'99 Entrepreneurs

-Michelle Sweetser, Dartmouth College Alma Matters Magazine

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In 2001, Brandon Garcia started the Pickle Company, a 14,000 square-foot multi-disciplinary arts center in Salt Lake City, UT. He had just moved from San Francisco, where he worked for Intersection for the Arts (www.theintersection.org), San Francisco's oldest alternative arts space.

"Intersection really opened my eyes to the power that art has to affect change in a community.” Brandon wrote. “I worked intimately with some of the most well-known artist/activists of our time: people like Alice Walker, June Jordan, and bell hooks. Actually getting to know them as real people—to understand why they did what they did—definitely shaped my idea of what’s important.”

After moving to Salt Lake City, Brandon met his partner Kristina Robb, a doctoral student in human behavioral ecology at the University of Utah who was looking to apply her work in the public sphere. "We realized quickly that we shared a vision of using art as a tool for bringing people together and sparking dialogue about the critical issues affecting our community," Brandon wrote.

Within two months, they had purchased a building (a pickle factory built in the 1890s) and founded a non-profit organization to administer and support the space. Initially focused on performances and gallery exhibits, the Pickle Company now also provides exhibition space, technical support, administrative assistance, and financial counseling to a growing list of emerging artists and social service organizations.

"We are constantly trying to figure out new, concrete ways to help our community. Art can get so removed from the world around it, but that's not where its true potential lies. We're trying to use art to inspire people to continually challenge their world views, take an active role in shaping their lives, and to form real connections with each other," Brandon writes.

The Pickle Company is also developing an Artist-in-Residence program designed to support local artists in experimenting, taking risks, and ultimately seeing how far they can take their work.

"One of the mistakes I made early on was trying to impose what I had learned in San Francisco onto Salt Lake, rather than listening to the needs of the people here." wrote Brandon. "The Residency program is driven entirely by what our residents need, and what they want to share with the community. It's actually turning out to be our most successful program."