Places for People
September 18th - November 8th, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, September 18th, 6 to 8 pm
Curated by Tausif Noor
“The city is an oeuvre, closer to a work of art than to a simple material product. If there is production of the city, and social relations in the city, it is a production and reproduction of human beings by human beings.”
- Henri Lefebvre, The Right to the City (1968),
translated by Eleonore Koftman and Elizabeth Lebas, 1996
A city is born from the structures built for homes, offices, and shops; the thrum and bustle of cars, buses, and trains; the crisscrossing of streets that make up neighborhoods and districts; and all of the individual lives that form the communities in which people live. Observing urban life in Paris in the late 1960s, the French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre sought to uncover the specificity of living in the city: its relationship to the countryside and the state, its relationship to the social whole. He noted that the city changes when society changes, but that it too, created change from the direct and immediate relationships between and among people.
Places for People offers multiple and varying expressions of this right to the city. Through drawings and mixed media works, the artists in this exhibition explore the relationships between people and the built environment, forging, as the artist Mildred Howard has noted, “a bridge between creative minds, regardless of ability.” Whether recasting familiar guideposts and landmarks, expressing political activism and protest, or showcasing the diverse groups of people that call San Francisco their home, these artists provide unique vantage points from which to reconsider our shared environment, and demonstrate the creative promise that the city continues to offer.
Since its founding in San Francisco in 1983 by Florence and Elias Katz, Creativity Explored has been an integral part of the fabric of the city, providing a space to create work, share resources, and expand the definitions of art and artists. As an organization dedicated to providing developmentally disabled people access to the human right of creative expression, Creativity Explored establishes a haven from which art can flourish and change lives.
Participating Studio Artists: Antonio Benjamin, Ming Choi, Liam Garsin, Ricardo Gomez, Loren King, Grayson Kop, Andrew Lee, Andrew Li, Gabriel Maduena, Yolanda Ramirez, Irene Rivas, Lance Rivers, Armando Sanchez, Enkh-Amar Shagdarguntev, Charles Stanberry, Kate Thompson, Rosemary Tuffo, and Michael Washington