San Francisco

Art

AIDS Memorial Quilt Volunteers Repurpose Fabric to Sew Masks for Essential Workers

Gert McMullin, one of the founders of the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, has been using fabric from the historic quilt to create protective masks for essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Art

As San Francisco Art Institute Faces Potential Closure, Its MFA Show Might Be Its Last

Coverage of SFAI’s graduating class is part of a series on virtual MFA presentations across the country.

Art

At This Museum, Education Staff Prove More Vital Than Ever During Pandemic

While museums across the country have chosen to lay off or furlough educators, at the Asian Art Museum the education department is busily at work.

Books

Ruth Asawa’s Life and Legacy, in Both Art and Education

Marilyn Chase’s new biography sheds light on Asawa’s contributions to San Francisco’s public schools and its artistic community at large.

News

Furloughed SFMOMA Staff Ask Director to Draw Salary of Zero to Retain Workers

The museum received a $6.2 million federal loan, lifting its staff furlough through June 30, but the petition’s authors emphasize that management has not yet addressed demands to support staff long-term.

Announcement

YBCA Presents Come to Your Census: Who Counts in America?

Join the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts online as they develop programming committed to offering the Bay Area inspiration and hope around the 2020 US Census.

Film

Quintessential Movies About California, From Its Paradises to Its Paradoxes

This week, we have a roundup of great movies made in, set in, and/or otherwise about California, the home of the American film industry.

News

Renowned San Francisco Art Institute Is Closing Due to Rocky Finances

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, students learned that the institution does not plan to reopen in the fall.

Art

Four Decades of Dawoud Bey

Bey does not simply document Black life, but Black existence in a nation-state built upon the creation and maintenance of our subjugation.

News

In San Francisco, a Panel Defends Controversial WPA Mural at George Washington High School

On Washington’s birthday, artists, community and Native American leaders, curators, and more talked about why Victor Arnautoff’s “Life of Washington” murals should remain.

Art

Mike Henderson, a Bay Area Pioneer, on His Evolution Through Abstraction

The painter and musician moved West in 1965 to attend the San Francisco Art Institute — the only desegregated art institute at the time. Currently featured in the traveling Soul of a Nation, he continues to make ambitious work.

Art

Gloriously Defiant Expressions of Cultures Perceived as Threatening to the West

At Southern Exposure in San Francisco, South Asian, Southwest Asian, and North African artists evoke the challenges they face in celebrating their cultural origins.