A Peek Into WAA’s Past
Tim Wilson, circa 1997
WAA 1997
This month, the Western Arts Alliance (WAA) will move to a new building to fill with new memories. Over the past six decades, WAA has called various cities and buildings home. We are excited to continue learning, growing, and thriving within this wonderful community.
To reconnect with some previous memories, we invited Tim Wilson, WAA's former Executive Director from 1997 to 2022, to tell us a story from previous years and locations. We hope you enjoy this glimpse into WAA history.
When I started at the Western Alliance of Arts Administrators Foundation (yes, that was the name) in October 1997, the offices were at 44 Page Street in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley. This was before Hayes Valley became hip. WAA shared the sixth floor of the building—the top floor (a penthouse it wasn’t)— with Stern Grove Festival, the Women’s Philharmonic, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and the Nonprofit Facilities Fund. It was a lively, collegial space filled with bright, passionate professionals and music. And, it was a dump.
I am not exaggerating. There was no heat in winter and no AC for the four to six weeks a year when San Francisco got hot. On the top floor, the roof heated up, and heat radiated through the ceiling. Most everyone had fans and space heaters—so we were constantly tripping breakers in the funky old building. Fun fact, the building was built in 1912 to house the New Druid Temple.
WAA had contracted the San Jose Fairmont Hotel for the 2000 (and 2001) annual conference. Instead of shipping the conference materials to the site, we rented a van to move all the printed materials, supplies, and equipment down to San Jose for load-in on Monday of the conference week. To save time, I thought we’d load up the van on Sunday, but I didn’t want to have the staff come in on their day off before a busy week with long days. I’d move the 15-20 boxes of paper, equipment, registration materials myself. Down the elevator. By myself.
When I arrived at the building on Sunday afternoon, I didn’t think anything of it
when the elevator didn’t respond to the call button. I climbed the six floors to our office and all the heavy boxes. Using our trusty green hand truck (which we still had when I left WAA in 2022), I staged the boxes to the elevator, ready to ferry them down the SIX floors. Again, I pushed the call button. A bit slow on the uptake, it finally dawned on me that the elevator was out. For the duration.
It took me at least 10 trips up and down the SIX FLIGHTS to carry everything down to the van. I was a dirty, sweaty, and angry mess by the end. Not a great start to the conference week. It took me another four years before I finally threw in the towel on 44 Page Street. WAA moved into Suite 600 at 712 SW Morrison Street in Portland in January 2004. Twenty years ago! While it had it’s own quirky elevators and funky neighborhood—it was still a big step up from 44 Page. But that’s not to say I didn’t miss the place. I still do. Forty-Four Page was a co-working space for performing arts organizations way before that was a thing. I still miss the community, shared experience, and wealth of knowledge. The old building, not so much.
Postscript: 44 Page Street has been completely renovated and is now the beautiful home of the Kanbar Performing Arts Center, with all six floors dedicated to the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Girl Power!
Tim Wilson 06/17/2024