San Francisco International Arts Festival

San Francisco International Arts Festival is a biennial multidisciplinary festival presenting contemporary dance, theatre, music, visual art, and multimedia from local, national, and international artists. Founded in 2003, the festival has highlighted cross-cultural exchange between communities in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and the broader Bay Area, while engaging institutions such as the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SFJAZZ, Theatre Bay Area, and SFMOMA. The festival links emerging ensembles and established companies, collaborating with organizations including Project Artaud, Cal Performances, American Conservatory Theater, Asian Art Museum, and Z Space.

History

The festival was co-founded in 2003 by producers Rick Jacobson and Kevin B. Chen, building on precedents set by festivals such as New York Public Theater, Spoleto Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Lincoln Center Festival, and BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). Early seasons featured partnerships with presenters like The Lab, CounterPulse, The War Memorial Opera House, California Academy of Sciences, and Fort Mason Center. Over the 2000s and 2010s the festival expanded programming in dialogue with artists connected to Mexico City, Istanbul, Seoul, Tokyo, London, Paris, Berlin, and Johannesburg, while maintaining ties to Bay Area organizations such as San Francisco Ballet, San Francisco Opera, CalArts, USF (University of San Francisco), and San Francisco State University. Major anniversaries were marked by curated commissions that echoed international festivals like Venice Biennale, Performa, Documenta, and Krakow Film Festival.

Mission and Programming

The festival's mission centers on intercultural artistic exchange and commissioning new work, reflecting strategies used by DCA (Department for Culture and Arts), Council on Culture, and cultural agencies similar to Arts Council England and Canada Council for the Arts. Programming includes contemporary dance created with influences from companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Batsheva Dance Company, Martha Graham Company, Cunningham Dance, and choreographers associated with Judson Dance Theater. Theatre and performance strands draw from practices of Wooster Group, Complicité, Thai Theatre, Tectonic Theater Project, and Forced Entertainment. Music programming spans ensembles akin to Bang on a Can, Bangladesh Shadhinota, Kronos Quartet, Ensemble Modern, and composers associated with Steve Reich, John Adams, and Philip Glass. Visual and multimedia works reference institutions like Tate Modern, MoMA, Centre Pompidou, and Walker Art Center, while educational programs mirror outreach models from National Endowment for the Arts, NEA Jazz Masters, and Creative Time.

Notable Artists and Productions

The festival has presented artists and companies with relationships to Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, Akram Khan, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Bill T. Jones, Eiko & Koma, and Trisha Brown, as well as music and interdisciplinary collaborators related to Yo-Yo Ma, Anoushka Shankar, Terry Riley, Laurie Anderson, and Ravi Shankar. Site-specific productions have engaged creators from Marina Abramović, Tom Waits, Robert Wilson, Julie Taymor, Isabella Rossellini, Ava DuVernay, Kehinde Wiley, and Ai Weiwei. The festival has commissioned new works by artists connected to Doris Duke, MacArthur Fellows Program recipients, and recipients of awards such as the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, Obie Awards, MacArthur Fellowship, and Guggenheim Fellowship. Past seasons included collaborations with ensembles like BalletBEAST, Chiara Bersani Ensemble, Silkroad Ensemble, Calefax Reed Quintet, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and theater companies associated with August Wilson cycles and Tony Kushner-style dramaturgy.

Venues and Community Partnerships

Presentations have taken place at cultural sites across the Bay Area including Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, Palace of Fine Arts, Castro Theatre, Brava Theater Center, Cowell Theater, Cowell-Lorillard, California Historical Society, Asian Art Museum, Museum of the African Diaspora, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, and university venues such as University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, San Francisco State University, and University of California, San Francisco. Community partnerships span neighborhood organizations like Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, Chinatown Community Development Center, Bayview Opera House, Koret Foundation, and arts service organizations including Dance/USA, Performing Arts Alliance, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Creative Sonoma. Collaborative residencies and educational projects have been developed with Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Ford Foundation, and local philanthropies such as San Francisco Foundation.

Funding and Governance

The festival's funding model combines public grants, private philanthropy, corporate sponsorship, and earned revenue consistent with practices at National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, San Francisco Arts Commission, Kresge Foundation, and The Rockefeller Foundation. Governance includes a board and advisory council with members drawn from institutions like San Francisco Chronicle, KQED, The New York Times Arts Desk, Broadway League, American Alliance of Museums, and academic partners at UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, Department of Theater, Dance & Performance Studies (Stanford), and Goldman School of Public Policy. Financial oversight aligns with nonprofit standards from IRS Form 990 filing practices and auditing conventions similar to those followed by Americans for the Arts and major presenting organizations such as Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

Category:Arts festivals in the United States