Interview: Mara Sohn
SFist loves Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and you should too. We could go on and on and on about how great their arts program is and how fun their openings are. But we’ll refrain. Instead, we’ll let Mara Sohn, who coordinates events and donor relations at the center give tell you about the center, and her view of San Francisco and the art scene here. She once and for all ends the confustino about YBCA, Yerba Buena Gardents, Zeum, and all the rest of the fun down on 4th and Mission. Oh, and don’t worry, even though she isn’t a fan of the burrito, she comes through with some taco tips.
How did you get involved with Yerba Buena?
I have been in the arts world for the last 5 years. I started out at a large regional theatre planning fundraising events. There was an opening for an events coordinator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, I applied and I got it.
What has been your favorite show to come through?
Perfect Spaces: Pictures and Films by Oliver Boberg. Boberg creates these scalar models of industrial sites and then blows them up in massive photos and films, they are stunning. The exhibition was up while I was in the midst of doing some serious fundraising and planning for the Bay Area Now 4 exhibition. I needed a quiet place where I could catch my breath. I would leave my cube, head into the dark gallery and escape.
What artist/ genre/ group of artists would you most like to have show there?
More music/bands in our spaces! We are in our second year of our YBCA Presents Season and we have had incredible performers on our stages. This spring we will have Kronos Quartet with Matmos and Walter Kitundu. I would love for us to become a venue known to present bands and musicians (in addition to the entertainers I book for our Opening Night Parties and our rental events). I just noticed that the UCLA Hammer Museum is presenting this puppet rock-opera with music by Japanther, wow. Yeah we should do stuff like that too. . .
What's your take on the Bay Area art scene?
I love how collaborative it is. This year we have been looking into artist collectives in our upstairs galleries, and it has been wonderful to see these diverse artists share knowledge and resources.
Advice for artists out there?
Find a mentor. I believe that we can learn best from those who have done what we want to do. I would love to start a non-profit that would match mentors and mentees in the arts.
Name
Mara Sohn
Introduce yourself in one sentence
Little and frantic.
Age and Occupation
26, Donor Relations and Events Coordinator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
Home Town
Pacific Grove, California. Pacific Grove installed these crazy high tech parking meters. I am from the east coast originally.
How much time have you spent in the Bay Area?
8 years now. I Received a BA from Mills College, produced Mission Creek Music Festival at one point, and have mentored people interested in arts administration. I am a companion to a senior . I generally try to sing as much karaoke as humanly possible.
Favorite website
Miranda July, who was an artist in residence at YBCA in November, has an incredible website/art project
Favorite local business
For the best Parisian style macaroons try Miette. I like the lemon ones.
What I'm currently Reading
GMAT study guide 11th edition, so boring.
Best Deal in San Francisco
YBCA membership. A membership gets you and a guest into 6 (yes I said 6) opening night parties and receptions per year. You also get free admission for you and guest to YBCA’s galleries, discounts on YBCA presented films and performances and our neat monthly magazine Life Amplified. Plus you help YBCA sustain itself, so we can be here in another 20 years. Do it.
Favorite mode of transportation
My bicycle. She is named Sigouney Weaver. She makes this “guinea pig being squeezed” sound whenever I hit the brakes.
Best Band or Musician to come out of the Bay Area
I am enamored with Willow Willow. They played the last opening night party at YBCA.
Favorite local hangout
This one is a toss-up. Lost Weekend Video or Tango Tango.
SF has the BEST:
Local celebrities, including but not limited to: The Twins, The Human Jukebox (R.I.P.), and that guy that looks just like Jimmy Hendrix.
Favorite Bay area politician of past or present:
Barbara Lee. She went to Mills too.
Now that Gavin Newsom is single, who are you going to set him up with?
No one I can think of. But I’ve heard that YBCA Opening Nights are great places to meet young eligible men and women. Actually a friend recently told me that she ended up making out with a gentleman suitor in the Fat House, a sculpture we showed last season as part of Erwin Wurm’s exhibition. I mean art should have multiple uses right? Gavin , our next Opening Night Reception is coming up soon.
You can tell someone is a local here IF:
They still don’t know the correct pronunciation of Gough Street even if they have lived here 8 years. I know, I know, it’s “GOFF”.
SF would be soooo much better if only:
People funded the arts as much as they funded their wardrobes.
Best Burrito:
Can I say what I think the best taco is instead? El Cachanilla (21st and Treat) has to be the best late night taco window, ever.
Best Restaurant:
I am currently obsessed with Country Station Sushi. All the staff shouts at you as you enter and exit the restaurant. I don’t know what they are saying, but I approve.
Best movie scene filmed in or about SF:
I loved every scene in The Parrots of Telegraph Hill, in fact I cried at the end.
Best thing to do in the city in the summer:
Form a baseball league and sneak into hotel pools downtown.
Favorite artist to come out of the bay area:
Josephine Taylor, who was in Bay Area Now 4 and was a SECA award winner, does beautiful work.
Favorite author to come out of the bay area:
I just read Andrew Sean Greer’s Confessions of Max Tivoli, which was a pleasure to read.
Place you always tell visitors to check out:
Museo Mecanique.
Favorite Bridge in the area:
Bay Bridge.
You have two hours and $15 bucks to kill in SF, what are you going to do?
Ok, so $15 means I could either buy 3 $5 dirty martinis at Martunis or 3 $3.95 butterscotch puddings from Delessio. Oh I’m for sure going with the pudding. Then I’ll carefully put them in a bag and bike straight up hill to see a good movie for free. Though it looks like this will be in the spring time, looks like the pudding is seasonal and the movies are for warmer weather too. Looks like I’m back to Martunis.
I have found/sold/bought the following on craigslist:
Found: a GMAT study partner/places to live/employment
Sold: tickets for a Will Oldham show/a guitar/armchairs
I’ve never purchased anything though. . .
I want all the SFists out there to know:
Yerba Buena Gardens is different from Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. So if a huge company like Oracle shuts the common folk out of the gardens for a conference lunch, not only is it not our fault, but we welcome you into the Center. You can make fun of the nerds from the safety of our glass walls.
And though it is quite confusing, YBCA is not affiliated with Zeum, the Metreon, the carousel, the bowling alley or the ice skating rink (though we all share an interest in making the Yerba Buena area viable).YBCA is a non-profit arts center that comprises of 2 buildings located at 701 Mission St. @ 3rd (YBCA Galleries, Screening Room and Forum) and 700 Howard St @ 3rd (YBCA Theatre). There, I’ve said it.
Tell us a San Francisco Story:
My first introduction to San Francisco was having my car break down at the 76 station in the Castro. I remember waiting for AAA when an F train came roaring by. The streetcar operator was singing “What a Wonderful World” over the microphone in a Louis Armstrong kind of way. Also, some goofball in the back of the streetcar had one of those monster bubble wands and was making 5 foot bubbles out of the back window. Uh ok. . .
Question you'd ask if you were doing this interview:
What is the best taco instead of the best burrito?