California Lawyers for the Arts, founded in 1974, provides referrals, dispute resolution, educational programs, publications and a resource library to artists and arts organizations throughout the state. The organization has offices in San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Monica and Oakland. Executive Director Alma Robinson has been with the organization since 1980.

    Fred Dodsworth: What are the biggest legal issues facing artists?

    Alma Robinson: Clearly the biggest issue right now is space in the Bay Area. That's becoming an issue all over the state but we're really feeling the crisis here. It's been very hard for artists to find space to live and work. It doesn't matter what your legal issues are if you don't have a place to live and work. I've heard that we've lost about 30 percent of the artists here in San Francisco in the last three years. We're still having the exodus and there's nowhere for new artists to move to. We're getting phone calls from artists saying, "I'm been evicted," and there's no place in San Francisco for them to go. The whole Bay Area's getting real expensive.

    The legal issues are negotiating with landlords, problems getting paid, knowing how to pay taxes and keep records. We stay busy giving workshops and seminars and try to be pro-active, helping people about issues before it's a problem. We also send people to attorneys, we offer legal referrals, we send them to mediators. We have a variety of services to help them. We also suggest they come into our library and use our materials -- sample contracts and books -- learn about the issues and then get legal advise. It's really empowering for artists.

    Q: Is there a conflict between being creative and being business-like?

    A: A lot of artists are very good at business. If they sell their work they're have to learn how to represent themselves in business and to be knowledgeable about what that business is. Whether it's publishing or recording music or selling your work in galleries, you still need to understand the issues and be able to read a contract.

    Q: Are artists as helpless as they're often depicted?

    A: I think most artists are fairly sophisticated. My favorite story about artist empowerment had to do with an artist who wanted to know about a tax ruling, I told her I didn't know it, but she could go read about it in the law library. She said, "You mean I can do that?" I said, "Yes, of course, anyone can use the law library. There's one in every county." The next thing I heard she was writing a book on tax audits for artists. Which she still sells. We sell the book, and it's fabulous.

    Q: How does your organization help artists with space issues?

    A: A number of things are going on right now. We participate in the city's response team for non-profit space issues. We also manage a $1.5 million dollar grant that was authorized by the board of supervisors to help arts organizations pay rent. It's probably going to be a one-year program. We're buying some time to come up with longer solutions. We're looking at facilitated development, at being more involved in developing, ourselves, to help bring on new space. In some instances, to help arts organizations buy the buildings they're in. We're looking at a variety of legal techniques and financial tools to do this.

    Q: Are there any projects currently in progress?

    A: No, but we're working with some organizations to see if they can push the owners of the property. The idea is to give the properties to a non-profit, to a "charitable remainder trust" and get fabulous tax deductions.

    Q: Any bites?

    A: We're working on it. No one we want to talk about yet.

    I think a lot of people want to do something and are waiting to be asked. I think that a lot of people recognize that this is a serious issue for the future of San Francisco. Our city is so vibrant because of the cultural vitality. If we lose that creative energy, because we can't afford to support and keep artists in our city, it will be a tremendous loss for the whole city. The city will become less attractive. Less attractive to tourism, which is our cash cow. Less attractive to businesses, who like to locate here because their employees want to be in a culturally vibrant city.

    Q: How about arts in the schools?

    A: People are recognizing the value of the arts. It's not just for the art, which is wonderful, but it also helps kids learn to think creatively, it builds teamwork skills and self esteem, and in some instances, art helps keep children in school. Also there has to be some joy in education. We can't just drill and test children to death.

    Q: So you're not a big proponent of the three "R's": Reading, writing and 'rithmatic?

    A: Four "R's": Reading, writing, 'rithmatic and 'rt. (Lots of laughter.)

    Q: How about "artists' lofts"?

    A: They're obviously not for artists. It's really good that the board of supervisors is taking a look at this and that there's a moratorium on loft construction.

    Q: I would think you'd be in favor of loft construction.

    A: We're in favor of it for artists, but it wasn't intended to be for office work. There's a whole list of arts activities which are required. Somehow these requirements haven't been enforced. Everybody knows they're not for artists, not for working artists. Things went askew, I hope we're going to bring back a sense of appropriate planning. If it's really for housing, let's call it housing, let's decide if the neighborhoods want this kind of housing there and let them pay housing fees. The problem is, with that type of high-priced land use, it prices out businesses and industry -- the auto repair shops, meatpacking, all those things. It's been very hard for them to compete. I think we may have reached the end of the line on that anyway. The downsizing of the dot-com economy will reduce some of the demand.

    Q: Has the dot-com economy had a positive effect on the arts?

    A: That's a good question. It has been a mixed blessing. There has been increased employment for artists -- computer graphics, website design, sound engineering. It's definitely had some benefits. And because there's been a good economy, people have been more active in buying art and going to art shows.

    What we don't want to see is everybody out-priced, unable to work here, or live here. Let's not leave people behind. Let's not push out arts organizations. Let's develop some support structures to keep what we have already. It's a matter of having the will to take care of the families who are here -- to build housing for low-income people. We just need to address these issues. I'm hoping that as we build housing for low-income people we integrate low-income artists into those housing projects. It will be more interesting for everybody if there are a few artists in the mix.

    Q: Would you place artists in the housing projects, in section eight housing?

    A: Sure. If they income qualify. We've been working against the myth that artists are voluntarily poor. A lot of the homeless, the poor, the low income in San Francisco, are artists, or would have been if they hadn't been stymied early on in their careers.

    We have a program placing people on welfare, in jobs in the arts. What we've discovered was that a huge number of people are interested, people that had just been written off. We have placed people at the ACT costume bank. We have place a woman who liked to act at Theater Bay Area. We've placed people in a variety of things. They got a boost through our training program. They're part of the real deal here.

    For more information go to www.calawyersforthearts.org.

    E-mail Fred Dodsworth at fdodsworth@sfexaminer.com