Griff Williams on the Collapse of San Francisco's Art Ecosystem

Recorded with a live audience at Pier 70's 3rd Street Creative Artery.San Francisco's art ecosystem is in freefall. CCA, SFAI, Mills College, and dozens of galleries have closed in rapid succession — and gallerist Griff Williams says we haven't even begun to feel the fallout. In this conversation with Hugh Leeman, Williams traces the collapse from the first dot-com bubble to today, confronts the myth of trickle-down cultural investment, and shares what happened when Mayor Daniel Lurie called him out of the blue after a Chronicle op-ed ignited the city. With 32 years running Gallery Sixteen, Williams offers a clear-eyed view of what's been lost, what still survives, and what it actually takes to build a creative community from the ground up — permits or no permits.