Root Division is an organization of Bay Area artists working for a livable existence in an arts and arts education community.

Root Division's mission is to improve appreciation and access to the visual arts by connecting personal inspiration and community participation. We provide subsidized studio space to working artists in exchange for their service in creating shared learning opportunities for the community. Artists develop creatively and professionally by teaching art to underserved youth, leading adult education classes, and producing exhibitions that showcase local emerging artwork. By combining multiple opportunities for creative exchange, Root Division cultivates an artistic ecosystem that enriches life throughout the Bay Area.

The organization was founded in 2002 by three MFA graduates of the San Francisco Art Institute. As artists themselves the founders sought to answer these questions:
• How can artists create and work in a community supportive of ideas, production and professional development?
• How do creative-minded people find energetic artists from whom to learn?
• Who will nurture youth & the next generation of artistic expression through teaching the importance of visual history?
• How can artists access new technology, creativity, and peers?
• How does the artist-teacher support a studio practice, engage the community, plan for the future, access facilities, and create new and daring work?

By combining forces with artist-teachers, local schools, audiences, individuals, and foundations, Root Division creates an ecology of artists, education, events, exhibitions, & studios - an ecology of community. This dynamic partnership boosts the creative culture of the Bay Area.

Root Division has many goals for the future, all of which include you! We always welcome new participants and new ideas.

For information contact: info@rootdivision.org.

Root Division is supported in part by grants from Grants for the Arts: SF Hotel Tax Fund & Voluntary Arts Contribution Fund, The San Francisco Foundation, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, and the Potrero Nuevo Fund. The Second Saturday Exhibition Series is sponsored by the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, the San Francisco Arts Commission through a Cultural Equity Grant/Organizational Project Grant, the Fleishhacker Foundation, and the Zellerbach Family Foundation.