Dec 6, 2019 3 min read

‘Energy Resonates Throughout’: A Q&A with Youth Art Exchange’s Departing Leader Reed Davaz McGowan

Reed Davaz McGowan
Reed Davaz McGowan, second from left, is leaving Youth Art Exchange after six years. Mayor London Breed visited YAX’s [x]change in the Excelsior.

A Q&A with Youth Art Exchange Executive Director Reed Davaz McGowan, who is departing the Ingleside-based organization after more than six years.

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After more than six years, Reed Davaz McGowan, executive director of Ingleside-based Youth Art Exchange, will leave the organization. She set up an arts gallery in an Excelsior storefront and an arts program at San Francisco’s Boys & Girls Clubs while doubling YAX’s capacity to serve high quality arts courses to name a few achievements. What follows is a lightly edited Q. and A.

Where and why are you going?

I am moving to Eugene, Ore. to be closer to my family. I grew up there and know it’s a fantastic place for my husband and I to raise our little one. My husband is a chef and was offered a great position in Eugene and we decided to take the leap back up north.

The Bay Area is where I would love to live forever, but the cost of living is so high and my commute seemed to be getting longer by the minute. With an eviction from my home in Oakland last year, we moved further out to the edge of East Oakland and I was spending more time with my carpoolers each day than my family! Something had to change.

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