Getting to know the SoEx Staff with Intern Mana Macaraeg
Learn more about the people working diligently to make Southern Exposure the amazing community establishment it is! Intern Mana Macaraeg interviewed SoEx staff members and made these drawings in Summer 2023.
Margaret McCarthy, Executive & Co-Director
1) What's your favorite comfort meal?
So many! Sometimes on the weekend, I like to make biscuits and gravy.
2) What is on your bucket list?
I'd like to look for space rocks in Antarctica.
3) What's your favorite way to spend the day off?
Usually, I am dancing and singing songs with my baby.
4) Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to work in the art community?
I've worked in the arts in a number of ways, and so what comes to mind is that there are so many ways to do work and make work. I think it's helpful to not get fixated on things looking One Exact Way. Finding ways to volunteer or work part-time in the arts while doing something else, or just going to events and talking to people – these are all important ways to stay connected and engaged even if you're not working in the arts full-time.
Valerie Imus, Artistic & Co-Director
1) What's your favorite comfort meal?
My go-to comfort meal is chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.
2) What is on your bucket list?
One of the things I’ve been wanting to do is to visit Cuba.
3) What's your favorite way to spend the day off?
My favorite way to relax on my day off is riding my bike to Ocean Beach.
4) Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to work in the art community?
Being kind to everyone will get you a lot further.
Simon Tran, Artists in Education Program Manager
1) What's your favorite comfort meal?
My favorite comfort meal is phở.
2) What is on your bucket list?
I want to learn how to use a whip.
3) What's your favorite way to spend the day off?
I love to play video games and listen to records on my day off.
4) Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to work in the art community?
When working in the art community, it is best to be patient and mindful.
Sharmi Basu, Operations & Development Coordinator
1) What's your favorite comfort meal?
I crave soup almost every day of the week, but the thing that makes me feel most comfy is cheesy grits, or this Bengali comfort dish called Luchi Torkari. It's a mild potato curry and a puffy roti. Also McDonalds lol sorry not sorry.
2) What is on your bucket list?
I want to live life with confidence that things will be ok. Also, seeing the Aurora Borealis in a hot tub.
3) What's your favorite way to spend the day off?
I love laying down playing video games :) or going to the water with my dog Beni!
4) Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to work in the art community?
Listen to your body about whether the environment you're in is right for you. It's hard to work in the arts and continue your practice, so have boundaries, know your worth, and don't let your job take your practice from you! Don’t let white hegemony get you down!
Emma Rosenbaum, Marketing & Communications Coordinator
1) What's your favorite comfort meal?
Shabu Shabu! Outrageously warm and decadent but also not very overpowering flavors or intense things. I love a simple but obnoxiously luxurious experience.
2) What is on your bucket list?
Taking my goofy techno partner to Berlin and watching him dance while I fall asleep in the corner at a dance club.
3) What's your favorite way to spend the day off?
Going to the dog park, eating something cheesy, and then playing an extremely sweaty RPG.
4) Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to work in the art community?
Take care of yourself. No matter how you look at it, art is activism. And you can't make the world a better place through art at the expense of your wellbeing. Your suffering doesn't pay for a better future, it poisons it. Rest. Be whole. Giving to the art community and to your own art should feel like a gift to yourself. If it feels extractive, then capitalism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, etc. got in the way, and you should return to that well of infinite goodness and creation inside yourself. Take a bath.
Mário Pires Cordeiro, Exhibitions & Facilities Coordinator
1) What's your favorite comfort meal?
My main comfort foods are french fries, hot chocolate with cinnamon, mangos and oranges.
2) What is on your bucket list?
Be a parent.
3) What's your favorite way to spend the day off?
At the beach all day reading, sleeping and doing nothing, also hiking and being in nature.
4) Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to work in the art community?
Be prepared for a slow process, don't impose; learn about the community's needs first - their hopes and struggles, and listen a lot. Invite 'community' to speak out and share with you. Don't rush, allow time, avoid assumptions and judgments.