community Advisors Group, and its Board of Trustees, most of whom, like the staff itself, are artists.

“Organizations are struggling all over the Bay Area due to economic devaluation or political marginalization,” says Ladia. “Leaders are stepping down and cultural institutions are closing. Philanthropy is also becoming the responsibility of a new generation and is not the same as before, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic and with the cultural shifts that are underway. Grant funding tends to focus on programming and not operations. Organizations are fighting the rising tide, but it’s not meeting the best interests of the workers. We need new energy that can support the wellbeing of arts workers and culture bearers. We also need the involvement of artists themselves in contributing to policies and practices that have an impact on creative and cultural working conditions.”

“500 Capp Street was David Ireland’s studio. A place where he was trying things out, experimenting, finding solutions,” says Veloso. “That same kind of creative problem solving is what we try to inspire in our residencies and is what the House asks of all of us. This makes so much sense for us.

Pictured above Staff and Board L to R: Lian Ladia, Amy Berk, Gui Veloso, Dan Ake, Ann Meisinger, Elisa Isaacson, Justin Nagle, David Wilson, Alexander An-Tai Hwang. Photo: Geloy Concepcion