To view the full collection of images (larger too) click here.

Project Title: Our Worklife: Three Generations of Bay Area Work and Workers
Recipient Organization: Labor Archives and Research Center at San Francisco State University
Fiscal Sponsor: Intersection for the Arts
Lead Artist: Kate Connell and Oscar Melara
Genre and Date Awarded: Visual Arts, June 2002
To Be Presented: Labor Day, September 6, 2004

Artists Kate Connell and Oscar Melara’s collaborative project will explore the work experience of Bay Area residents over the last century. Co-lead artist Melara writes, “As a bus operator, I witness people coming and going to work and I hear and see the pride and frustration, the energy and fatigue, the solidarity and fear, the art and device with which they respond to their working days. There is a noticeable lack of support and expression in our culture for their work endeavors. I am one of them. I don’t see myself reflected in corporate media. I want and need positive reinforcement for my contribution to society and the nation.”

“Worklife” will be presented on SamTrans public buses as a three-dimensional mural with images, quotes, and a descriptive narrative depicting stories of workers like the members of the transit system’s commuter ridership. Using research culled over 21 months with collaborative assistance from the Labor Archives and Research Center, the installation will look at different aspects of workers’ lives, asking how people have felt about their work; how work brings them satisfaction, difficulty, challenge and joy; and how work has shaped their identities. As part of the collaboration, students from the San Francisco State University Labor Studies Department and City College of San Francisco are serving as research assistants and interviewers for “Worklife.”

Twenty-four panels on the interiors of five articulated (double-length buses with accordion middle sections), intend to draw riders’ attention to their situations—sharing part of their day with other workers, including the bus operator—as they ride to and from work. The exhibition’s text will be in English, with some bilingual passages in Spanish and Cantonese. Riders/viewers will be able to collect a “transfer”—a handout about the exhibit mounted at exits and behind the drivers’ seat—that will expand upon the exhibit narrative and include labor resources (libraries, archives, unions, and such events as the Labor Heritage Festival). The exhibition will be publicized in union newsletters and websites, local radio programs, and through mailed announcements. A website containing all panels will include an e-mail link for riders to respond to “Worklife.”

Lead artists Kate Connell and Oscar Melara bring an unusual combination of experiences and skills to the project. Kate Connell is an installation artist and a librarian who creates collaborative multimedia installations. She produces work in many media, including mechanized sculpture carved from balsa, redwood, and pine. Since 1994 she has curated library exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Public Library, and City College of San Francisco. Oscar Melara, artist and SamTrans busdriver, is a founding member of renowned La Raza Silkscreen Center, founded in 1969 to design and print silkscreen posters on local and international political issues and recognize community concerns and events. He served as the Center’s co-director from 1969 to 1982. In 1994, after having begun work as a SamTrans driver, Melara began the cartoon series “Side Swipes,” which describes the trials and tribulations of his fellow bus operator’s work lives. He also creates illustrations for labor newsletters and offset posters for community organizations. For the past six years Kate Connell, Oscar Melara, and Blanca Melara have collaborated on “The Nacimiento Project,” a community storytelling installation based on the tradition of Central American nativities.

Trade union leaders, historians, labor activists, and university administrators established the Labor Archives and Research Center at San Francisco State University in 1985 to preserve, document, and make known labor’s pivotal role in the history of Northern California. Its collection includes official union files, personal memorabilia, photographs, oral histories, ephemera, and historic labor publications, reflecting the broad spectrum of Bay Area working people. The Center organizes a variety of activities to highlight this history and exhibitions are a primary outreach tool. “Worklife” will enable the institution to expand its educational outreach into a new format and venue.

Kate Connell, artist and librarian, creates collaborative multimedia installations often incorporating mechanized sculptures carved from balsa, redwood and pine. Among her past collaborative projects were the installations with musician John Santos in 1990 and with musician Bruce Ackley in Oakland 1994. Her work has been included in exhibits at the Alternative Museum (New York), LACE (Los Angeles), and local galleries. She has received grants from the California Arts Council, Zellerbach Family Fund, and the NEA/Rockefeller Foundation awarded by New Langton Arts. As artist-in-residence at Galer_a de la Raza from 1989 to 1992, she conducted the gallery’s arts education programs.

Since 1994, Connell has curated library exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Public Library, and at City College of San Francisco. These exhibitions include: “Fabulous Stories: Women’s Obituaries,” and “Hecho en la Mis_on: Anti-Gentrification Posters from the Mission District” For library exhibitions, Connell creates bibliographies, webliographies and other means for viewers to find additional information. Like the exhibitions that she curates at City College of San Francisco, “Worklife” will interpret and reflect back to viewers some of their own interests and concerns.

Collaborations

• “The Nacimiento Project,” (with Oscar Melara) (1995-2002)
• “Loss of Limb,” collaboration with musician Bruce Ackley, ProArts Gallery, Oakland, CA (1993)
• “From Here to There,” collaboration with musician John Santos,” Intersection for the Arts, San Francisco, CA (1990)

Selected Exhibitions

• “Mybrary,” Build, San Francisco, California (2003)
• “Tributos y Memorias,” Encantada Gallery, San Francisco, CA (2001)
• “Fish,” Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station, CA (1996)
• “Catalog Card Wall,” San Francisco Main Library, installation by Ann Hamilton and Ann Chamberlain and participating community members (1996)
• “Annual Dia de los Muertos Exhibition, Galer_a de la Raza, San Francisco CA (1994, 1977-89)
• “Issue of Choice,” LACE Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (1992)
• “Telling Stories,” Prieto Gallery, Mills College, Oakland, CA (1992)
• “The Shrine, A Place of Worship,” Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, CA (1992)
• “The Forbidden Self,” Capp Street Project, San Francisco, CA (1991)
• “Art from the Heart,” University Art Gallery, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA (1991)
• “US Hands off Cuba,” Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA (1990)
• “Mermaids and Myths of the Sea,” San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, CA 1989
• “Fantasia Majica,” Guadalupe Cultural Center, San Antonio, TX, 1989
• “The Funny Show,” San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1989
• “Dia de los Muertos,” Alternative Museum, New York, NY, 1988

Exhibitions Curated

• “Fabulous Stories: Women’s Obituaries,” Madeleine Haas Russell Gallery, City College of San Francisco (co- curator) (2001)
• “Life Lessons: Four Bay Area African American Artists, Madeleine Haas Russell Gallery, City College of San Francisco, (curator) (2001)
• “Hecho en la Mis_on: Anti-Gentrification Posters from the Mission District,” Madeleine Haas Russell Gallery, City College of San Francisco (Curator) (2000)
• “El Caribe, the First Invasion,” Galer_a de la Raza, San Francisco, CA (Exhibitions Coordinator) (1992)
• “Cajas, Nichos y una Maleta, Gallery Route One, Point Reyes Station, CA (Co-curator) (1989)

Residencies

• Galer_a de la Raza, California Arts Council grant, (1989-92)

In 1969 Oscar Melara was a founding member of La Raza Silkscreen Center. The Center was created to design and print silkscreen posters on local and international political issues, and community concerns and events—serving the predominantly Latino Mission District of San Francisco. From 1969 through 1982, Melara served as the Center’s co-director, designing and printing posters, and training community members in the process of silkscreen printing. During this time, the Center was invited to participate in national and international traveling exhibitions, six of them including Melara's work. Venue sites included the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.), Self-Help Graphics (Los Angeles, CA), galleries in Havana, Mexico City, Paris, and Rome; and local community arts organizations. Melara’s work from this period is included in the collection of the University of California, Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library and the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Having become a SamTrans bus operator, in 1994, Melara began the cartoon series “Side Swipes,” which describes the trials and tribulations of his fellow bus operator’s work lives. Melara creates illustrations for the San Mateo Central Labor Council and Amalgamated Transit Union newsletters and offset posters for community organizations including the Committee for Health Rights in the Americas.

For the past six years, Oscar Melara, Kate Connell, and Melara’s mother Blanca Melara have collaborated on the Nacimiento Project. This is a community storytelling installation based on the tradition of Central American nativities.

Collaborative Projects

• “The Nacimiento Project,” (with Kate Connell), San Francisco, CA (1995-2002)

Selected Group Exhibitions

• “Klak* Pow! Whine!: Comix, Cartoons and Manga from City College of San Francisco,” Madeleine Haas Russell Gallery, Rosenberg Library, City College of San Francisco (2001)
• “Arte Chicano,” Casa de las Americas, Havana, Cuba (1988)
• “Buscando America,” Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco, CA (1987)
• “A Traves de la Frontera,” Universidad Aut_noma de Mexico, Tijuana, Mexico and Mexico City, traveling exhibition (1983)
• “Raza Poster Artists,” Self-Help Graphics, Los Angeles, CA (1982)
• “Nuestro Calendario,” Galer_a de la Raza, San Francisco, CA (1980)
• “The Fifth Sun, Contemporary/Traditional Chicano and Latino Art,” University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, CA, traveling exhibition (1977)
• “Images of an Era: The American Poster, 1945-1975,” Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., traveling exhibition (1975)

Collections

• California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
• Ethnic Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA

Experience

• Cartoonist, Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1574 Newsletter, (1990-present)
• Art Director, Channel 58, Sacramento, CA (1988-1990)
• Freelance graphic artist, accounts included Kodak, Caltrain (1980-1990)
• Founding member, Co-director, Educator and Artist, La Raza Silkscreen Center, San Francisco, CA (1969-1980)