There’s a new social group in town that welcomes people to cast aside perfectionism and go with the flow. It’s the Bad Art Club, where everyone’s an artist and an unanticipated outcome is more than fine.
“I show up to these spaces not knowing what’s going to happen at all. Having a really loose structure leaves so much space open for what’s meant to unfold,” says Jules Costa, founder of Bad Art Club.
The club, which started in July 2024, meets every third Monday at 6 p.m. at The Faight Collective in the Lower Haight. And starting in September, Bad Art Club also will meet on the first Monday of the month.
“The vibration that Bad Art Club is bringing to the community is also the same vibration that it’s being created with — lots of spaciousness, lots of permission, and a lot of trying things on and taking things off,” she says.
Costa, who lives in San Francisco, had been craving a means to be with other people sans technology and in a connective, pressure-free way—void of inhibitions. She was also on her own artistic journey, recognizing and embracing her creativity.
“The idea of Bad Art Club came to me because I was going through this personal revolution where I had tapped into my own artmaking, and it was because I gave myself permission to make really sh—y art,” she says.
The potent mix of joy and freedom that followed was a game-changer.
“I had this realization, like, ‘Wow, the only difference between me and an artist is that they’re willing to make bad art,’ whereas I was really confined in the perfectionist mindframe,” she says.
At its initial meeting, signs that Costa was onto something abounded. About 50 people showed up, of all ages, genders and backgrounds. Excitement overflowed in the packed room.
“Most of them identified with being bad at art, so they were like, ‘Oh, Bad Art Club? That’s for me,’” she says.
Some people at the inaugural event were artists stuck in the rigidity of their medium and practice. Mingling with the group offered a release valve to get their creative juices flowing again,
“That first event was the most fun experience — maybe of my life — and I left feeling, as a facilitator, really energized. I was like, ‘I think I’m on the pulse here. I want to do this,’” she says.
Meetings, which Costa assigns fun titles, center on a particular media. There have been an acrylics session (“F—king Around with Paint on Canvas”); an ode to collage (“Tearing S— Up and Sticking It Down”); and paint brush-free watercolor (“Watercolors Gone Wild”).
Upcoming get-togethers dive into mixed media (“Messing Up Mixed Media” on Aug. 18) and poetry (“Scribbling Nonsense and Calling It Poetry” on Sept. 15).
Costa relies on art supplies from online resources such as Buy Nothing and SCRAP and neighbors and friends. Using recycled, donated materials has its benefits: “It strips away this whole mental block around supplies being precious or scarce, and so we get to just play with excess,” she says.
Costa invites participants let go of restrictions they impose on themselves, forgoing, say, delicate brush strokes of a predetermined shape and instead squeezing an entire tube of paint onto a canvas.
However, attendees in driver’s seats determine their own Bad Art Club experiences.
“As a facilitator, I get to lean back and just be a part of the group, because it really carries itself when people have that level of permission to take care of their own experience. I even say at the beginning, ‘If you don’t want to do any of this, then don’t do any of it. Sit back and watch it all happen. And if at any point you decide you want to leave, [then] leave and say goodbye, and we’ll all celebrate that, because the whole point is to do what feels good,’” she says.
The club had its first annual camp this summer in Sea Ranch. Costa plans to carry on the retreat tradition next year. More events in other places are also offered, including an “I’m Not So Photogenic” photo shoot on Sept. 22 at Velvett Studios in Oakland and pop-ups at neighborhood block parties.
She also hopes to bring ‘Bad Art’ to a few San Francisco senior centers.
Regardless of the location, the focus on coming together to create, explore, learn and connect remains unchanged.
“If we step back and look at the making of the art itself, that is the art. That’s the collective performance art that’s unfolding before all of our eyes and really touching us and moving us,” she says.
“Yes, we’re just making s—-y art together, but the impact happens to be pretty profound,” she adds.
“Messing Up with Mixed Media” is at 6:15 p.m. Aug. 18 at The Faight Collective, 473A Haight St., San Francisco. Tickets range from $21-$53 at eventbrite.com. Visit thebadart.club for a list of upcoming events.
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