Capp Street Project was established as an experimental art space in 1983 in San Francisco, California and was the first visual arts residency in the United States dedicated solely to the creation and presentation of new art installations.
The project was created by Ann Hatch who acquired a David Ireland designed house at 65 Capp Street in San Francisco. Although her original intention was to preserve the house as a work of art, a personal inquiry concerning patronage and the desire to nurture non-traditional art making processes, ultimately led in another direction. The artist-in-residency program was created and became central to Capp Street Project. Capp Street Project became part of the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts which is in turn part of the California College of the Arts in 1998 and is currently run by Jens Hoffmann, the Director of the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. Since its inception, Capp Street Project has given more than 100 local, national, and international artists the opportunity to create new work through its residency and public exhibition programs.
Glen Seator, 1997. Seator's Approach was a full-scale indoor re-creation of the street and sidewalk outside Capp Street Project and of the street-facing facade of the gallery's first floor. Writing in the summer 1997 issue of ArtNews, critic Kenneth Baker called Seator's installation "one of the great gallery shows in this city's history." Seator's large-scale architectural installations have won international acclaim.
Ann Hamilton, 1989. In Privation and Excesses, Hamilton used 700,000 pennies, among other materials, to create a poetic exploration of systems and mediums of exchange. The installation was featured on the cover of Artforum, a career-making event for the artist.
Bill Viola, 1989. Viola's installation Sanctuary combined video, earth, and redwood trees to create an urban refuge. A renowned video artist, Viola was also awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 1989.
Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, 1987. In the withDrawing Room: versions and subversions, the collaborators—who also have an architectural practice—explored themes of domesticity, architecture, the home, and the body of the imagined resident of the installation.
Alavi, Seyed Amacher, Maryanne Andrews, Larry Antoni, Janine The Art Guys Beck, Jerry Bolton, Richard Border Art Workshop Byars, James Lee Campbell, Jim Cardoso, Maria Fernanda Catalusci, Robert Cathcart, James Charlesworth, Bruce Cheang, Shu Lea Cheng, Carl Chiarenza, Marie Antoinette Chin, Mel Cole, Willie Collins, Timothy Diller, Elizabeth Ericson, Kate Fantauzzi, Frank Fox, Terry Goode, Joe Goto, Reicho Greengold, Jane Haha Haigood, Joanna Hamilton, Ann Hatoum, Mona Hauser, Daniel Hill, Gary Hoberman, Perry Howard, Mildred Jones, Bob Kabakov, Ilya Kang, Ik Joong Kasten, Barbara Kos, Paul Labat, Tony Lacy, Suzanne Lipski, Donald Liu, Hung Logue, Joan Lucier, Mary Marioni, Tom Martin, Howard Maxwell, William Jackson May, Tony Meireles, Cildo Munoz, Celia Alvarez Navarre, Marie Phillips, Liz Ping, Huang Yong Reeves, Daniel Sarkis Scofidio, Ricardo Seator, Glen Simkin, Phil Simpson, Buster Smith, Barbara T Stone, George Sun, May Taho, Ritsuko Templeton, Fiona Torres, Francesc Turrell, James Van Elslander, Terence Viola, Bill Von Rydingsvard, Ursula Wight, Gail Wilson, Fred Yanagi, Yukinori Ziegler, Mel