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They’re a team in life, art and com­mu­nity build­ing.  Tom Franco and Julia Lazar are the co-directors and force behind the Fire­house Col­lab­o­ra­tive, a Berke­ley, Calif., non-profit that pro­vides space for local artists to live, work, sell, per­form and celebrate.

Franco, the mid­dle son of three from a highly cre­ative fam­ily (his broth­ers James and David are Hol­ly­wood actors, his mother is a writer and his father was an artist), is a sculp­tor who works with found objects.  Lazar, a for­mer chef from Aus­tria, is the food, design and visual cre­ator behind the col­lab­o­ra­tive, which will soon mar­ket a line of her custom-brewed kom­bucha, an effer­ves­cent fer­mented bev­er­age known for its health benefits.

Cur­rently, the Fire­house Col­lab­o­ra­tive oper­ates six loca­tions in the San Fran­cisco Bay Area that include three gal­leries, three micro store­fronts and a bazaar, four groups of stu­dio space, and two groups of shared apart­ments.  Add to that mix paint­ing and draw­ing groups, an edi­ble gar­den, a print shop, ceramic stu­dio, record­ing stu­dios, glass shop and wood shop plus social events and per­for­mance space for rent.

In terms of sculp­ture, Franco, a grad­u­ate of Cal­i­for­nia Col­lege of the Arts in Oak­land, Calif., col­lects every­day, dis­carded objects and then applies glue and brightly col­ored house paint, deliv­er­ing his mes­sage about the detri­tus of con­sumer cul­ture in which we’re all steeped.  He says his pri­mary art influ­ences are sculp­tors William D. Iac­ulla and Nancy Graves.

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