Artists' Television Access (ATA) is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The lon ...

and screening venue in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

Mission District The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...

in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. ATA exhibits work by emerging, independent and experimental artists in its theatre and gallery space as well as on its weekly Public-access television

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

show and webzine. ''The Other Cinema series'' is hosted seasonally every Saturday night by experimental filmmaker and artist-in-residence

Craig Baldwin Craig Baldwin (born 1952) is an American experimental filmmaker. He uses found footage from the fringes of popular consciousness as well as images from the mass media to undermine and transform the traditional documentary, infusing it with the ...

History

ATA was established in 1984 by artists John Martin and Marshall Weber as a performance art space, screening venue and gallery and included an affordable video production facility located on 7th Street in San Francisco's South of Market (SOMA) district. It was one of the first organizations in San Francisco to consistently promote the work of video artists. Other artists associated with the early days of ATA include

, Lise Swenson, Phil Patiris, Eva König, Rigo 23, Fred Rinne, Scott Williams and Dale Hoyt. In a 2014 KQED profile celebrating ATA's 30th anniversary Mark Taylor writes "The secret sauce for ATA was that it became a 'horizontal equalizer' for any artist from any background in the city of San Francisco. You had access to ATA. There were no filters. There was a lot of volunteerism and a great activist board. And there were hundreds of shows a year." Taylor continues, "it actually integrated with the local communities -- certainly with the Latino and queer communities, parts of the Asian community and to a lesser extent the African American community. . . While there is a core ATA audience that is interested in discovery and open to checking out new things, this strong connection to multiple communities has also assured the organization's survival. . . the audience at ATA was always expanding."

Programming

David Buuck writes, "The Right Window at Artists’ Television Access is a large window display in the

of San Francisco curated by a rotating collective of local artists and curators. Exhibitions have consistently explored the fact that the site is “open to the public” (pedestrians and street traffic) 24/7 and is lit by natural light during the day and illuminated by the city at night.”

References

External links

Artists' Television Access website

Other Cinema website
{{Bay Area Arts Organizations, state=expanded Culture of San Francisco Experimental film Cinema of the San Francisco Bay Area Cinemas and movie theaters in California Organizations based in San Francisco Art museums and galleries in San Francisco Mission District, San Francisco American artist groups and collectives Event venues established in 1984 1984 establishments in California Art galleries established in 1984