Berkeley Art Center Slashes Budget, Launches Search for New Director

The Berkeley Art Center, a 57-year-old nonprofit arts space in North Berkeley’s Live Oak Park, announced on Dec. 13 the departure of co-directors Kimberley Acebo Arteche and Elena Gross. Arteche left the organization in August; Gross left in November. The search for a new executive director has now begun.

Like many nonprofits in the Bay Area, the Berkeley Art Center has struggled financially in the wake of the pandemic. In a Nov. 12 appeal to the Berkeley City Council for a $100,000 one-time emergency grant, Councilmember Sophie Hahn explained the nonprofit’s “significant financial hardship” was a result of “the end of COVID-19 relief funds, a reduced donor base, and more.”

Berkeley Art Center Board President Kerri Hurtado confirmed to KQED that Arteche and Gross’ departure was a financial decision made by the board. The art center will now rely on volunteers, board members and a gallery manager — the lone paid staff member — until a new executive director comes on.

“We can financially support a single executive director,” Hurtado told KQED, as opposed to their previous co-director structure. “We’re really looking for someone who can help us strategically think about how to have a model that is really sustainable for a small organization like ourselves, where we do need multiple staff people and we want to be able to pay those people a living wage, a good wage.”

Berkeley Art Center’s most recent tax filings show an operating budget of around $370,000. The nonprofit prides itself on paying artists and curators for their participation in shows, at three to seven times the rate recommended by Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.), which establishes payment standards for artists working with nonprofits.

And while they have been successful in securing funding for exhibitions and programs, Hurtado said, that doesn’t pay for workaday things like salaries or the cost of maintaining their building. (The city of Berkeley owns the heptagonal structure and the Berkeley Art Center occupies the space for free, but is responsible for its upkeep.)

“It’s just been really hard to secure general operating funds, especially from private foundations,” Hurtado said. “The philanthropic landscape has also been very challenging recently.”

Indeed, inflation and shifting funding priorities have created a perfect storm for arts nonprofits of all sizes.

Berkeley Art Center’s announcement came just two days before the Contemporary Jewish Museum, a much larger nonprofit in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena arts district, closed its doors for at least a year to restructure and hopefully stave off permanent closure.

Despite their slimmed-down operations, Berkeley Art Center will remain open and free to the public. Their current show, Painting Ourselves into Society, featuring the work of eight currently and formerly incarcerated artists, will be on view through Jan. 12, 2025.

Arteche, a talented artist in her own right, first took on the role of co-director in 2021, alongside Daniel Nevers. Gross, who has an impressive background in curation and arts writing, joined Arteche in 2022. Together, the co-directors grew and diversified Berkeley Art Center’s membership.

They also did remarkable grant-writing and curatorial work, Hurtado said — which is why Berkeley Art Center has exhibitions scheduled through 2025. In February, the art center will open Archives Yet to Come, a group show curated by artist Hannah Waiters. The annual juried member’s exhibition will take place in the summer. And toward the end of the year, a Creative Work Fund grant will support Black Point Reinterpretive Site, an installation by Torreya Cummings and Sarah Lowe.

It’s telling, though, that most grants are project-specific, and don’t cover general operating expenses — like the salaries of the staff members who worked to secure those funds. “We’re not the only ones going through a crisis like this,” Hurtado said.