The Mission District, commonly known as the Mission, is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is derived from Mission San Francisco de Asís, built in 1776 by the Spanish. The Mission is historically one of the most notable centers of the city's Chicano/Mexican-American community.
Yerba Buena Gardens is the name for two blocks of public parks located between Third and Fourth, Mission and Folsom Streets in the South of Market (SoMA) neighbourhood of San Francisco, California. The first block bordered by Mission and Howard Streets was opened on October 11, 1993. The second block, between Howard and Folsom Streets, was opened in 1998, with a dedication to Martin Luther King Jr. by Mayor Willie Brown. A pedestrian bridge over Howard Street connects the two blocks, sitting on top of part of the Moscone Center convention center. The Yerba Buena Gardens were planned and built as the final centerpiece of the Yerba Buena Redevelopment Area which includes the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Yerba Buena Gardens Conservancy operates the property on behalf of the City and County of San Francisco.
William Anthony Richardson was an early California entrepreneur, influential in the development of Yerba Buena, the forerunner of the city of San Francisco.
Dogpatch is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, roughly half industrial and half residential. It was initially a working class neighborhood, but has experienced rapid gentrification since the 1990s. It now has similar demographics to its western neighbor Potrero Hill – an upper middle-class working professional neighborhood.
The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) is a contemporary art museum in San Francisco, California. MoAD holds exhibitions and presents artists exclusively of the African diaspora, one of only a few museums of its kind in the United States. Located at 685 Mission St. and occupying the first three floors of the St. Regis Museum Tower in the Yerba Buena Arts District, MoAD is a nonprofit organization as well as a Smithsonian Affiliate. Prior to 2014, MoAD educated visitors on the history, culture, and art of the African diaspora through permanent and rotating exhibitions. After a six-month refurbishment in 2014 to expand the gallery spaces, the museum reopened and transitioned into presenting exclusively fine arts exhibitions. MoAD does not have a permanent collection and instead works directly with artists or independent curators when developing exhibitions.
Galería de la Raza (GDLR) is a non-profit art gallery and artist collective founded in 1970, that serves the largely Chicano and Latino population of San Francisco's Mission District. GDLR mounts exhibitions, hosts poetry readings, workshops, and celebrations, sells works of art, and sponsors youth and artist-in-residence programs. Exhibitions at the Galería tend to feature the work of minority and developing country artists and concern issues of ethnic history, identity, and social justice.
Carmen Lomas Garza is an Chicana artist and illustrator. She is well known for her paintings, ofrendas and for her papel picado work inspired by her Mexican-American heritage. Her work is a part of the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the National Museum of Mexican Art, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Mexican Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Oakland Museum of California, among other institutions.
The Treasure Island Development is a 405-acre (164 ha) major redevelopment project under construction on Treasure Island and parts of Yerba Buena Island in San Francisco Bay between San Francisco and Oakland, within San Francisco city limits. The Treasure Island Development Authority (TIDA) is a nonprofit organization formed to oversee the economic development of the former naval station. Treasure Island's development was set to break ground during mid-2012. However, on April 12, 2013, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the deal has collapsed, with the Chinese investors from China Development Bank and China Railway Construction Corporation withdrawing from the project. The Treasure Island Project is being developed by a joint venture between Lennar and Kenwood Investments. The development is expected to cost US$1.5 billion.
Yerba Buena was the original name of the settlement that later became San Francisco. Located near the northeastern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, between the Presidio of San Francisco and the Mission San Francisco de Asís, it was originally intended as a trading post for ships visiting San Francisco Bay. The settlement was arranged in the Spanish style around a plaza that remains as the present day Portsmouth Square.
The history of art in the San Francisco Bay Area includes major contributions to contemporary art, including Abstract Expressionism. The area is known for its cross-disciplinary artists like Bruce Conner, Bruce Nauman, and Peter Voulkos as well as a large number of non-profit alternative art spaces. San Francisco Bay Area Visual Arts has undergone many permutations paralleling innovation and hybridity in literature and theater.
Balmy Alley is a one-block-long alley that is home to the most concentrated collection of murals in the city of San Francisco. It is located in the south central portion of the Inner Mission District between 24th Street and Garfield Square. Since 1973, most buildings on the street have been decorated with a mural.
Las Mujeres Muralistas were an all-female Latina artist collective based in the Mission District in San Francisco in the 1970s. They created a number of public murals throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and are said to have sparked the beginning of the female muralist movement in the US and Mexico. Their murals were colorful and large scale and often focused on themes such as womanhood, culture, beauty, and socio-political change. Patricia Rodriguez, Graciela Carrillo, Consuelo Mendez, and Irene Perez are recognized as the founders and most prominent members of the collective, but other female Chicana artists assisted along the way and even joined later on, such as Susan Cervantes, Ester Hernandez, and Miriam Olivo among others.
René Yañez was a Mexican-American painter, assemblage artist, performance artist, curator and community activist located in San Francisco, California. He was a well-known contributor to the arts of San Francisco and is a co-founder of Galería de la Raza, a non-profit community focused gallery that features Latino and Chicano artists and their allies. In the early 1970s, he was one of the first curators in the United States to introduce Mexico's Día de Muertos as a contemporary focus and an important cultural celebration.
Betti-Sue Hertz is an American art curator and art historian and director of the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University.
Four Seasons Private Residences at 706 Mission Street, San Francisco is a 43-story, 510 ft (160 m) residential skyscraper under construction in the South of Market district of San Francisco, California. Located across the street from Yerba Buena Gardens and Moscone Center, the tower site is bounded by Mission Street on the south and 3rd Street on the east, and will incorporate the historic Aronson Building in its design. The tower will contain up to 190 condominiums on the upper floors and a permanent home for the Mexican Museum on the bottom four floors.
Herbert Siguenza is an American actor, writer, visual artist, and performer based in California. He is best known for co-founding the theater performance group Culture Clash, which was founded in 1984 and is still active. He is currently the playwright-in-residence at the San Diego Rep and has continued to pursue many solo ventures in addition to his group work.
Linda Zamora Lucero is an American artist, based in San Francisco. Lucero was a co-founder and former executive director of La Raza Graphics Center, also known as La Raza Silkscreen Center and La Raza Graphics, noted for producing silkscreen prints and posters by Chicano and Latino artists.
Peter Rodríguez was an American artist, curator, and museum director. He was the founder, director and curator of the Mexican Museum in San Francisco, and a co-founder of the Galería de la Raza.
Ralph Maradiaga (1934–1985) was an American artist, curator, photographer, printmaker, teacher, and filmmaker. He was Chicano, one of the co-founders of Galería de la Raza and part of the San Francisco Bay Area Chicano Art Movement.
Jesus "Chuy" Campusano, was an American Chicano visual artist, and muralist. He was a well-known contributor to San Francisco's arts in the 1970s and 1980s; and was a co-founder of Galería de la Raza, a non-profit community focused gallery that featured Latino and Chicano artists and their allies.
