>> i'm your host of "culturewire," and today, here at electric works in san francisco. nice to see you today. thanks for inviting us in and showing us your amazing facility today. >> my pleasure. >> how long has electric works been around? >> electric works has been in san francisco since the beginning of 2007. we moved here from brisbane from

our old innovation. we do printmaking, gallery shows, and we have a fabulous retail store where there are lots of fun things to find. >> we will look at all of that as we walk around. it is incredible to me how many different things you do. how is it you identify that san francisco was in need of all these different services? >> it came from stepping out of graduate school in 1972. i wrote a little thing about how this is an idea, how our world should work. it should have printmaking, archiving, a gallery. it should have a retail store. in 1972, i wanted to have art sales, point-of-sale at the grocery store. >> so you go through the manifesto. with the bay area should have. you are making art incredibly accessible in so many different ways, so that is a good segue.

let's take a walk around the facilities. here we are in your gallery space. can you tell me about the current show? >> the current show is jeff chadsey. he is working on mylar velum, a smooth, beautiful drawing surface. i do not know anyone that draws as well as he does. it is perfect, following the contours and making the shape of the body. >> your gallery represents artists from all over, not just the bay area, an artist that work in a lot of different media. how to use some of what you look for in artists you represent? >> it is dependent on people are confident with their materials. that is a really important thing. there is enough stuff in the world already. >> you also have in his current show an artist who makes sculpture out of some really interesting types of materials. let's go over and take a look at

that. here we are in a smaller space. project gallery. >> artists used the parameters of this space to find relationships between the work that is not out in the big gallery. >> i noticed a lot of artists doing really site-specific work. >> this is a pile of balloons, something that is so familiar, like a child's balloon. in this proportion, suddenly, it becomes something out of a dream. >> or a nightmare. >> may be a nightmare. >> this one over here is even harder to figure out what the initial material is. >> this is made out of puffy paint. often, kids use it to decorate their clothes. she has made all these lines of paint. >> for the pieces we are looking at, is there a core of foam or

something in the middle of these pieces that she built on top of? >> i'm not telling. >> ah, a secret. >> this silver is aluminum foil, crumbled of aluminum foil. her aesthetic is very much that quiet, japanese spatial thing that i really admire. their attention to the materiality of the things of the world. >> this is a nice juxtaposition you have going on right now. you have a more established artists alongside and emerging artists. is that something important to you as well? >> very important in this space, to have artists who really have not shown much. now let's look at other aspects of electric works operation. let's go to the bookstore. >> ok. >> in all seriousness, here we

are in your store. this is the first space you encounter when you come in off the street. it has evolved since you open here into the most amazingly curious selection of things. >> this was the project for the berkeley art museum. it was -- this is from william wiley's retrospective, when he got up onstage to sing a song, 270 people put on the cat. >> it is not just a bookstore. it is a store. can you talk us through some of your favorites? >> these are made in china, but they are made out of cattails. >> these pieces of here, you have a whale head and various animals and their health over there, and they are jewelry. >> we do fund raisers for nonprofits, so we are doing a project for the magic theater, so there are some pretty funny cartoons. they are probably not for prime time.

>> you sort of have a kind of holistic relationship where you might do merchandise in the store that promotes their work and practice, and also, prince for them. maybe we should go back and look at the print operation now. >> let's go. >> before we go into the print shop, i noticed some incredible items you have talked back here. what are we standing in front of? >> this is william wiley, only one earth. this is a print edition. there are only eight total, and what we wanted to do was expand the idea of printmaking. this is really an art object. there we go. >> besides the punball machine,

what do you produce in limited edition? >> there is the slot machine. if you win the super jackpot, you have saved the world. >> what about work? >> the right design, it was three volumes with lithographs in each volume. the cab of count dracula with 20 lithographs inside and lined with beaver fur. really special. >> let's move on to the print shop. >> ok. the core of what we do is making things. this is an example. this is a print project that will be a fund-raiser for the contemporary music players. we decided to put it in the portfolio so you could either frame at or have it on your bookshelf. >> so nonprofits can come to you, not just visual are nonprofits, but just nonprofits

can come to you, and you will produce prints for them to sell, and the profits, they can keep. >> the return on investment is usually four times to 10 times the amount of investment. this is for the bio reserve in mexico, and this is one of the artists we represent. >> you also make prints for the artists that you represent. over here are some large prints by a phenomenal artist. >> he writes these beautiful things. anyone who has told you paradise is a book of rules is -- has only appeared through the windows. this is from all over coffee. we are contract printers for all kinds of organizations all across the country. >> thank you very much for showing us around today. i really appreciate you taking the time to let me get better acquainted with the operation

and also to share with our "culturewire" team. after school at 3. . 30 i hop on the bus and go to work with kids. i didn't realize i was going to get up that early for the rest of my life. >> it's hard to get good jobs. you can get well paid working at

restaurants i was making good money that's not my 50 year goal working as a waitress. it would be better to have something to fall back on i wanted something where i would in 10 years accumulate properties. >> 3 months is a long time to be busy all day. i'm putting myself further in debt with the understanding it's worth the sacrifice. eating raman for 3 months. it's not fun but i think it will be worth it. >> we all want to graduate we are all tired of this class. been 11 weeks. one more week to go. >> i need to get these mraps out. >> my purpose is to get the

recruits prepared for the construction training. >> what you do is get a 2 by 6 sitting on the saw horses. we will cut 10 feet. everybody going to get one and you measure up 6 inches. you sure you got 8 feet. >> as a carpenter you have to let them know what's expected and they need to know the stuff to get going on the trades. >> the main thing they need to know is how to carry the stuff on the job and the hussle. >> you can't work with the gloves. >> my part is a small part. my part is the best part. the part that really teaches them how to go out and fish rather than go to the fish market. my job is how to teach them to fish when the fish market is closed. >> this requires i thinking.

when you go on the job site they will pay you 20-15, dollars an hour you have to think and figure stuff out and get the jobs done in a record time. >> one of the things we try to teach with the construction trades is your attitude going to work. how employers look on new workers and it's about profitability and productivity. it's not how much swings it takes to drive, you know, ita about do you have the right attitude? can you show up on time? can you make the company money? >> 12.5 times 15. >> i don't want you to use the calculator. >> the students go through approximately 420 some hours of

training. we operate at the campus of the community college a 12 week, full time program, 7-3:30. >> if you were going to figure out how much [inaudible] you need you rounding up. >> average age of individuals in the trades is in the 40's from what we are told. in the 50's quite frankly those folks are getting ready to retire. we see a void. >> the average is making 60-80 thousand dollar a year more with benefits much it's hard work i will not lie. >> if you like working with your hands and creative and you look at a building and say, i did that finish and that building is there for a hundred years. come to my program you will work for anyone in the country.

>> we send people to the dry waller the carpenters and the plummers. >> we are conscious who we give a job referral to. >> we look at the skills part as far as hayou do with a hammer and nail there are other components to be able to be a team player. be able to take directs and be precise and punctual things like this you need to help you keep your jobs. >> we will looking at the interviews today and doing the critiquing from the papers. >> i was thinking last week we were talking ask that was so

much thinking going on about the interview and how i was going to do it. >> i feel like, me, as an african-american woman and older woman with children i feel i have to set an example. a lot of people don't know how to deal with anger and conflicts. the kids here look up to me. if i do something and don't set an example then they are going to follow. since i've been a positive roll model, coming to school everyday. some of those kids pick up on that and i see the improvement in them. >> one thing that i knew but the class helped reinstate is that you have to check yourself. we are all grown adults. >> i try to be motivated in

everything i do in my life. if you don't encourage yourself to do something or do things for yourself you can't expect somebody else will do it for you. some people didn't make it to class because they have a bad attitude and decided it wasn't worth it. >> when you do something you have to understand why you are doing it and you can't say and come in and say, i will make good money. construction's not like that you have to want to do it because it's not aedz work. you have to want to get up and go to work and do physical labor for 8 hourses. >> i lived next to biotechnology companies and was a recruiter. i was getting tired and felt sluggish. >> i knew from the first day we were outside being outside having fun, climboth ladder and hammer and the physical labor i

knew it was something i would enjoy. to say i put 15 years into this and not retire a multimillionaire but retire healthy and feel good about the work i have done. >> the greatest accomplishment is you drive by a building or bridge and say, i helped build that bridge or helped build the building on market street. the most greatest reward for me is i taught that student to work on the bay bridge. taught the student operating the crane that student was in my class. >> our goal is to have a core

group of people, we are hoping it's over 50 percent of your grads complete and become journey people andup standing good roll models and citizens. the largest public works our city has season in many years going on now the private project that 1 rincon hill. huge project. we had 5 or 6 people work on that project thus far. the rebuilding of the academy of science in golden gate park. the rebuilding of our public hospital laguna honda this is on going work with the same contract ors that move successful apprentices from one project to another and keep them working for several years. the construction workers of the future to be the superintendents the construction owners.

that's the perfect thing there. that's success.

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>> san francisco is home to a renowned civic art collection that includes a comic works -- iconic works by local and national artists integrated into our public buildings and six basis. the arts commission has struggled to take care of the priceless collection because of limited resources. in an effort to gather more funding for the maintenance of

the collection, the art commission has joined forces with the san francisco art dealers association to establish art care, a new initiative that provides a way for the public to get involved. the director of public affairs recently met with the founder and liquor -- local gallery owner to check out the first art care project. ♪ >> many san franciscans are not aware that there is a civic art collection of numbers almost 4000 works of art. preserving the collection and maintaining it is something being addressed by a new program called art care. it is a way for citizens to

participate in the preservation of the civic art collection. with me is the creator of the art care program. welcome. the reason we wanted to interview you is that the artist in question is peter volkas. why is he so important to the history of san francisco art? >> he is a very famous ceramic ist. knowing the limitations of clay, he got involved in bronze in around 1962. he was teaching at the university of california, berkeley. >> your gallery celebrated the 50th anniversary of continuous operation. you are a pioneer in introducing the work and representing him. >> i have represented him since

1966. i was not in business until 1961. he made a big deal out of working in clay. the things he was doing was something never seen before. >> it is a large scale bronze. it has been sitting here of the hall of justice since 1971. talk about what happens to the work of art out of the elements. >> the arts commission commissioned the piece. they did not set aside money for repair. it has slowly changed color. it was black. it has been restored. >> it has been restored to the original patina. >> there was no damage done to its.

i do not think there were any holes made in it. they have been working on it for six or eight weeks. it is practically ready to go. i am very excited to see it done. >> over the course of the arts in richmond program, we have added almost 800 works of art into the public space. maintaining that is not something that the bond funds allow us to do. this is why you came up with the idea of art care. >> i hope we get the community going and get people who really like to be involved. we will give them a chance to be involved. if you are interested in art, this is a marvelous way to get involved. there is work all over the city

where every year ago. -- there is artwork all over the city wherever you go. my idea was to get people in the neighborhood to take care of the pieces and let the art commission have the money for the bigger pieces. >> i was talking to the former president of the arts commission yesterday. the 2% ordnance is something he helped to champion. >> it is all over california and other states now. we really were the forerunners. it is a wonderful thing to bring the community into this now. people have seen art being put into the community. this has not been touched by any graffiti. it just faded over time.