About
Balay Kreative Studios is a 3,600 sq ft pop-up art studio, streaming hub & maker space in the SOMA Pilipinas Cultural District of San Francisco. It houses an artist in residency program, multiple flexible studio spaces, a maker lab with laser cutters, a CNC machine, and woodshop, plus an innovative streaming hub for content creators viewable from Mission Street. Our windows are adorned with beautiful graphics of Filipino heroes/sheros by Mel Vera Cruz.
BALAY is used amongst Cebuano, Ilokano, and Waray-waray meaning “Home”.
Historically, For a lot of Filipina/o/x, HOME is something that has been taken through colonization, war, gentrification or forced migration. For many immigrants, HOME is continuously explored, persistently expressed, resiliently made, and fought for. (eg. Louisiana Manila men, International Hotel, OFWs, domestic caregivers, etc.) For us, THE re/claiming of HOME is a revolutionary act. As Filipinos, wherever we are together in community, we are HOME. Balay Kreative Studios is literally The Filipinx HOUSE Of Creatives: a safe space to push our culture forward. A safe space for the community to heal through art, creativity and togetherness (whether that be in person or in our virtual spaces).
For the past three years, we've been inviting artists & creators of all disciplines to use our studio space to create new pieces of art & content to be presented in the SOMA Pilipinas Cultural District.
When the resident artists are not working in the space, Balay Kreative Studios hosts multiple events from chef demos, painting classes, tiny desk concerts, podcast recording sessions and seasonal pop-up retail experiences.
The I-Hotel Tenants Association. Photo from I-Hotel-sf.org.
HISTORY
The Filipinx community has been in San Francisco since the early 1900’s, despite multiple waves of gentrification & displacement. In the 1920’s to 1940’s, Filipino Americans once had a flourishing cultural area called Manilatown. From 1920-35 there was a Filipino male population of 39,328. After the Manong generation were pushed out of Manilatown in the 1960’s, many Filipinos relocated to the South of Market district.
2019 - Bayanihan Community Center via Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS)
Bindlestiff Studio Entrance via Blue Dot Imagery, bindlestiffstudio.org
In the 1990’s Filipinos like Bernadette Sy, Dr. Borja & Lorna Chui created community spaces for Filipinos like the Bayanihan Center. While Joyce and Alan Manalo created artist-led spaces like Bindlestiff Studios.
SOMA Pilipinas Map via plinthagency.com
In 2016, the City of San Francisco officially recognized SOMA as SF’s Filipino Cultural Heritage District, under the leadership of the Filipino-American Development Foundation.
In 2019, Balay Kreative was founded by three creatives & entrepreneurs - Desi Danganan (Kultivate Labs Executive Director), Gina Mariko Rosales (CEO of Make it Mariko Events), and Kim Acebo Arteche (Artist/Art Curator) - in recognition that arts and culture cannot be sustained without addressing the lack of support and professional development for artists, as well as the need for physical space (owned and operated by the community) for the arts to thrive. Our goals are to continue to highlight SOMA Pilipinas and create opportunities for Filipinx & Filipin@ American artists and creatives in the Bay Area.
Balay Kreative keeps Filipinx American art and culture rooted in community responsiveness, keeping SOMA Pilipinas as a destination for Filipinx American Arts & Culture.
