Culture Archives - DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS

Relationships, tradition encourage San Francisco GM

Daily SF News — Sun, 10 Dec 2023 15:10:37 +0000

Reggie Kumar’s journey to the position of general manager at the AC Hotel San Francisco Airport/Oyster Point Waterfront has involved lots of hands-on education and knowing how to prioritize.

Growing up in Monterey, Calif., Kumar said the hospitality industry always had a strong footprint in the area. “I found the hospitality industry highly intriguing and a reputable sector to work in,” he recalled. “The industry certainly challenges you [to] start elevating your thought process, perfecting conflict-resolution-type situations and becoming result oriented.” These traits are highly important for both self-growth and also for better career enhancement, he added.

Working Up the Ladder

While studying for his bachelor’s degree in business at California State University, Monterey Bay, Kumar took a position as a front office and reservation manager at the Best Western Monterey Beach Resort. “My experience at a young age in the hospitality sector forced me to mature a lot quicker based on the different elements of our business, which I found to be highly valuable both personally and professionally,” he said.

After graduating and spending two years working for Federal Express (“I wanted to try something different for a bit”), Kumar returned to hospitality in 2005, first as director of front office and later as assistant general manager for the Carmel Mission Inn in Carmel, Calif., where GM Bob Buescher became one of his first mentors in the field. In January 2010, owning company Pacific Valley Investors moved him to the Sanctuary Beach Resort in nearby Monterey Bay as general manager. When Hersha Hospitality acquired the hotel in 2015, he expected the new owners to bring in a new GM. Instead, he was kept on, and stayed at the hotel for more than two years, overseeing the full rebranding of the hotel.

Reggie Kumar. Photo credit: Reggie Kumar

After more than seven years at the Sanctuary Beach Resort, he was ready to move into a bigger market, and joined Davidson Hotels and Resorts to be director of operations for the Hotel Zephyr in San Francisco while he waited for a GM position to become available. “I knew I was eventually going to get back into the GM role no matter what,” he recalled. “But just getting my foot into the city was the main [thing].” In May 2018, less than a year after joining the Zephyr, he had the opportunity to join OTO Development as GM of the AC Hotel San Francisco. “I always kept a close eye on OTO Development and the company’s accession in our industry,” he said. “When the opportunity presented itself—not only with OTO but also related to the AC Marriott, which is considered one of its flagship properties—I knew this was a great opportunity that I had to apply for.”

Lessons Learned

Working for several major operators had “a dramatic impact” on Kumar, exposing him to “many facets” of the industry as well as the challenges and opportunities each hotel and company provides. Each company, he said, had its own unique culture and management environment, and as he moved from property to property he learned how a hotel can reflect its GM’s personality. “It was a good experience to see how certain things, if not done well, can really resonate with employees,” he said. “Decisions have a lasting impact on how you treat people. That’s what I took away from there.”

Working for OTO, he added, has provided the best results for his style of leadership: “Things happen for a reason, as they say, and I do believe all these factors played a role, and I ended up working for one of the best companies in the lodging industry.” Before the pandemic, some larger scale hotels had reached out, he said, and while that would have been “very lucrative, financially,” he recognized that he was in the right place at the right time. “The grass isn’t always greener on the other side,” he said. “The relationships you form, the people you work with, the environment that you create—I think that supersedes certain things … I’d much rather wait and grow within the company, and the financial gain will follow rather than going to a new company just for that lucrative aspect, and then finding out six months down the road that this is a terrible environment. That’s very important, at least for me.”

Reggie Kumar’s…

Greatest Challenge

“The biggest challenge would be our ‘current’ state related to COVID-19 and how dramatically it has impacted our industry.”

Solution

“I have made a point to remain steadfast and consistent in our day-to-day approach. It’s important to ensure our team delivers results and neither doubt nor fear enters the mind despite so many challenges that are affecting our business every day. I’d be lying to you to say I didn’t have doubts, but the most important thing for me has been to channel that within and fight through it. Employees look for leaders to make sure they lead in time of crisis.”

Advice for GMs:

“Focus on building strong relationships [that] will help set the foundation of a strong work culture,” Kumar said. “Our industry has changed in many facets over the years; however, the core value of what our industry is about will never change, which is about people.” This involves listening more than talking, taking action and inspiring a team through a strong work ethic rather than speech predicated on bravado, he added.

Secrets to Success

Commit: “The person who is most committed to his or her craft will always succeed and overcome any obstacle, but one must be truly all in.”

Act like you own the place: “One must operate with ‘entrepreneurial ownership,’ hence whatever you are doing or chasing, you do with the same vigor and passion that resonates with your personal ambition and drive in life.”

Love what you do: “You have to truly love what you do because it will be evident both to yourself and your colleagues through your actions.”

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Transferring On | Arts and Tradition | Model Weekly

Daily SF News — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 08:50:15 +0000

Dominic Willsdon announced on Wednesday that he is stepping down from his position as executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“I have accepted a position as executive director of an international film organization based in Los Angeles,” the art curator and educator revealed in a letter emailed to supporters. The details of that new position will be revealed on Dec. 4, he added. He will remain at the ICA until January.

Willsdon, a native of the United Kingdom who received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Essex, assumed his role at the modern art museum, as well as his position as associate professor of art history at the university, in late 2018. He had formerly been curator of education and public practice at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and, among other positions, served as curator of public programs at the Tate Modern from 2000-2005.

“Over its first five years, the ICA has become a portal to a world of new art and ideas for a diverse, rising generation of Richmonders and VCU students,” he wrote in his letter. “It is hard to leave the ICA and Richmond at this time. I have learned more about culture and society over these five years than at any equivalent period of my life. This experience has shaped me deeply.”

Willsdon took the helm from interim ICA director Joe Seipel, VCU School of the Arts’ dean emeritus, after original founding ICA director Lisa Freiman stepped down three months before the museum’s April 2018 opening. During his five-year tenure, Willsdon oversaw a heady, challenging mix of modern art, particularly from African and Latin American artists.

Under his leadership, the Institute was named one of the top 10 new museums in America by USA Today, and The New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine and ArtNet, among others, praised its often edgy exhibits and installations. In June, Willsdon announced that the ICA would bestow an annual $40,000 arts award starting next year, the Common Prize for Art and Education, made possible by a $500,000 gift from Richmond arts supporter Pamela Kiecker Royall.

“VCUarts is beginning the process of identifying an interim executive director and will announce that appointment in the coming weeks,” says Michael R. Porter, associate vice president for public relations at VCU. “The school will also be conducting an international search for the next permanent executive director.”

Willsdon did not respond to inquiries for further comment.

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San Francisco Aspires To Construct a Middle of Asian American Tradition

Daily SF News — Thu, 24 Aug 2023 16:07:44 +0000

In the next few years, San Francisco’s Chinatown may see the construction of a brand-new landmark called Edge on the Square, a center for Asian American arts and culture.

The ambitious plan, with a price tag of $40 million, started back in 2019 as a coalition of community-based nonprofits who envision a massive new home tasked with uplifting Asian American storytelling.

At the corner of Clay Street and Grant Avenue, the future cultural center takes its name from Portsmouth Square, known as Chinatown’s “living room” of Chinatown.

Now, the project is moving full speed ahead as the money is pouring in. It has officially named a new executive director, Joanne Lee, a long-time staffer at the Chinatown Community Development Center who later worked for the San Francisco Arts Commission.

Joanne Lee speaks during her announcement as the new Executive Director of Edge on the Square on Aug. 17, 2023. | Source: Jeremy Chen/The Standard

Even though Lee only started the job in August and the project is still in its infancy, she already has a big vision.

“I’m continuing to develop the programs for Edge on the Square engaging the public,” Lee said, “to both build our brand and our visibility to attract visitors and residents, and to be an economic catalyst for Chinatown.”

Next month, Edge on the Square will host its second annual contemporary art festival in Chinatown. A year ago, it drew 4,000 people to Chinatown, according to Lee.

Where Is the Money From?

The $40 million project has largely been supported by the government, in particular some $26.5 million in pandemic-era funding from Sacramento. The federal government and the city also chipped in about $2.5 million and $1 million each.

Phil Ting, the Chinese American assemblyman who spearheaded the funding from the state, said this project is the first community hub of its kind that will make social changes through the arts.

“Edge on the Square is ideally positioned to be a nexus of creative energy and racial justice,” Ting said. “I’m excited to see it bring this community together.”

Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco congresswoman and former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, has also aided the project.

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi speaks during the announcement of the new Executive Director of Edge on the Square, on Aug. 17, 2023. | Source: Jeremy Chen/The Standard

“I have so much respect for the approach that you have taken,” Pelosi said in a celebration event at the site of Edge on the Square. “Arts do bring people together. We forget our differences, and we laugh, inspire, cry together.”

Lee said now she will focus more on foundations, philanthropists and individual donors as new sources of funding to get the additional $10 million. The building site at 800 Clay St. was purchased in 2021 for an undisclosed amount.

Imagining a Landmark

In imagining the building, Lee said there will be museum-like spaces to showcase artwork, rooms for community engagement programming, an advanced theater with interactive technology for live performances and office space for staff.

It’s a grand ambition, one full of possibilities and unknowns alike, she said. In her philosophy, the building is to serve the community, so the organization has to figure out what the community wants first.

The current Edge on the Square will be demolished to make way for the new building. | Source: Jeremy Chen/The Standard

“Programs and services lead the design, right?” Lee said. “Not the other way around.”

Lee admits that the outreach effort may be challenging in Chinatown, as traditionally, cultural facilities are not always welcomed by low-income families, immigrants and people of color “who may not have grown up going to museums.”

To that end, Edge on the Square has already hired an architecture firm and will soon start working with a general contractor.

Talking about the timeline, Lee said that a grand opening within five years is a realistic assessment.

“I do hope that we are open by then,” she said, “and hopefully less than that.”

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Paramore singer calls out incel tradition at San Francisco live performance

Daily SF News — Tue, 08 Aug 2023 23:33:46 +0000

Steph Curry appears alongside the band Paramore at Chase Center in San Francisco on Aug. 7, 2023.

Skyler Greene

Moments before San Francisco Paramore fans could go wild to the mania-inducing bridge of the band’s 2007 hit “Misery Business,” Paramore abruptly stopped the song.

Casually jogging out onto the stage wearing a Paramore tour shirt and black denim vest covered in patches, Curry was visibly beaming as he approached each band member with an “I’m not worthy”-style, double-raised-hand bow motion before turning his attention to the ovation of a stunned audience for the rest of “Misery Business.”