Latest / Carlsbad: People, Purpose and Impact / From Moscow to San Diego: Galena Marcus and the Power of Art to Unite a Community

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From Moscow to San Diego: Galena Marcus and the Power of Art to Unite a Community · Carlsbad: People, Purpose and Impact

• 0:03
  Bret: Carlsbad, people, purpose, and impact, an essential podcast for those who live, work, visit, and play in Carlsbad. Good morning, and welcome, everyone. My name is Bret Schanzenbach. I'm the president and CEO of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. I'm your host today, and I'm very pleased to have with me Galina Marcus.
• 0:25
  Galina is the founder and CEO of San Diego Art Directory. Good morning, Galena.
• 0:31
  Galina: Good morning, Bret. Thank you for having me.
• 0:33
  Bret: Yeah. My pleasure.
• 0:33
  Galina: Pleased to be your first guest after a big break.
• 0:36
  Bret: Yeah. Yeah. It's been it's been a little pause, but we're excited to get back to this. Love telling these stories, and you have a fun story, as I was kinda researching and getting ready for our chat today. You were born in Moscow, or you're Yes, from
• 0:51
  Galina: I was born and raised in Moscow, yes.
• 0:53
  Bret: Yeah, and so when did you come over to The US, at what point in your life?
• 0:57
  Galina: It was Well, this is actually a fun story. 2015 is when I moved, so it's going to be This October is going to be ten years And since I'm in San As travail as it sounds, I came to marry my husband with whom he was local here in San Diego, and we were having a a long distance relationships for three years until it became impossibly expensive Oh, yeah. To see each other every two or three months. And we decided that San Diego is probably going to be the best way for both of us to live. And and I got my fiance visa, and we went through the whole immigration process.
• 1:35
  Wow. So now I'm a American citizen.
• 1:37
  Bret: Oh, congratulations. I have
• 1:39
  Galina: a three year old son. And a funny story is that we actually met on LinkedIn.
• 1:44
  Bret: Oh, wow. Yes.
• 1:45
  Galina: When we tell people about it, it's like, I didn't know you could use LinkedIn for this.
• 1:50
  Bret: For dating purposes. Oh, how wild. So you met on LinkedIn and he was already living here in San Diego? Yeah. Okay.
• 1:57
  Galina: He is SoCal native and he went to San Diego State and never left.
• 2:03
  Bret: Nice. Okay. So there you go. LinkedIn's got more uses than we all knew. And so tell us a little bit about though, your family growing up in Moscow.
• 2:13
  Like, do you have siblings and what was life like there? I mean, cause we don't get to, you know, hear from behind the the veil of that kinda that country often.
• 2:23
  Galina: Well, living in Moscow and living in Russia are two different things.
• 2:27
  Bret: Oh, okay.
• 2:27
  Galina: So it's like even in The States, when you move from New York to somewhere in the West Coast, it's it's gonna be drastically different. Right? So Moscow is a is a big cosmopolitan, very busy, very beautiful. It's for me to move to San Diego was like to move in the countryside. And for a few weeks, it was difficult for me to sleep because our house is is right in the canyon.
• 2:55
  And I was so used to the white noise of the streets and cars
• 2:59
  Bret: The bussaw.
• 3:00
  Galina: That I felt like I was deaf. I couldn't fall asleep because I was constantly checking if my senses are still working.
• 3:06
  Bret: Oh, wow.
• 3:06
  Galina: So living in Moscow is is fun. It's different. The pace of living is is tremendously fast. I would probably compare it to New York. Although Moscow has a little bit more of a skylight than New York, at least Manhattan.
• 3:24
  Anyway, yes, I do. My family is still there. My entire family is in Moscow. I have one sister. They're doing very well.
• 3:35
  We are avoiding at all costs conversations about the current geopolitical situation. Sure. Because the tense. Yeah. It's a little tense.
• 3:45
  But luckily, we don't have immediate family in Ukraine. Otherwise, it would have been probably more difficult conversation.
• 3:55
  Bret: Yeah. Sure.
• 3:56
  Galina: We had some remote friends, and unfortunately, some of them did not survive this war.
• 4:02
  Bret: Oh, I'm so sorry.
• 4:03
  Galina: Yeah, prefer not to tarnish this morning with this.
• 4:08
  Bret: Yeah, yeah,
• 4:09
  Galina: It's a heavy topic.
• 4:10
  Bret: For sure. So you come to But even before you came to The United States, it looks like your background was in marketing.
• 4:19
  Galina: Yes, yeah.
• 4:20
  Bret: Yeah, share a little bit about your background of marketing, both when you were in Russia and then coming here. I know you've had some experiences both.
• 4:29
  Galina: Yes. That's correct. So let me start by just saying I don't have a degree in marketing.
• 4:35
  Bret: Yeah. That's okay.
• 4:36
  Galina: It's all But I started with a degree in some creative fields. So my first degree is in fashion design. And when I graduated college and I started working in, like, a clothing production company, I realized that it was so boring. It was it's not it's not Not glamorous. Product product.
• 5:00
  It's not glamorous at all if if we're talking about, you know, day to day kind of a casual wear and that kind of stuff, which is the majority. You know, high fashion is is not, you know, left and right hiring people off the college. Right?
• 5:13
  Bret: Right.
• 5:13
  Galina: So it was very boring. It was extremely boring, but I was lucky to get involved with some creative productions for the company while working for their design department. I was also involved in some runway show, the the photoshoots for the catalog, web design, and that kind of stuff. And then at some point, they asked me, like, would you like to switch from the design department to marketing department? I said, yes.
• 5:40
  And this is how it all started. Wow. Yeah. That's wonderful. Since then, I was working for a couple of international companies in Moscow.
• 5:49
  There was a big division of Hitachi, Hitachi Power Tools. I spent a lot of time with them. Yeah. Then I work was working for an English private aviation broker. Mhmm.
• 6:02
  So that took me around the world a little bit. Yeah. Fun. Yeah. That that was a lot of fun.
• 6:07
  So when I got here and I got my papers and all of that, I I had a job at the company as a as a head of marketing department. Nice. In fact, they didn't have a marketing department before they hired me. So I kinda started that.
• 6:23
  Bret: You were the marketing department.
• 6:24
  Galina: I was the marketing department. Yes. And then it just didn't work out for different reasons. I left right before COVID. So and at that time, I was already showing my art in some local galleries.
• 6:41
  And when I quit this job, I decided to take a little sabbatical and and give my art a little chance and
• 6:48
  Bret: Yes. See how I can do love it.
• 6:50
  Galina: Well And then COVID changed everything.
• 6:52
  Bret: COVID. Yeah. Well, yeah, for sure.
• 6:55
  Galina: But it kind of started everything that we're talking about today as well.
• 6:59
  Bret: Cool, all right. Well, we'll unpack that a little bit more here. I like though the part of your story where you're like, well, don't have a degree in marketing, but you you've know, probably already realized this for your ten years of being here in The US, but most of us aren't working in the field that we got our degrees in, you know, in any way,
• 7:17
  Galina: shape It's global thing.
• 7:18
  Bret: It's a global thing. That's kind of good to know. It's not just a US thing. I got my degree in psychology and now I'm in
• 7:24
  Galina: I have my second one in psychology too.
• 7:26
  Bret: There you go. Okay. Very fun. I do find psychology to be useful for anything.
• 7:32
  Galina: Anything. That's right.
• 7:33
  Bret: Yeah. You know? But I never went to business school and I work in business.
• 7:40
  Galina: I'm running a nonprofit. Exactly. I've never done this before.
• 7:43
  Bret: There we go, exactly. So, okay. And I did see one company that was mentioned on probably your LinkedIn that you were the head of marketing on, and I was just curious what it did, but Landelligence?
• 7:59
  Galina: Yes, that was my job here in The States when I moved, and, they are, a telecommunication integrator. I think I believe that they don't exist anymore because they did not survive COVID, which to me was the stupidest thing ever, not to say anything about my former colleagues, they're all wonderful people, but that was the opportunity to to sell Shine. Cloud based communications. So but I wasn't with them at the time. I left a little bit before that.
• 8:31
  Bret: Yeah. Yeah. You have this marketing background and fashion and design, are both in that creative space. And as you've already teased up a little bit though, you also have this artistic, a personal artistic vein, and so you give yourself some space to explore it more. Now, sometimes that can be scary, like leaving, you know, a paycheck or a security of, even if it's gigs to do this.
• 9:07
  How was that mentally for you? Was it challenging or was it a relief? Both?
• 9:13
  Galina: At some point, reality kicked in. So I I'm still doing marketing consulting on the side.
• 9:17
  Bret: So this is
• 9:18
  Galina: this is how I get my paycheck.
• 9:20
  Bret: Okay.
• 9:20
  Galina: But at least I choose who I work with and
• 9:23
  Bret: Sure. 100%.
• 9:24
  Galina: But doing nothing but art for a whole year was such a relief because it was so healthy for my for my mental health.
• 9:36
  Bret: Yes.
• 9:37
  Galina: And after, you know, the grueling, you know, paces of different careers cultures in the office and and being also a woman pretty much through entire career of mine, whether in Russia or here, working in predominantly male dominated industries and the companies, often being the youngest person on the team, was quite difficult because it felt like I constantly had to prove my worth, prove that I know what I'm doing. That that was that was weighing on me a lot a lot. So just letting myself be who I am, explore what I have inside, enjoy the process of creation was just healing.
• 10:23
  Bret: Wonderful. Yeah. And so from a personal side, what's your favorite medium of artistic expression?
• 10:31
  Galina: I mostly paint with acrylic. And that is also, you know, I'm just now, I think I am with terms of who I am as an artist because every artist has this long process of quote unquote finding their voice and trying different things experimenting with different media and visual effects and other things. For me, it was interesting because I never wanted to be a portrait artist, but I find myself constantly coming back to portraiture. Uh-huh. So now I am embracing it.
• 11:10
  Like if it's portraiture, it's fine, but I'm trying to find the ways of abstract the portrait in the way that it's still recognizable, but it's not your realistic kind of renaissance or Dutch portraiture style kind of thing. Right? Yeah. So, yeah, a little bit of abstract, little bit of surrealism. Surrealism actually has a lot of influence on everything I do.
• 11:38
  So, yeah, that's
• 11:39
  Bret: Very fun.
• 11:40
  Galina: Sometimes I venture into mixed media. I do weird stuff. Once in a while, do weird stuff.
• 11:49
  Bret: Oh, super fun. Now, so you're exploring this, this artistic side, so to speak, and you get an inspiration to start San Diego Art Directory. So talk about what inspired you and share with everybody what that actually is and what inspired you to start it.
• 12:12
  Galina: So COVID. Yeah. Right? So in the hindsight, when we think about this and I know that there's a lot of talk about, like, the energy shift that the the Earth is going through right now. And I think one big leap that we all had was COVID because the world literally stopped.
• 12:32
  Bret: It did.
• 12:32
  Galina: And it was devastating. It was very scary. But if we look back at it, it's it was a transformative period because how many new things happened during COVID? How many new inspirations and creations appeared and the new ways of doing things and and technology? And and we we all adopted, and we all got out of it, you know, at some point.
• 13:01
  So COVID was a catalyst for me as well because I left my job late twenty nineteen, early twenty twenty. I was actually getting ready to to open, like, a solo show
• 13:14
  Bret: Oh, wow.
• 13:15
  Galina: On March 15.
• 13:16
  Bret: Oh gosh. Yeah. We know that show never happened.
• 13:20
  Galina: It never happened. It still never happened. So but but nonetheless, I carved myself a little corner in the garage. I decided this is my studio. I have my own space, and I'm just gonna allow myself to continue working.
• 13:33
  But it in a couple months, I just got cooped up, and, I was emerging artist at that point. I had very few connections in the art world in San Diego, let alone in other places. And I was like, what can I do to connect with my people? And and then I decided, well, what can I offer? I cannot just, you know, reach out to multiple artists that I enjoy and follow on Instagram and say, hey.
• 13:58
  I wanna chat because I'm bored because it's COVID, I have nothing else to do. Right? So I thought, well, I can start a blog or a podcast. And this is how the podcast started. Yeah.
• 14:07
  The podcast is still going strong, and now it's under the umbrella of Sandia Guard directory. Nice. So we are wrapping up season 11 right now as we speak. Wonderful. Already in the middle of recording of season twelve.
• 14:20
  The podcast is called In the Art Scene. So what I started doing, I was reaching out to artists like, hey. Would you like to have a conversation with me? And I will post on the podcast, and I'll promote as best as I can because that's what my my background is in marketing. That's what I can do.
• 14:34
  It's just a matter of starting. And I found that a lot of artists were so open to this. Even though the podcast was brand new and no one knew about it, it was, I think, a really good excuse to just talk to like minded people.
• 14:48
  Bret: Wonderful. Yeah.
• 14:49
  Galina: And I spoke with people from all over The United States and around the world, all the way to Europe and Australia. Oh, how great. And it was so wonderful and so enriching, and it still brings a lot of a lot of inspiration to me personally and a lot of knowledge that I can share with other artists, which primarily the audience of the podcast are artists, like, emerging artists and artists in the mid level career, who are looking for, you know, the confirmation for for the story is like, yeah. I also didn't know what I was doing. Yeah.
• 15:25
  I also had this the impostor syndrome. Yeah. I also had this, you know, a long, long way of finding my voice, and it it just, you know, it just formed in the process. So I think it is it is a way of not only educating people, but just, you know, creating the connection even if you cannot, like or other artists or listeners cannot personally talk to all those other people in the art world, they still have a way to connect with them on a very deep level because a lot of the guests who are coming to the show are opening up about some traumatic experiences
• 16:05
  Bret: some
• 16:07
  Galina: vulnerable things that I wouldn't ever expect. And this is the reason why I never prepare the questions for the podcast because you never know what you're gonna stumble upon.
• 16:16
  Bret: Yeah, just start a conversation and let it go where So it
• 16:20
  Galina: one of my guests in 2023 was then newly appointed commissioner for the Arts and Culture Commission for the County Of San Diego, which I learned in that interview that our county was the biggest in the nation that didn't have a countywide commission for the arts and culture for thirty years.
• 16:39
  Bret: Oh, wow.
• 16:39
  Galina: So some incorporated areas like Carlsbad and Encinitas, Escondido, other places, San Diego, obviously. They do have their own local commissions, but the county didn't. And finally, the county supervisors got together, brought that back. So he was one of the kind of the first commission members. And that was so inspiring because, like, oh my god.
• 17:06
  Finally. Because at that point, I already realized how much of the arts and culture we have in San Diego Mhmm. Because of the people coming to my podcast. A lot of them were local. Yeah.
• 17:17
  And and constantly hearing the same thing. Like, yeah, we love San Diego. It's laid back. It's nice. The the weather, you cannot compete with it, you know, anywhere else.
• 17:28
  But it's not cultural. It's it's really not cultural. It's not LA. It's not New York. And if you wanna be a successful artist, you you gotta, you know, take your art elsewhere.
• 17:36
  Yeah. And I was like, but that's not true. We have, like, we have you and we have all those other people that I already spoke with.
• 17:43
  Bret: And
• 17:43
  Galina: so that conversation about the arts commission in the county was really uplifting for me in the way that now we have the organization that is going to bring us all together because we are spread apart. San Diego is very long and spread. Yeah. And, you know, we have silos, and those silos kind of have very little connection between themselves. So there's an art group over here and an art group over there, and not necessarily they communicate with each other or know much about each other or make any effort to advertise themselves to the general public.
• 18:23
  So I suggested that, you know, we can do maybe a portal, like a hub where we can gather the information about everything that's happening
• 18:32
  Bret: Yeah.
• 18:33
  Galina: In the cultural scene of San Diego County and, you know, including some resources for to which I was told that it's going to take some time because the commission was very new, and they were still going through the planning process, and they didn't have a budget yet. And me being impatient and knowing how to do it, I just bought a domain that day. Like, after after the the interview was over, I was like, I'm doing it. Yeah. So I bought a domain, and a couple months later, San Diego Directory was born.
• 19:05
  And I started driving around the county, knocking on the doors, and and saying like, hey. This is a resource, and I'm doing it, and it's free. And and it's just a matter of you starting to post your things.
• 19:18
  Bret: Wow. So you just grassroots, just like, okay, Yes, somebody's I'm not gonna gonna take grassroots. Somebody's not gonna take leadership of this, I'm going to. So you got it going. And so how long has it been live and up?
• 19:32
  Galina: It's going to be two years this September.
• 19:34
  Bret: Okay. Yeah. So just a couple of years. And how would you say, are you happy with how it's going? Is it progressing as, I'm sure it's not progressing as fast as you
• 19:46
  Galina: would Oh no, it's progressing more than
• 19:49
  Bret: Oh, it is? Good.
• 19:49
  Galina: So the only stagnation is from not enough hands on deck. If we have more people working on it because the majority of the technical stuff is falling on me, Unfortunately, and now as we are develop developing other programs, I'm kind of spearheading all of them. So I'm stretching myself thin. So some of the things are not moving forward as fast as I would like to because I cannot wear more hats than I'm already wearing. Yeah.
• 20:21
  It took off very fast. And we just this year alone, we processed more than two two thousand listings about the things in San Diego County. Wow. We have lots of organizations trusting us because we're actually taking it seriously. It's a it's a hub that not just gathers the information.
• 20:42
  We are actively, proactively utilizing marketing channels to actually spread the word and actually deliver this information to people who are not involved in arts and culture, to the residents of St. Louis County, and bringing the food traffic through the doors.
• 21:02
  Bret: So this, we should probably let our listening audience know what we're talking about. It's sandiegoartdirectory.com.
• 21:10
  Galina: That's correct.
• 21:11
  Bret: Right? So they're like, Hey, wow, I wanna check this out. So sandiegoartdirectory.com. And I was looking at your mission to help general public access art and art Oh, I'm sorry. Help the general public access LART.
• 21:30
  Oh my goodness. Let's try this again. Help the general public access art and live performances, I think is the way it is, right? And get access to art exhibits and things like that. Now, the San Diego Art Directory itself doesn't have its own gallery yet that I'm aware of.
• 21:49
  No. Right. Okay.
• 21:50
  Galina: We are a fully virtual company, so we don't have a facility. What we do is we provide marketing services.
• 21:56
  Bret: Yeah. Okay.
• 21:57
  Galina: Right? So it is a marketing hub, the way I usually describe it, think about it as Yelp.
• 22:03
  Bret: Mhmm.
• 22:04
  Galina: But it's Yelp only for arts and culture and only locally for San Diego County. Okay. So it is a fully user generated content. So anyone can come and fill out the form if they wanna promote something. Then it goes to a very short moderation process to make sure that this is about local stuff.
• 22:20
  This is about arts and culture. And we do some SEO optimization to make sure that it's all, yeah, correct. And it goes live, and then it goes into the newsletter, which we are now sending two newsletters a week because we have a lot. We have about 4,000 people Wonderful. Subscribing to the newsletter.
• 22:45
  We are post posting it on social media, which is rapidly growing. We're utilizing Google Ads to make sure that the general population of San Diego knows about us and having that as a place to go if they want to see what they wanna do in San Diego this weekend, let's say.
• 23:03
  Bret: Nice. Now maybe I partially misread because I was just, you know, kinda digging through and stuff.
• 23:10
  Galina: But You're okay. So our our mission statement is still a work in progress. No,
• 23:17
  Bret: that's great, and I totally appreciate that. Tell me though, is Heartbeat Homegrown your own event, or is it just an event posted on your This
• 23:27
  Galina: is our event.
• 23:28
  Bret: Okay. That's what I thought. Okay. So you do have events now. Are you had Yes.
• 23:32
  So tell us about Heartbeat Homegrown on September 6.
• 23:34
  Galina: Homegrown Heartbeat is the multidisciplinary event. It's happening on September 6. This is the first event of the scale that we are putting a San Diego art directory. It is happening in a historic building in Golden Hill, San Diego, Union Hall Gallery. It's a beautiful venue.
• 23:52
  And what we are trying to do is we're trying to bring the guests and make them feel that they are immersed in the art scene the way I and other artists feel. Mhmm. Wherever you turn your head, you will see a performance. You will see, like, a workshop table. You will see a a painter painting live.
• 24:15
  You will see dancing. You will see a street photography slideshow. You will see paintings on the wall. Everything. So in the concentrated way to make people realize how much arts and culture we have in San Diego and bring the point across about how much it actually affects our life and our economy.
• 24:40
  It is That's wonderful. Is a party kind of a sorority situation, but we we are having a wonderful lineup of performers and artists painting live and a big show on the wall. Yeah, it's gonna be fun.
• 24:56
  Bret: I was reading the description of it and it said it's gonna be a living, breathing experience. And now I understand that That listening to sounds so fun. Very dynamic. Yes. Okay, so Union Hall Gallery in San Diego, September 6, and then through your website, people can find out information.
• 25:17
  I would assume they need to buy tickets of some sort or, yeah. And they could go through your website at sandiegoartdirectory dot com and get those tickets and come down.
• 25:26
  Galina: Yes. Wonderful. Eventbrite or on our website under programs, it's Homegrown Art Bead twenty twenty five.
• 25:33
  Bret: Very nice.
• 25:34
  Galina: Hopefully, gonna be an annual event, although it's so much work.
• 25:38
  Bret: Yeah, I know how that is. Well, usually, not always, but usually the first year is the hardest, so hopefully all this hard work will A, be productive and successful, and B, will make it easier to continue it in the future. Who knows? Hopefully.
• 25:56
  Galina: Hopefully.
• 25:57
  Bret: Fingers crossed.
• 25:57
  Galina: Yeah. And I can say one thing is that artists are very enthusiastic about it. Everybody we have and we have some unique talents that not everybody might know about. We have an artist who is a tetrachromatic artist, so she has this genetic condition that allows her to see hundreds of millions of colors. She's gonna be painting She's like there are scientific papers written on her because she's that unicorn, and she is right here in La Jolla.
• 26:25
  Oh, wow. She has a gallery. We have an artist who who is a muralist and a painter and her work is all over San Diego, Liberty Station and all over Mexico. She is Mexican American. We have wonderful music performances and wonderful dance performances.
• 26:47
  We're going to have a ceramic artist doing a workshop right there, kind of a make a like, make and take situation. Oh, fuck. So, yeah, it's going to be the lineup is up. I I just cannot you're gonna have to go on the website and look at all those artists or some of them are actually on our podcast and talking about their stories. It's it's it's gonna be amazing.
• 27:11
  Bret: Wonderful. So it's called Home Homegrown Heartbeat. Artbeat. Art I wrote H A R T, is it?
• 27:19
  Galina: H A R T is an abbreviation for homegrown Man,
• 27:23
  Bret: I messed that up. Okay, homegrown artbeat. Now I got it. Okay, well, you know, if I wasn't making mistakes, wouldn't be doing anything at all. Now I did see that you seem to be connected to the Hera Hub culture here.
• 27:36
  Lisane was mentioned on one of your events, Lisane from Hera Hub.
• 27:42
  Galina: So not the events. No. We are doing a pilot project with them for another program. It's called Activated Spaces. So they're being very gracious and very patient with us as we are figuring out the logistics.
• 28:00
  And what we're doing is we're taking over the curation of the arts on the walls at HarrahHub Garza.
• 28:05
  Bret: Wonderful.
• 28:06
  Galina: And I've been in contact with them since 2022.
• 28:15
  Bret: Okay.
• 28:16
  Galina: I think, yes, when I exhibited some of my work, and it was really amazing for me to have this opportunity and realize that there's a business that supports local artists actively and proactively. And curating art on the wall and doing the regular rotation is a lot of work. So one of the programs that we are offering at San Diego Art Directory is that we will take care of that for you. So we'll work with with the space or a business. It can be a a coworking space.
• 28:46
  It can be an office.
• 28:47
  Bret: A chamber.
• 28:48
  Galina: A chamber. Yes. It can be a restaurant, anything. So we will take care of that. We will do an open call.
• 28:55
  We will curate an exhibition based on what people are interested in. Yeah. Maybe there's a theme, a color scheme, whatever. And then we will organize and supervise the installation, and after several months, we will do it all over again.
• 29:11
  Bret: Nice. Nice. So that's And so Arhera Hub here in Carlsbad, right next door to this office. Yes. Wonderful.
• 29:19
  Cool. Well, when
• 29:19
  Galina: So stay tuned for the opening reception.
• 29:22
  Bret: Okay, yeah, that would be wonderful, and we'd be happy to help share any PR on that opening Oh, that be amazing, thank you. Yeah, for sure, keep us in the loop. Very nice, anything we missed about, I mean, it's a very diverse, eclectic, you know, thing you got going. I don't want to miss anything about the sandiegoartdirectory.com.
• 29:42
  Galina: Yes. So one of our biggest programs, which is still somewhat in development, so it's it's working in the beta testing sit situation right now, is called San Diego Artist Network. And I think this one this one actually is the reason why we joined Chamber of Commerce.
• 30:01
  Bret: Okay.
• 30:01
  Galina: And why we are collaborating and networking with a lot of businesses and other business associations around the county is to bring the point across that art in San Diego is actually an industry, that art professionals are actually professionals who are offering their services and their talents on the commercial level and connect those two worlds together and make sure that we create an open job market for arts professionals, them to exercise their talent and spend their time doing what they love and know how to do, but still make a living other than, you know, participating in, you know, occasional market fairs, you know. Sure. Because the reality about the art market is and that that kinda came as as a big surprise to me is that not only we have this vast arts and culture scene in San Diego, it is somewhat I don't I don't wanna say a bad word, but it is it is really hard. It's not supportive for the artists. So one thing that struck me is the research that was done a couple couple years ago by Americans for the Arts, arts and economic prosperity.
• 31:28
  And it's a national research, and San Diego was included in it, I think, the first time in, like, thirty years. And I think that's thanks to now us having a commission in the county for arts and culture. And one one thing that they found in the research is is that arts and culture contributes to our local economy $1,200,000,000 annually. Yeah. Another thing, when I then had a conversation with Americans for the Arts, they were really frustrated because they weren't able to find enough organizations to participate in this research, which to me is another proof that Sandia Guard Directory is a necessary hub and we're going to assist them with reaching as many organizations in the county as possible for their next research, it's going be next year, to gather more data because that $1,200,000,000 is representative of about 30% data the Yeah.
• 32:29
  Bret: It's not
• 32:30
  Galina: It's They like estimate they gathered
• 32:31
  Bret: Yeah.
• 32:32
  Galina: From from the research in San Diego.
• 32:33
  Bret: Much bigger.
• 32:34
  Galina: Yeah. It is it is a lot. But another thing that struck me in that research is that the most of that money came from artists themselves.
• 32:44
  Bret: Mhmm.
• 32:45
  Galina: So when we talk about, let's say, visual arts in San Diego, we have galleries, gallery spaces that are operating on a co op basis, which is you're paying your dues, you're paying the application commission for every show, Or you don't have to be a member, but for each group show, need to pay a fee and then you will be juried and there is no guarantee that you're gonna be admitted in the show and those fees are not refundable. And every like, on average in San Diego, it's $35 application fee. Yep. And then and then the space also takes commission from sales, and that's only if your work sells. Sells.
• 33:32
  Right? And then there's there's not much going on in terms of marketing from from those spaces. They also rely on artists to advertise as much as possible on their social media, bring their friends and family. And this is why I know that some some spaces like this are trying to keep the prices low because they they actually know who's coming and what they can afford. Right?
• 33:56
  So when artists in in, let's say, a mid level career development are bringing 48 by 48 piece of work and they cannot list it for higher than $1,500, and then on top of that, they pay, you know, 30 to 50% commission to the gallery. What what is that? This is and and this is I know personally because I'm a visual artist myself, and I participate in all of those things. But as far as I know and understand by talking to other people in different disciplines of arts, it it's it's the same difficulty with being a musician
• 34:38
  Bret: Sure. Yes.
• 34:39
  Galina: It being being a dance performer, being a a theater company. So marketing is the biggest problem, and this is where San Diego directory is coming in to provide those proactive services. And and, also, this is a big industry that if we just develop it, it can bring a lot of a lot of people and a lot of prosperity to our community, to our region, and to all those creative souls that are working on their own enthusiasm to bring this $1,200,000,000 to us every year. Right? And possibly more.
• 35:18
  Yeah. That's wonderful. That's what we are advocating for, and that's what, in part, the homegrown heartbeat is kind of a first step of awareness to people that it is exist. It it it does exist. It is it is everywhere.
• 35:36
  Everywhere you go, you see something on the wall. You see all those beautiful murals in San Diego. You go to a farmer's market, you hear the music. So a lot of those things are happening because, you know, artists are being asked to volunteer their time and their work or donate their work to different causes, and they're they're happy to do that. And
• 35:59
  Bret: But they gotta make a
• 36:00
  Galina: living too. And people just come and enjoy and they take it for granted. So the next time when there's a conversation, what budget do you have to hire a performer for your event? It's like, well, this isn't exposure for you. So guess what, exposure's not gonna pay my bills.
• 36:17
  Bret: Yeah, exactly.
• 36:18
  Galina: So that's what we're doing. One of the things that we are doing at the event is we are making sure that every artist, because a lot of them actually are participating because they're excited, we're making sure that we have enough funds to provide everyone who participates in the event a stipend.
• 36:40
  Bret: Oh, nice.
• 36:41
  Galina: Yeah.
• 36:42
  Bret: Very nice.
• 36:42
  Galina: This is why we're selling tickets.
• 36:44
  Bret: Well, yeah. Yes. Makes sense. This is their craft. This is they have to they have to get paid.
• 36:50
  Well, sandiegoartdirectory.com folks, that's where the starting place is. Find out about all kinds of art things going on in our community, in our county, and get connected if you are an artist to them, if you haven't already. And if you're a business looking to commission something for, you know, or looking for pieces, maybe for an office setting.
• 37:12
  Galina: It's not only that. I mean, every business has events. Yeah. Right? Yeah.
• 37:16
  You at the you at the chamber have a lot of wonderful events. You are hiring musicians. Right? Yeah. That's that's what it every business does that.
• 37:24
  Yeah. The graphic design services.
• 37:26
  Bret: Mhmm.
• 37:28
  Galina: Yeah. Commission or or the rotation on the walls. Why not?
• 37:32
  Bret: Exactly.
• 37:33
  Galina: So Yeah. We're talking about all kinds of applications that normally we're not talking about. Yeah. So artists sandiegoartistnetwork.com is our second domain. And that's where businesses can post the gig if they have a project to hire an artist or they can browse the artists that we have on the platform, and artists can have their professional profile on that page as well.
• 37:57
  Bret: Wonderful. Thank you so much for coming down and sharing all about sandiegoartdirectory.com today. Galina, it was a pleasure to get to know you.
• 38:09
  Galina: Well, thanks so much for having me, and I'm bummed that this episode is so short because when I get on my soapbox, I can talk for two hours about it.
• 38:18
  Bret: Oh, it's wonderful. We appreciate it. Appreciate the passion. And I'm gonna have you take a look at our walls when you leave and see if we couldn't be a little sight for you maybe.
• 38:27
  Galina: Absolutely.
• 38:28
  Bret: Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 38:29
  Galina: You. I see a lot of events collaborations with
• 38:32
  Bret: you
• 38:33
  Galina: guys in the future.
• 38:34
  Bret: Thank you joining us today on our Carlsbad people, purpose, and impact podcast. If you got value out of our episode today, please hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app, and please tell a friend. Can't wait to see you next time on Carlsbad people, purpose, and impact.