Project Title: You Can’t Do It Alone: A Public Art Collaboration Raising Breast Health Awareness in Bayview Hunters Point
Recipient Organization: Margie Cherry Complementary Breast Health Center
Fiscal Sponsor: John Hale Health Foundation/MCC Breast Health Center
Lead Artist: Anne Hamersky
Genre and Date Awarded: Visual Arts, June 2002
Presented: October 2003

The Bayview Hunters Point community of San Francisco is home to an abandoned Navy shipyard, two power plants, a sewage waste facility, and many toxic waste sites. Citizens grapple with the possible impact of these industrial sites on health in the neighborhood. Statistics indicate that women residing in this community have the highest incidence of breast cancer in the state of California. Many neighborhood residents are African American, and African American women have one of the highest rates of morbidity and mortality from breast cancer in California.

Photographer Anne Hamersky and the Margie Cherry Complementary Breast Health Center along with writer Laurie Wagner and Super Natural Design worked together to create public art that will raise awareness of breast cancer in the Bayview Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, Sunnydale and Potrero Hill neighborhoods of San Francisco. The project promoted the need for early detection through breast self-examination and the presence of breast cancer support programs in these neighborhoods. Engaging clients of the Center in photography and interview sessions, the artist, writer, designers and organization created outdoor transit shelter billboards and bus interior posters that targeted audiences in San Francisco’s southeastern quadrant.

During Breast Health Awareness Month in October 2003, the transit shelter billboards will announced the grand opening of a new Margie Cherry Complementary Breast Health Center. The posters inside the buses will offered riders intimate portraits featuring text drawn from interviews. The project aimed to break the silence surrounding breast cancer in these predominantly African American communities.

The Margie Cherry Complementary Breast Health Center grew out of the Bayview Hunters Point Health Care Task Force “Women Working Together for a Healthier Community” under the sponsorship of the John Hale Health Foundation. Its founder and executive director, Kathryn J. Summers, R.N. recognized a void in neighborhood services. The Center coordinates door-to-door breast self-examination volunteers, breast cancer support groups, holistic education classes for related health disparities, and such complementary services as spa treatments, yoga classes and other therapies tailored specifically for African American women living with breast cancer. The Center is a cozy, pleasant, neighborhood space where low-income breast cancer survivors can come together to regain their strength, confidence, and self-image. Its goal is to teach knowledge of early detection and assist survivors in learning how to celebrate life. The collaborative public art project hopes to promote its new facility, increase its client base, and promote its future growth by functioning as a source for multiple outreaches and a marketing tool.

Anne Hamersky is a wide-published photographer whose work has appeared in many venues, from mainstream publications to alternative galleries. Working as a magazine photojournalist since 1985, Hamersky has documented a wide range of social and cultural subjects, often looking to health, education, and family dynamics for inspiration. Her work has appeared in many publications, exhibits and collaborations, including three national magazine cover stories on breast cancer. For four years she occupied a studio at the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard where she felt equally enchanted by the stunning aquatic light and alarmed by the severe industrial pollution. She first worked with Kathryn Summers while photographing the “Bayview Hunters Point Women Working Together for a Healthier Community 2002 Faith Calendar: Celebrating the Lives of Twenty-Four Women Living Beyond Breast Cancer.”

She writes, “I was deeply moved by the breast cancer survivors I photographed…. At times I felt anger and sorrow, seeing the effects of living amid environmental degradation, poverty and racism. I also shared crazy laughter with these joyous divas that stood up to adversity with moxie to spare. I was compelled to expand the successful collaboration with Bayview Hunters Point women, to continue addressing the public health issues that were so alarming and pervasive.”

Photographer Anne Hamersky’s work has been published in numerous magazines and books. She has been part of exhibitions at FAMU (Prague, Czechoslovakia), and in numerous San Francisco Bay Area galleries, including Southern Exposure Gallery, Intersection for the Arts, Headlands Center for the Arts, Haines Gallery, Catharine Clark Gallery, Photo Metro Gallery, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. In 2002, her work was part of a traveling exhibit “Beggars and Choosers: Motherhood is Not a Class Privilege,” that opened at the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama. Her documentary photography has been included a number of projects and publications in the health field.

Media, Books and Publications

• Numerous magazines including: Time, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times Magazine, ArtNews, Travel and Leisure, National Geographic Traveler and others (1985-present)
• Visual commissions of musicians Bill Frisell, Richard Thompson, Keb ‘Mo, Filter, Mike Marshall, Chris Thile, Beth Custer’s Vinculum Orchestra and others (1995-present)
• “Faith 2002: Calendar Celebrating the Lives of Twenty-Four Women Living Beyond Breast Cancer,” text by Laurie Wagner, Bay View Hunters Point Women Working Together for a Healthier Community (2001)
• Expectations: Thirty Women Talk about Becoming a Mother, text by Laurie Wagner, Chronicle Books (1998)
• Inside Catholicism Rituals and Symbols Revealed, Collins Publishers, San Francisco (1995)
• Selected Bibliography
• “Portfolio,” showcase of African American breast cancer survivors from Hunters Point Bayview area of San Francisco, Mamm Magazine (2003)
• “A World Within,” twenty documentary photographs of a community of cloistered nuns in Western Massachusetts with accompanying text by the photographer, Yankee Magazine (2001)
• “On Guard: Microbes, Bacteria, and Molecules,” New Scientist, international science magazine, portraiture of Reza Ghadiri, medical research fellow at the Scripps Institute, (2000)
• “Where Science and Spirituality Meet,” portraits of medical professionals researching the effects of “remote thought,” New Age Journal (2002)
• “Goodbye Breasts,” cover and feature story about Diane Heald, a rock-climbing breast cancer survivor, New Age Journal (2000)
• “Ernestine!” portrait of breast cancer survivor Ernestine Bradley on her husband’s presidential campaign trail, Mamm Magazine (2000)
• “Survival by Instinct,” portrait of Catherine Guerra, a breast cancer survivor who chose alternative treatments, Natural Health (1999)
• “The Homework Ate My Family,” eleven documentary photographs illustrating the effects of a tough study schedule on the mental health of a middle school student, Time Magazine (1999)

Exhibitions and collaborations

• “Beggars and Choosers: Motherhood is Not a Class Privilege,” Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, Alabama (2002)
• “Scattered,” Eisentrager Howard Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska (2001)
• Advertising Photographers of America, Juried Exhibition, Dogpatch Gallery, San Francisco (2001)
• “Locals by Locals,” Aquarius Gallery, San Francisco (1997)
• “Beaverton, Ohio,” outdoor photo collaboration with Rodney O’Neal Austin, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (1997)
• “Gypsies and Other Suspicious Persons,” ten images displayed at documentary photography site f8.com (1997-present)
• “Bunker Obscura,” photo collaboration with Franz John, Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin, CA (1996)

Laurie Wagner is a journalist, essayist, and screenwriter who has collaborated with numerous artists, including Anne Hamersky. Her recent publications include Anniversary Keepsake Album, with Chronicle Books (2003); “Faith 2002: Calendar Celebrating the Lives of Twenty-Four Women Living Beyond Breast Cancer” (2001); The Moon Journal, Chronicle Books (2000); Soothing Soaks: Relaxation for the Bath, Chronicle Books (2000); and Expectations: Thirty Women Talk about Becoming a Mother,” Chronicle Books (1998).

Super Natural Design is partners Christie Rixford and Hajdeja Ehline. This award winning team brings over 15 years of experience in design and art direction with a unique approach and understanding of the design process. They have worked extensively in the entertainment and apparel industries and have been published internationally in publications such as GRAPHIS, Print and How magazine and have lectured for the AIGA.

Margie Cherry Complementary Breast Health Center http://www.mccbreasthlthctr.com

Anne Hamersky http://www.annehamersky.com

Super Natural Design http://supernaturaldesign.com

Laurie Wagner http://www.word-wrangler.com