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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 […]

While the museum’s doors are closed to the public, the Exploratorium is supporting the front lines of the Covid-19 pandemic. The museum collected n95 masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) from its science labs to donate to the staff at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Their engineers have also devised a 3D printing process that can produce hospital face shields in minutes, and plan to make 200 pieces a day and publish the designs for others to use.

With theater productions canceled amid coronavirus concerns, costume departments are putting their skills to use by making cloth masks to help prevent the spread of the disease. With shortages of protective equipment, local hospitals are accepting donations of reusable, hand-sewn masks for non-patient care staff. (Photo credit: Jim Gensheimer, Special to The Chronicle)

In a recent study by the San Francisco Arts Alliance, projections show staggering shortfalls in ticket sales and donations if the COVID-19 pandemic crisis lasts until September. (Photo credit: Thomas P. Campbell, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)

The Koret Foundation’s relationships with many of our arts and culture grantees date back more than three decades. In that time, the Bay Area has undergone a demographic shift. In tandem, advances in technology have changed the ways many people choose to experience culture. We are committed to helping our grantees change with the times, […]

Supporting Bay Area cultural institutions is a long-standing priority of the Koret Foundation. We consider the arts to be part of a well-rounded education for learners of all ages. The Koret Education Center (the Center) at SFMOMA has been designed to enrich many aspects of the museum-going experience. It serves as a place for visitors […]