SFAC Announces Four Bay Area Artists to Participate in a unique Municipal Residency Program at San Francisco Public Library

SAN FRANCISCO, June 27, 2022 – The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC), in partnership with San Francisco Public Library (SFPL), is pleased to announce the selection of four Bay Area artists for the SFAC Artist in Residence (AIR) program at SFPL.

Artists James Q. Chan (filmmaker), Xandra Ibarra (visual and performing artist), tanea lunsford lynx (writer), and Gazelle Samizay (visual artist), will spend 10 weeks in residence conducting research and embedding into the fabric of day-to-day activities at SFPL, both behind the scenes and interfacing with the public. Each artist will then respond by creating artwork reflecting on their one-of-a-kind residency experience. 

Since 2015, the Artist in Residence program has provided unique opportunities for artists to step into City Departments with unprecedented access to participate in and respond to City processes. City employees also benefit from close contact with visionary artists offering diverse perspectives on important issues facing our city today.  

“The artist in residence program not only provides artists with an inside look at government, but it also allows City staffers a deeper understanding of how artists are uniquely equipped to problem solve and envision a better future for our city.” said Ralph Remington, Director of Cultural Affairs. “Artists are integral to a healthy city, and it is our hope that this residency program will lay the groundwork for artists to be more engaged with local government. We congratulate this year’s SFAC Artists in Residence and thank our partners at San Francisco Public Library.”   

 “San Francisco Public Library is thrilled to host such a diverse and talented group of artists and to take them behind-the-scenes for a deep dive on the Library’s mission and our impact on the community,” states City Librarian Michael Lambert. “We are even more excited to see how their experience with us shapes their art practice and final project. We are grateful to the San Francisco Arts Commission for this unique opportunity, and we look forward to engaging our patrons in this residency and with the artists through some future public programming.” 

2022 SFAC Artists in Residence at the SFPL 

James Q. Chan is a San Francisco-based filmmaker who has collaborated on Emmy and Grammy-winning projects. His sensibilities throughout his projects are shaped by his refugee and working-class background, love for nature shows, and memories of his mother’s cooking. Chan received a Certificate of Honor from the SF Board of Supervisors for his work highlighting stories from the API community. He is currently adapting Laurence Yep’s acclaimed book Child of the Owl into a narrative series set in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Xandra Ibarra is an Oakland-based interdisciplinary artist from the US/Mexico border of El Paso/Juarez. Ibarra works across performance, video, and sculpture to address abjection and joy and the borders between proper and improper racialized, gendered, and queer subjects. She recently completed a commission with the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the University of Southern California Libraries and is a lecturer in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University. Ibarra holds an MFA from the University of California, Berkeley and an MA in Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State University.  

tanea lunsford lynx is a writer, educator, abolitionist, and fourth generation Black San Franciscan on both sides. She leads the Spoken Arts Department at Ruth Asawa School of the Arts and teaches Social Justice and Ethnic Studies classes at City College of San Francisco. tanea earned a BA from Columbia University, NY and an MA from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). She is at work on her second book, a work of creative nonfiction. 

Gazelle Samizay was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, raised in rural Washington, and currently living in San Francisco. Her work reflects the complexities and contradictions of culture, nationality, and gender through the lens of her bicultural identity. Her aim is to connect people through intimate visual stories through photography, video, and mixed media. Samizay has exhibited her work across the US and internationally and received her MFA in photography at the University of Arizona.

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About the Artists In Residence (AIR) Program
Launched in September 2015, the AIR Initiative is overseen by the San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries and is an ongoing program that seeks to build partnerships with a variety of City Departments in order to provide unique residency opportunities that result in strengthening the value of artists participating in the advancement of civic dialogue.  

About The San Francisco Arts Commission
The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy. Our programs include: Civic Art Collection, Civic Design Review, Community Investments, Public Art, SFAC Galleries, and Art Vendor Licensing. To learn more, visit sfartscommission.org.