“Environment is the cornerstone of community,” says Bill Strickland, co-founder of San Francisco-based Bayview-Hunters Point Center for Arts and Technology (BAYCAT). “In my view, there can’t be any change unless the fundamentals of the environment are in place to encourage that growth and creativity.”

In the Spark episode “Making Room for Art,” follow Villy Wang, BAYCAT’s executive director and co-founding team member, as she helps a group of students create a film project entitled “Hunters Point Heroes,” which documents members of the local community who have made a difference in these children’s lives — figures such as Bayview filmmaker Kevin Epps, who, like the students, has used film to bring about awareness of the neighborhood in all its forms. See how the process of making art empowers these students, and ultimately their families and their community, to see themselves in a different light.

The environment, like art, is inherently intangible, simultaneously fragile and a powerful force for change. Luckily for the residents of Bayview-Hunters Point, some prominent figures in the arts are working with the BAYCAT team to increase the role of art in the neighborhood, not only for art’s sake, but also to bring about social and economic uplift. Strickland, a ceramic artist and social entrepreneur who has spearheaded social initiatives in the past, teamed up with jazz legend Herbie Hancock, one of BAYCAT’s board members, for this project. “We know that in the next millennium, the convergence of art and technology is going to be a big factor,” says Hancock.

BAYCAT focuses on youth and adult programming, training participants for jobs and business opportunities in fields that San Francisco is best known for: arts, graphic design and media, biotechnology and medical technology, the culinary arts, and the financial sector. With major funders such as the Skoll Foundation and the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Fund, the BAYCAT team is realizing its mission, a school that conducts art and technology programs to inspire inner-city youth’s and adults to become not just artists, but business-savvy individuals who will be an asset to their communities. BAYCAT envisions an accessible education and training system that instills every individual with the self-confidence and self-respect needed to define and achieve his or her own life’s dream.

BAYCAT’s 5,000-square-foot site is currently being renovated. When completed, it will serve as a state-of-the-art multiuse, multidimensional learning and presentation environment. BAYCAT is a powerful example of bringing together training, education, art, music, culture and enterprise as a community focal point to enrich one of the most underserved districts in San Francisco, providing opportunity for a neighborhood greatly in need of it.

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