San Francisco Arts Commission

SFAC: 2009 District Based Report
Find out what SFAC has been up to in your neighborhood in the past 12 months. See more...

CAE: Deep Roots Podcast
The Community Arts and Education (CAE) Program announces the launch of Deep Roots, a new podcast dedicated to showcasing CAE-supported cultural work throughout the City. The podcast's name, Deep Roots, honors the philosophy of the early Neighborhood Arts Program and also the way that today's CAE program continues the legacy of taking art to where people live and work. The first episode will take listeners on a behind-the-scenes tour of WritersCorps and the LightHouse for the Blind's Insights exhibition. Subscribe to the podcast or listen online.

SFAC Debuts a New Episode of Culture Wire!

Culture Wire: Present Tense, Yerba Buena Festival, Trace Elements from San Francisco Arts Commission on Vimeo.

CAE: Where Art Lives
Our Arts Education Program has developed Where Art Lives, curriculum to educate 4th to 6th graders about graffiti vandalism. Through a partnership with the Department of Public Works and the San Francisco Unified School District, this curriculum will be implemented in four public school sites in San Francisco.

SFAC: Conference on Graffiti
The San Francisco Arts Commission is joining forces with the Graffiti Advisory Board and the Department of Public Works to help stem the spread of graffiti and alleviate its strain on City resources. To learn more about new anti-graffiti measures visit www.zerograffitisf.org and join us at the Anti-Graffiti Super Huddle on Thursday, April 23.

APRIL NEWSLETTER: Arts Advocacy Day and "Spiraling Echoes" Extended
Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, was just last week and I joined a delegation of 28 individuals from throughout California in the nation's capital. We were brought together by Brad Erickson (of Theatre Bay Area), our state captain for Americans for the Arts, for the purpose of urging our federal representatives to increase and continue federal support for the arts. See more...

CAE: Neighborhood Festival Grant accepting Applications
The San Francisco Arts Commission's Neighborhood Festival grant supports neighborhood festivals where art and culture are the main components for strengthening neighborhood ties.
Request: Up to $3,000
Deadline: Monday, April 27 by 5:00 p.m.
Download: Word document of the guidelines and application

SFAC: Creative Capacity Fund
The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) and Grants for the Arts (GFTA) announce the launch of the Creative Capacity Fund today—the first joint initiative of City’s two arts agencies working in partnership with the Center for Cultural Innovation, a nonprofit training and financial services incubator working in California for artists and the arts field.  The Creative Capacity Fund (CCF) is a field-building initiative designed to support professional development and peer learning opportunities for San Francisco artists and arts administrators. See the press release or go to the Creative Capacity Fund website.

SFAC: Arts and the Economic Downturn
On January 12th, over 300 individuals met at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for a timely and critical discussion on the economic recession and its impact on the arts community in San Francisco. The event was intended as the first step in a multiple-objective process linking local government, the philanthropic community, businesses, and the general public. The goal of these organizations' collaborative actions is to ensure that the Bay Area’s cultural community survives the current serious economic crisis. See more...

PUBLIC ART: RFQ - Temporary Projects for 2009/2010
The Art on Market Street Temporary Projects Program is seeking applications from professional artists working in a variety of media, including performance, dance and visual arts, who have documented experience in creating multi-disciplinary, multi-layered projects appropriate for a broad public audience. See more...

PUBLIC ART: Patrick Dougherty Willow Sculpture in Civic Center
Luis R. Cancel, Director of Cultural Affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission, is pleased to announce the completion of a new environmental artwork by acclaimed artist Patrick Dougherty. The Upper Crust consists of a series of conical forms comprised of 18,000 pounds of freshly cut willow saplings interwoven into the tops of the sycamore trees located on the south-end of Joseph L. Alioto Performing Arts Piazza, across from San Francisco’s City Hall. On view through November 2009, the sculpture will continue to evolve in appearance with the seasons as the trees begin to bear leaves in the spring and as the foliage changes color and falls in autumn. See more...

COMMUNITY ARTS AND EDUCATION: PIC Grant Application Available
The grant for Programs in the Community supports nonprofit, non-arts organizations that use the arts to better serve their constituents. The program must have a public component. (Maximum request: $20,000 Programs in the Community Grant Deadline: March 20, 2009 Download the guidelines and application or see more about CAE grants.

GALLERY: Bill Fontana - Spiraling Echoes EXTENDED!
The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery is pleased to announce an expansion of the Art at City Hall program, with a new exhibition project featuring internationally renowned artists commissioned to create site-specific installations that interact with the architecture of San Francisco’s historic City Hall. Spiraling Echoes, by San Francisco-based sound artist Bill Fontana reflects the San Francisco Arts Commission’s commitment to presenting visual arts projects that highlight our regional diversity and position Bay Area visual art production within an international contemporary art landscape. See more...

 

ARTS EDUCATION: Online Professional Development Handbook
The San Francisco Arts Commission is proud to announce the launch of Designing the Arts Learning Community: a Handbook for K-12 Professional Development Planners. The handbook represents a move away from the one-day workshop or summer course to a systemic, ongoing collaborative approach that yields powerful results for students’ learning in the arts. It demonstrates how to establish, grow and sustain a learning community that comes together to improve arts instruction. The online, interactive tool can be found at http://handbook.laartsed.org.

WritersCorps: New Book "Tell the World"
“Tell the World” is a collection of writing by WritersCorps students across the country. With a range of voices and diverse perspectives, “Tell the World” gives an honest glimpse into the lives of young people today. With a foreword by award-winning author Sherman Alexie, two essays by WritersCorps teachers, and writing prompts, this book shows how poetry can allow us to tell the world who we are, where we’re from, what we love, and why we hope See more...

SFAC Brings Peace in the New Year
Big Peace IV, a temporary sculptural installation by San Francisco artist Tony Labat is on view at Patricia’s Green on Octavia Boulevard in Hayes Valley from December 29, 2008 through June 2009. See more...

 

PUBLIC ART: New Art Installation featured on SPARK*
The current episode of SPARK will feature the San Francisco Arts Commission's project with artist Maya Lin at the new California Academy of Sciences. Watch the segment here.

SFAC: Save Arts Funding!
During a tight budget year, the Arts Commission, Artists, community organizations and Supervisor Tom Ammiano are working together to secure funding for the Arts. At the May 1st Board of Supervisors Rules Committee meeting, many artists and arts supporters stood up to testify to the importance of SFAC programs to support access and equity to San Francisco the arts community. See the full meeting here...
Luis Cancel speaks 1 hour 24 minutes into the meeting and Public Comment begins 1 hour 41 minutes into the meeting.

Luis R. Cancel, Director of Cultural Affairs
On January  14, 2008, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the appointment, following the unanimous vote of the Arts Commission. See more...