The San Francisco Art Institute, SFAI, opened in 1871 and is one of the oldest schools dedicated to Contemporary Art in the United States. In March 2020, I was sad to read that the school was closing due to financial pressures exacerbated by COVID-19. Since then many supporters have emerged, citing its unique contribution to the arts and mustering the funds and motivation, for it to continue. So students will be able to complete degrees, public art courses and exhibitions can live another day. But why do I, a British artist and write care about this? How did I even come to know of SFAI?…
Well, I first read about SFAI when researching a trip to California in 2018. I think the guidebook mentioned an alternative art school, a Diego Rivera mural and that works by current students were shown in a public gallery. Naturally I had to visit, even though it’s not in the most obvious part of town to visit.
I schlepped up this massive San Francisco hill in the midday August sun. The street was dead as a doornail, with no-one about. The gates were open, so I stepped in, feeling somewhat like I shouldn’t be there. I nosied around and found the huge Diego Rivera mural, nestling in the old ‘spanish-style’ cloisters. I marvelled at the brutalist concrete outdoor terrace added in the 1960s. Old and new, mashed together, the signs of an institution unafraid to keep moving. Driven by change.
Sadly it was the summer holidays, so there was no work on show in the students’ galleries. Instead I made do with imagining the chatter and exchange of ideas that happened in this place. The city laid out like a blanket below and the sky and flights of thought, feeling so close. As I stood in this place, it felt like a hallowed ground of art and connection and thinking anew. That it could summon to the surface something beyond that which resides in each individual student. That it could collectively birth something of great cultural significance. And looking at the role-call of alumni and faculty, it would seem that what I sensed is more than true. From Oscar-winning director, Kathryn Bigelow, renowned photographer Annie Leibovitz, more photographer legends such as Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams, teaching by Angela Davis and Bruce Nauman, performances of Howl by Allen Ginsberg and so forth…
Here are some photos to take a look around the campus yourself. To imagine conversations past and future. Perhaps to wonder what thoughts you might have if you were to study in this place.
