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Nearly as fascinating as the stunning 70-foot mural with historical Bay Area ties is the painstaking process of dismantling and moving it across town for display at SFMOMA. The four-year undertaking involved mechanical engineers, architects, art historians, fresco experts, art handlers and riggers from the US and Mexico working in concert.

In partnership with the San Francisco Symphony, SFJAZZ, and other community organizations, Stanford Live will be host a six-week series of live performances beginning July 1. Click below for tickets:

As San Francisco reopens, the City’s Museums for All summer program is now open year-round, providing eligible residents free or reduced admission to local museums and cultural centers. San Franciscans who receive Medi-Cal or CalFresh receive free or reduced-price tickets to the City’s most exciting arts and nature exhibits.

After a year since its last performance, Stanford Live is returning with outdoor socially distanced programming at Frost Amphitheater. Starting on April 29 with Stanford Under the Stars: Movie Nights at Frost, Stanford Live will host a series of classic and contemporary films, and plans to transition into live performances later in the summer.

With the debut of The Barber of Seville, the San Francisco Opera is back in front of live audiences for the first time since March 2020. In a unique drive-thru style at the Marin Center Drive-in, opera-goers can gather with their family or pod to watch the production from the comfort of their vehicles.

The San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen announced the launch of its on-demand streaming service, SFSymphony+. Launching February 4th, the membership-based service features exclusive original digital content, all-new SoundBox programs and CURRENTS episodes, and special projects. The service will also offer select content free of charge, including previously released programs, newly recorded chamber music performances, and the SF Symphony’s 2021 Chinese New Year Virtual Celebration for the Year of the Ox.

The virtual premiere of Nico Muhly’s “Throughline” is Esa-Pekka Salonen’s first presentation as the new music director for the SF Symphony. The production tests the limits of pandemic music-making and serves as a bellwether in the emerging genre of works created for the constraints, and possibilities, of music-making in our moment. (Photo credit: Kristen Loken)

In celebration of the de Young museum’s 125th anniversary, and on the occasion of reopening to the public after six months, the museum presents The de Young Open, a juried community art exhibition by artists from all nine Bay Area counties. Representing the breadth and depth of Bay Area creativity, 6,188 artists submitted 11,514 artworks. Working solely from images, a jury of curators and artists selected 877 artworks for display online and in the gallery. Exhibiting artists who choose to offer their work for sale retain 100 percent of the proceeds, the de Young’s way of further supporting the local art community.

On August 13, San Francisco Ballet premiered “Dance of Dreams,” a new dance film by Benjamin Millepied. Shot in iconic San Francisco locations with company dancers, the film is set to “Scène D’Amour” from Hitchcock’s Vertigo, recorded and mixed remotely by more than 60 SF Ballet Orchestra musicians.

As cultural programming adjusts during the COVID-19 pandemic, the San Francisco Symphony is launching “Currents,” a four-part series of online broadcasts exploring the relationships between classical music and other musical traditions, as well as “1:1 Concerts” featuring a single orchestra musician performing for a single listener outdoors at a suitable distance.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has suggested that live performing arts and other cultural events were unlikely to return in full force for several months, presenting a long-term threat for arts and entertainment organizations. Art leaders are rethinking the offerings they provide to patrons. According to San Francisco Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock, “we are prepared to connect with our audiences in whatever creative ways we can – even if it’s all digital.”

The COVID-19 virus has upended life for individuals and communities everywhere. The pandemic has spread not only infection, but also wide-reaching uncertainty as to when “normal life” might resume. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Koret grantees innovated quickly in response to the mandate to shelter in place and to socially distance. Unlike in previous […]