OUR MISSION
San Pablo Arts District Fund (SPAD) is a 501(c)(3) community benefit organization focused on cultural and economic revitalization through the arts.
The San Pablo Arts District fund’s (SPAD) mission is to bring contemporary art to underserved areas. Fostering financial and cultural revitalization through visual arts in communities suffering from economic downturn.
By bringing visual art to alternative spaces and creating art initiatives or partnerships, we foster an exchange between artists and the community.
We are forming a narrative that embraces creativity as a central theme attracting businesses and patrons to invest in the area.
THE FOUNDERS
Idan
Idan Levin is a marketing strategy and operations executive, working in both corporate and entrepreneurial environments for the last twenty years, and leading initiatives in IT software and services, telecommunications, and semiconductor technologies. As a partner in Vela Global, a technology venture firm, Idan helped create partnerships with industry giants such as eBay, Palm, and Applied Materials, and establishing start-ups with global teams. As Business Development Manager for a wireless infrastructure company, Idan focused on partnerships in the US and Europe with major carriers, including Nokia, Siemens, MCI, Motorola, and T-Mobil. Prior to his role in Business Development, Idan was a Product and Network Operations, Manager. Idan served in the Israeli military, specializing in real-time field intelligence gathering and analysis.
Idan feels the business is most interesting when infused with creativity, and has considered business to be an art form in itself. Through his desire to give back to the community and to impact positively areas experiencing an economic downturn, he conceived the initial vision for the San Pablo Arts District, an organization dedicated to using art to combat urban blight.
Idan is currently a Partner at EAmmune, a boutique management consulting firm focused on IT security and compliance strategies in the retail, financial services, and energy markets.
Tracey
Tracey Snelling is an internationally exhibiting visual artist born in Oakland, California, where she has lived and worked for the past fourteen years, after receiving her a BFA from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Through her use of sculpture, photography, video, and installation, Snelling gives her impression of a place, its people, and their experience, and allows the viewer to extrapolate his or her own meaning. Often, the cinematic image stands in for real life as it plays out behind windows in the buildings, sometimes creating a sense of mystery, other times stressing the mundane.
Snelling’s work has shown in museums such as Gemeentemuseum Helmond, the Netherlands; Shanghai Zendai MOMA, Zhujiajiao, China; PS1 MOMA, NY; Frist Museum, Nashville, TN; Houston Center for Photography, TX; Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Germany; San Jose Museum of Art, CA; The Museum of Arts and Design, NY; and she has had exhibitions throughout the US, as well as in China, Belgium, Denmark, Austria, Germany, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, Greece, and London. Interested in innovative installation and video works, Snelling strives to bring both local and international artists' works to the Golden Gate District, sharing art with a new audience.
Terry
As Chief of Operations for the Global Heritage Fund, which develops cultural heritage sites in developing countries, Terry Quan oversaw all aspects of company growth, including fundraising, site development, and day-to-day operations. Terry was also a Senior Analyst with In-Q-Tel, working on international trade matters and complex litigation cases with Law and Economics Consulting Group and Chicago Partners.
Terry is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and attended The University of Chicago Booth School’s Ph.D. program. He has taught at Fordham University’s MBA program.