Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco

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Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco
AbbreviationICA San Francisco,
ICA SF
FormationOctober 1, 2022;3 years ago (2022-10-01)
Headquarters345 Montgomery Street,
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Coordinates 37°45′35″N122°23′24″W / 37.759638°N 122.390003°W / 37.759638; -122.390003
Founding Director
 Ali Gass
Website Official website

The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (ICA SF) is an American contemporary art museum that opened in October 2022. It was initially located in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco, California. [1] [2] By October 2024, it moved to the Financial District of San Francisco. [3] [4] A year later, ICA transitioned to a "city-wide nomadic model" of pop-up exhibitions. [5] [6]

Contents

About

The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco is a non-collecting institution and charges no admissions. [6] Ali Gass is its founding director. [7] [8] In October 2022, it opened a 11,000-square-foot gallery space at 901 Minnesota Street in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood, funded through Silicon Valley–based donors. [9] [10] [11] Donors of the opening of ICA SF included Deborah and Andy Rappaport, Pamela and David Hornik, and Kaitlyn and Mike Krieger. [12] [13] [14] The space was designed after the European kunsthalle , specializing in displaying temporary, boundary-pushing art. [15]

In 2024, ICA SF relocated to a larger five-story modernist building known locally as “the Cube” at 345 Montgomery Street in the city’s Financial District, owned by Vornado Realty Trust and The Trump Organization. [16] [17] [5] The move, part of an effort to revitalize the neighborhood, was facilitated by Vornado offering free rent and utilities for two years, and expanded ICA's exhibition space from 11,000 square feet to 26,000 square feet. [18] [5] As reported by the San Francisco Standard, "curators and visitors often noted that The Cube posed significant challenges; namely, the scale of the interior made it difficult to present artwork effectively." [6] In October 2025, ICA announced that it would be leaving The Cube (which by that time had secured a 10-year lease with the Wharton Business School) in December 2025 and transition to a "city-wide nomadic model" of pop-up exhibitions. [5]

Exhibitions

The opening programming was a solo exhibition by Choctaw-Cherokee artist Jeffrey Gibson's, "This Burning World"; and a group exhibition curated by Tahirah Rasheed and Autumn Breon, of work by Oakland-based artists Liz Hernández and Ryan Whelan. [19] [20] [21] Notable shows have included The Poetics of Dimension (2024–2025), a multiple artist exhibition curated by Larry Ossei–Mensah. [22]

See also

References

  1. ↑ McLean, Tessa (2022-10-18). "This SF neighborhood was just named one of the coolest in the world. Is that right?". SFGATE . Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  2. ↑ Blue, Max (October 8, 2022). "Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco opens with 'This Burning World'". San Francisco Examiner . Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  3. ↑ Mondros, Sam (August 30, 2024). "In dramatic reversal, tech-funded art museum moves downtown for free rent". The San Francisco Standard. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
  4. ↑ Blue, Max (September 27, 2024). "SF 'startup' museum a case study in art-tech dichotomy". San Francisco Examiner . Retrieved 2024-10-02.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Hotchkiss, Sarah (2025-10-28). "A San Francisco Museum Is Going 'Nomadic'". www.kqed.org. Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  6. 1 2 3 Mondros, Sam (2025-10-28). "Museum to leave downtown for citywide exhibitions". San Francisco Standard . Retrieved 2025-12-14.
  7. ↑ Mission, Fifth &. (2022-10-21). "Sorry, N.Y. Times, but San Francisco's art scene is thriving". San Francisco Chronicle (article and podcast). Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  8. ↑ Cascone, Sarah (2022-10-17). "Less Than Two Years After It Was First Proposed, the ICA San Francisco Opens in Lightning Speed With a Solo Project by Jeffrey Gibson". Artnet News. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  9. ↑ Le, Anh-Minh (6 September 2022). "San Francisco Has a New Contemporary Art Museum — and It's Free for All". Nob Hill Gazette . Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  10. ↑ "Silicon Valley's plutocrats are shaking up culture in the region". The Economist . October 19, 2022. ISSN   0013-0613 . Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  11. ↑ "Is Philanthropy As We Know It Going Out of Style?". Surface . 2022-11-01. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  12. ↑ "Native American artist Jeffrey Gibson is reuniting land, people and song". Financial Times. 2022-10-25. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  13. ↑ "San Francisco will greet a new Institute of Contemporary Art". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  14. ↑ Bravo, Tony (July 19, 2022). "Exclusive: Bay Area couple gifts $1 million to new Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco". Datebook, San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  15. ↑ "SF's new Institute of Contemporary Art pushes boundaries in Dogpatch". 7x7 . Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  16. ↑ Robin Pogrebin (30 August 2024), San Francisco Museum Start-Up Makes a Move New York Times .
  17. ↑ Daniel Cassady (30 August 2024), ICA San Francisco Expands to Financial District’s Cube, Doubling Exhibition Space ARTnews .
  18. ↑ Farfan, Isa (September 11, 2024). "San Francisco "Start-Up" Museum Moving Into Former Bank Building for Free". Hyperallergic . Retrieved 2025-06-26.
  19. ↑ Taylor, Robert (2022-09-30). "Fall arts 2022: Museums prepare diverse array of eye-popping shows". The Mercury News . Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  20. ↑ Hotchkiss, Sarah (September 1, 2022). "Reports of Our Visual Art Scene's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated". KQED . Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  21. ↑ Sloss, Lauren (2022-07-21). "San Francisco Shines With New Museums, Restaurants and Parks". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-01-04.
  22. ↑ Picard, Caroline (March 1, 2025). ""The Poetics of Dimensions"". Artforum . Retrieved 2025-06-26.
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