In the San Francisco Bay Area’s red-hot real estate market, it isn’t always easy to make room for art. But all of the artists you’ll meet in this episode of Spark are finding ingenious ways to do just that.

Our first story is like a scene out of MTV’s “Real World”: budding young opera stars, living cheek to jowl in a one-of-a-kind residence program. It’s Opera San Jose‘s answer to the affordable housing crisis.

In our second story, we travel to Bayview Hunter’s Point in San Francisco, where former teacher and lawyer Villy Wang is putting lifelong convictions to the test, turning a warehouse into the new home of BAYCAT, a program in art and technology that targets underserved urban kids.

And finally, we’ll take to the streets of San Jose to check out Phantom Galleries, part of a nationwide trend to counter the effects of urban blight by filling vacant storefronts with the work of local artists.

Spark is along for the ride with globe-trotting members of the world’s artistic elite.

Travel to New York City with LINES Contemporary Ballet‘s artistic director Alonzo King, who works as a guest choreographer for more than 50 international dance companies.

Next, experience the Danish dancer Flemming Flindt as he begins rehearsals at Ballet San Jose for “Out of Africa,” his adaptation of the Isak Dinesen memoir of life in Kenya.

Then meet violinist Midori while she’s in town for a one-night appearance at San Francisco Performances.

In this episode of Spark, explore work by artists who are drawn to the methods, materials and meaning of technology. First, meet engineer, professor and Internet artist Ken Goldberg as he and his students design and host whimsical experiments where Internet players from all over the world jointly control games, robots and people. Next, visit electronic media artist Paul De Marinis at his studio in the heart of Silicon Valley, where he uses gas flames to emit the voices of Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler. And finally, visit the hands-on exhibit “Bang the Machine” at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which demonstrates how computer gaming artists have influenced interactive arts.

Spark takes on the blank page with visual artists who work with, on and through paper.

First, visit Julie Chen as she defies traditional definitions of bookmaking, combining original works of poetry and three-dimensional paper techniques.

Then, explore a new form of printmaking in the studio of Enrique Chagoya as he takes aim at establishment religion and politics with humor that both provokes and amuses.

Finally, Spark takes a sideline seat at Southern Exposure’s Monster Drawing Rally in which more than a hundred artists take up pencils, pens and other unlikely drawing tools to create on-the-spot masterpieces.

Spark explores the fusion of cultures, styles and disciplines that make up the incredibly diverse Bay Area art scene.

Go inside the Bay Area’s burgeoning Muslim spoken word, poetry and hip-hop scene with Calligraphy of Thought poets as they create and rehearse new works for a performance at the Box Theater, in Oakland.

Then approach dance with sculptural costumer Sha Sha Higby as she creates intricate costumes made of wood, silk, paper and gold leaf.

And finally, witness the spectacle that is the Punk Rock Orchestra led by conductor John Gluck, who uses a toilet brush as a baton to conduct classically trained musicians playing punk rock classics.

Spark checks in with three artists who continue to find inspiration in the human face and form.

Over many decades, veteran ceramicist Viola Frey has created hundreds of colossal, larger-than-life figures, many of them brightly glazed in a rainbow of colors, that have become favorites of many collectors.

Shifting his focus from documentary and commercial work, iconoclastic photographer Olivier Laude photographs his friends and acquaintances cast as characters in elaborately conceived tableaux that spoof ethnographic portraits.

Using an unholy mix of beans, noodles and yarn, Jason Mecier creates mosaic portraits of friends and celebs that are shockingly realistic and endlessly entertaining.

Spark visits with several of the Bay Area’s most influential artists, elders who have been working in their art form for decades and are continuing to teach and work long past retirement age. First, make acquaintance with Pauline Oliveros, the internationally renowned pioneer in electronic and improvisational music, who continues to perform and teach her musical philosophy of deep listening. Next meet David Ireland, one of California’s most important and critically acclaimed artists working in the challenging arena of conceptual and installation art. And finally, visit with Bella Feldman as she creates what she calls “anxious objects,” metal and blown-glass sculptures inspired by the Gulf War and the current conflicts in the Middle East.

Spark explores the frontiers of the dance world with some of the Bay Area’s most innovative choreographers and performers. First, go into rehearsal with artistic director Ledoh of Salt Farm Butoh Dance Company as he uses the contemporary Japanese form to explore his Burmese ancestry. See glimpses of AXIS Dance Company‘s world premiere of “Dust,” a provocative choreo-portrait that challenges the viewer’s assumptions about each of the performers. Meet Belva Stone as she instructs students in the art of poi, an ancient fire dance first practiced by the Maori people of New Zealand.

Spark shows that collecting can be an art form unto itself, when we meet collectors who have turned a casual interest into a lifelong passion. Spend the day with John Held Jr., who saved every scrap of mail art he received, day after day for almost 30 years, as he continues to build his collection, one stamp at a time. Then get a private tour of Steven Oliver‘s Sonoma County ranch with one of the country’s most ambitious private collections of site-specific art. Finally, see the collection extraordinaire of folk, tramp and self-taught art that fills every nook and cranny of Bonnie Grossman‘s home-turned-gallery, The Ames Gallery.

Since the dawn of history, artists have been telling stories through words, pictures and music. In this episode of Spark, meet artists who are continuing the tradition, fusing ancient and contemporary techniques and content.

Dedicated for the past 30 years to the study and practice of the ancient Balinese art of shadow puppetry, Larry Reed adapts it for contemporary audiences using modern multimedia technology.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph is a modern day griot (African storyteller) who tells his original stories through a combination of acting, spoken word, movement and rap.

Asian storyteller Brenda Wong Aoki collaborates with Cherokee storyteller Gayle Ross in a performance of “Fire in Heaven,” combining the oral traditions and mythical archetypes of many ancient cultures to create a fresh and entirely contemporary performance style.

Creating art for public places has its own special challenges and rewards. In this episode of Spark, artists of different disciplines transcend the limitations of site and budget to realize their artistic visions. Choreographer and dancer Jo Kreiter mixes art and politics in a site-specific work about the history of protest on San Francisco’s Market Street. In Villa Montalvo, renowned landscape artist Herb Parker works with local artists and volunteers, using sod, rammed earth and steel to create a whimsical work of land art entitled “Caracol.” Lastly, watch a team of muralists from Precita Eyes (precitaeyes.org) transform white-washed stalls at the Alemany Farmer’s Market in San Francisco into colorful murals that celebrate the farmers and their bounty.

From stage to street, Spark goes behind the scenes with artists who aren’t afraid to talk politics. Activist Michael Franti takes on corporate America, the criminal justice system and the cause of disadvantaged people everywhere to the tune of a funky, soul-driven hip-hop beat. With his two-play cycle, Continental Divide, acclaimed British playwright David Edgar along with the Berkeley Repertory Theatre take aim at American politics. Then go undercover with the renegade artists and copywriters of the Billboard Liberation Front (billboardliberation.com) as they use wit to conduct guerrilla attacks on corporate signage.