"The resilience that we have to live through booms and busts and pandemics and continue to serve the community, continue to drive foot traffic, continue to create economic opportunities for local people to have jobs and work and express themselves is just incredible. So if you're struggling with a storefront or a vacancy or empty space, just remember to think about the arts” - Julie Phelps

In this episode, we delve into our special series that charts the resurgence of the arts and culture sector from the shadows of the COVID-19 pandemic. We're bringing together insights from the Co-Production of Arts for A Better Bay Area State of The Arts Summit, an event that unfolded at the Strand Theatre in San Francisco on June 28th, 2023. The summit cast a spotlight on revitalizing our communities through the lens of the arts. A standout session at the summit tackled a pressing issue: securing affordable housing for our artistic community.

Emerging from the discussions at the ABBA summit on affordable housing and real estate was a captivating dialogue on utilizing the shifts in the market post-pandemic to enable arts and cultural organizations to secure their own venues for performances.

To shed light on this promising avenue, we're joined by Julie Phelps, the Artistic and Executive Director of CounterPulse, and Joshua Simon, a Senior Advisor at the Community Arts Stabilization Trust. They will unpack an inventive real estate strategy that empowered CounterPulse to purchase their performance space—an approach that holds transformative potential for the arts sector across the country. Welcome to Voices of the Community, a platform where every conversation spark innovation, and every voice is valued.

To find out more information about our guests and their respective organization’s programs, and services, how to volunteer and make a donation please visit our episode landing page with links to resources for the arts and culture sector. And if you have been enjoying the show, please leave us a rating and review on the podcast platform of your choice

We welcome your participation in our next virtual and live in-person community dialogue event. You can also watch this episode on our YouTube Channel and pleasemanage.com/subscribe?u=f845c8577f6fa5b07211bf63c&id=4ffc7cec9c"> manage.com/subscribe?u=f845c8577f6fa5b07211bf63c&id=4ffc7cec9c">Sign Up for our Newsletter to stay up to date on future episodes and to participate in our next live show. We would love to hear from you with feedback and show ideas, so send us an email to george@georgekoster.com.

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Delve deeper into Voices of the Community Series on Arts & Culture, Making the Invisible-Visible, Covid-19's impact on nonprofits, small businesses and local government, City of Stockton's rise from the ashes of bankruptcy and our archives: You can explore episodes, speakers, organizations, and resources through each series web page. koster.squarespace.com/voices-of-the-community">Watch and learn from all five series now!