Creativity Explored, a nonprofit studio in San Francisco that partners with artists with developmental disabilities, recently unveiled its latest exhibit, The Record Store. The Record Store brings together work from more than 25 Creativity Explored artists, transforming their gallery into a record shop that features artists’ renditions of album covers, tour posters, portraits of musicians, and merchandise.

BFF.fm is teaming up with Creativity Explored for a special event at the exhibition this Friday: The Record Store Night! BFF.fm DJs Lead Teddy of Yours, Teddy and Lonald J. Bandz of Talk & Noise at Night will be spinning, and attendees are invited to bring records or CDs to swap, as well as something to screenprint. Stop by the Creativity Explored gallery (3245 16th St, SF) for this free event from 5-8pm on Friday, April 5! Details and RSVP here.

In anticipation of Friday’s happening, Lead Teddy interviewed the exhibit’s curators and Creativity Explored (CE) care companions Kate Hope and Eliot Rattle on Yours, Teddy this week.

“Music is such a big part of our studio life,” Kate shared. “Artists have their headphones on listening to music, or people create playlists to listen out loud and share each other's favorites. This project really gave us a chance to reminisce about album covers we hadn't seen in a very long time.”

The show was originally inspired by a commission Kate requested from one of CE’s artists, Laron Bickerstaff, for some artwork for her home: a David Bowie album cover. “The finished piece was just amazing,” she said. Soon, Eliot was commissioning a D’Angelo album cover from Laron, too, and inspiration for the show struck.

Creativity Explored artist Laron Bickerstaff shares an album cover he created.

“There is something about the album cover format,” Eliot said. “Wrapping them in cellophane, adding parental advisory stickers that were made by artists, being able to flip through them in the bins…I think a lot of the artists felt it was very satisfying for them to be able to see [their art] in that format.”

Can you share a particular artwork from the show that sticks with you?

Eliot: We have two unique Madvillain album covers. They’re the same album, done by different artists. Seeing how vastly different they can be and how much of their own charm the artists have put into it..that felt special to me because it was the exact same image but couldn't be more different. And I love them both.

Kate: We have some Donald Gruneisen pieces [in the show]. He has such a sense of style with color, very unique. He did the George Harrison and some of the Beatles members, and he can spend weeks on a piece. He has so much patience. He really examines and looks at each color. He likes to know the name and the number of the color and relate it to the piece that he's making. He also presses so hard on the pencil that it creates this beautiful shine on the piece. Any of his pieces are always so breathtaking to me; to know how much effort and energy he puts into it and how much thought goes into every aspect of it.

Can you tell us a little bit about what the exhibition looks like?

Eliot: There's a few different sections. It starts off with a Jesus Huezo section, who is an amazing artist here, with a Cher and a Cardi B. staring right at you first thing, then it moves on to this larger wall with a lot of Beatles pieces. There’s a recreation of a Kiss tour poster. There was a lot of interest in KISS, something about the theatrics of it. There’s a little jazz area with a Miles Davis piece, a beautiful one by Gerald Wiggins, and then it starts to get into the covers, starting off with CD covers. These are smaller format, CD-sized covers on the wall. Below them is a CD rack where there's, I think, 50 CDs fitted with original art that you can actually take out and open up. Those include a little taste of music that some of the artists have made, too.

Creativity Explored artist Kevin Cordoba creates a piece for The Record Store.

Aside from the event this Friday, what else is happening between now and when the show closes on June 1?

Kate: We're always open to the public for the gallery from 3-6pm on Thursdays and Fridays. But also on Saturdays from 12-5pm and on that day, we also have Imaginate Saturdays from 12-3pm that we really encourage the public to come along to. It's a free weekly program where the public are invited to come to the studio and just make artwork with artists and socialize. It's a great space to just be creative and have a bit of fun.

Any other parting thoughts about this show or the artwork in particular?

Eliot: We're just so thankful to be able to work with these artists on what music means to them. We feel closer to the artists after something like this; there's something about music–about talking about your favorite musicians, talking about your favorite albums–that brings you closer. It's kind of a bridge.

The Record Store Night is this Friday, April 5, from 5-8pm. Listen to the interview in full to learn more about the inspiration for the show, what a Creativity Explored care companion does, and what a typical day in the studio looks like. The Record Store runs through June 1.