Meet Leah Brenner Clack of Street Wise Arts in Boulder

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leah Brenner Clack.

Leah, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in the 80’s in southern California in the suburbs in Orange County. My mom was a single Mom who put herself through college at night while also working full time. She showed us unconditional love and how to be independent and work hard toward your goals. For a while we lived with my Grandparents until my Mom got on her feet. My grandmother was a big inspiration to me growing up. She was a craftswoman, always sewing us clothes, making quilts, making replica cabbage patch kids, porcelain dolls and teddy bears for all of the grandkids. She was an avid gardener, birder and horsewoman. My Grandfather was a hard worker, he listened to jazz records and taught us about recycling by making us stack newspapers in paper bags to exchange for coins which he gave us for spending money. My big sister JoAnne was and still is my best friend, who I still look up to and is always an inspiration to me.

In 1991, we moved to Colorado Springs. I hated high school. I was really into music and art but didn’t pursue them from an education standpoint. It was the early 90’s and it was an exciting time for hip hop, new wave and grunge. My friends were skaters, goths, hippies, – really anyone doing something different and interesting. Embedded in our culture was art- skate graphics, band posters, zines, graffiti. We hung out at skate parks and downtown, sometimes getting into trouble but also having a lot of fun. We had a lot of freedom. Fun and freedom as a teen can be a slippery slope. I started to see friends struggle with drugs and alcohol and felt I was also on a very slippery slope. I realized if I wanted out of the Springs, which I definitely did, I needed to get my act together. I applied to CU Boulder where my sister was but didn’t get in. I ended up with a decent financial aid package to University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) so I took my first semester there and then transferred to CU Boulder. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I “grew up” so I did a lot of exploring, changing majors a few times. Eventually I decided on Anthropology after bouncing around different arts and science majors, taking classes in film, art, sociology, philosophy and religion. In college I discovered snowboarding. Snowboarding represented freedom to me- freedom to go fast, take risks, be creative and just have fun. After graduating, I moved to Bellingham, Washington to chase more snowboarding at the famous Mt. Baker where I lived for just over a year. But soon enough I moved back to Boulder- realizing how much I did really love it here.

For the next ten years I worked in various industries- grocery stores, office work, real estate, snowboarding and eventually landed in the art sector, which finally felt like home. In 2011 two opportunities opened up for me in the arts almost simultaneously. An artist friend in Denver opened a gallery and asked me to curate and manage it- Knew Conscious Gallery, which I did for a little over a year and a half. I dove head first into curating exhibitions, opening receptions and marketing and I got to work with some really interesting artists in the psychedelic and visionary arts. I taught myself everything, reaching out to friends in the industry with questions and reading as much as I could, but mostly just following intuition. The other opportunity was the launch of a new creative retail store and gallery in Boulder called madelife, by the owners of the company I was doing office management for. I began curating the art exhibitions and locally made small goods for the new store while still working in the office for their sister company AIM house. After less than a year I moved into managing and curating madelife full time. I was given a lot of creative freedom and was able to get pretty edgy with the art exhibitions to a point. People in Boulder don’t really buy art though, so I felt a sense of disappointment every time a show closed and we maybe sold a painting or two or maybe none at all.

One aspect of madelife that had the biggest impact for me and for the community turned out to be the mural wall we had on Pearl Street. There, I curated and installed five murals with five artists in five years and it became one of the first walls with rotating street art in Boulder. I realized that there was a need and opportunity to advocate for more public art in Boulder and get more artists the opportunities to create murals here. So, after five years working at madelife I wanted to venture out on my own. In 2016 I launched my own business centered around public art and murals called And Art Space, “AND” represents the connection between Art and Community. I also got back into real estate and I started my own independent real estate company, House Plant. Later that year I co-founded a neighborhood arts collective, called Arts Martin Acres, inspired by my participation in the Colorado Change Leader Institute through Colorado Creative Industries. 2016 was a big year for me- I also got married to my longtime partner who is my biggest supporter in everything I do.

Over the next few years, I kept working on mural projects and got deeper into community projects and felt very passionate about incorporating more social justice and community into what I was doing. in 2019, prompted by a call for exhibitions at the library and my desire to integrate social activism and art, I applied for and won an exhibition that I titled “Street Wise” featuring art responding to social justice issues. From there I expanded the concept and created Street Wise Boulder- a mural festival bringing together Art & Activism in September of 2019. Street Wise included ten murals around Boulder with 15 artists, an exhibit at the Boulder Public Library and a handful of pop up events and workshops occurring over the last several months of 2019.

In February of this year I took all of this work and formed a nonprofit organization called Street Wise Arts, and we are now an official 501c3 nonprofit charity organization. Along with my amazing Board of Directors and advisory board we’re currently working on Street Wise Boulder 2020, our annual mural festival for social activism. It could not be a more important time to connect with and amplify the voices of underrepresented artists and social justice issues like Black Lives Matter and public health, among many other topics.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Nothing good is ever easy right? Finding your path in life looks different for everyone. It took me a long time to figure out that a career didn’t have to be this is predetermined path you figured out in high school or college, which is what I thought. I really just wanted to live my life in a fulfilling way. I have never been a traditional person and for awhile I felt like my personal interests and professional paths didn’t really match up- until I found the arts. For me that just took a little longer in life to find.

Launching your own business is hard. I definitely struggled when first launching And Art Space. The walls were very hard to come by and so was funding and client buy in. Slowly one project at a time I gained more legitimacy and visual presence in Boulder for murals. It’s also really scary to leave a full-time paying job to jump into self-employment with no idea if you’re actually going to be able to make it. This was one of the hardest things, but once I committed to it, there was no looking back.

Street Wise Arts – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Street Wise Arts’ mission is to vision, advocate and implement community art, mural projects and art education programs in order to build community, amplify cultural diversity and engage in social advocacy and dialogue. Our core values are advocating for artist equity and inclusion, promoting cross sector collaborations and contributing to a rich cultural landscape. We produce an annual mural festival for Social Activism called Street Wise Boulder. This year’s festival is September 7th -13th in Boulder, CO.

Our “art on the streets” program is on hold because of Covid-19 but we hope to continue that when it’s safe. “Art On The Streets” is a program designed for students to connect and learn from professional local street artists and muralists. Students explore art techniques, current social justice issues and learn how to use street art as a platform while building community, collaboration and mutual respect.

Arts Martin Acres is grassroots, neighborhood collective effort to bring more art to our neighborhood, Martin Acres. So far, we’ve produced two murals on Bear Creek Path, installed a couple small mini sculptures, supported a story telling photo mural project about local women, and last year SoBo Arts Fest, a music art and art car party in the park.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success to me, means being able to do what I love and feel like I’m contributing and making a difference in the world. I think it’s important to trust yourself and follow your intuition. I also think that success comes when you open up to collaborations and work with others who are in alignment with you, and not try to do everything yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.streetwiseboulder.com www.streetwisearts.org
• Phone: 720-352-8194
• Email: hello@streetwisearts.org
• Instagram: @streetwiseboulder @streetwisearts
• Facebook: @streetwiseboulder @streetwisearts

Image Credit:
Lauren Click, Cori Anderson, Shanna Maxcy, Paula Gillen

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