A curated digest of Bay Area arts news, events, and voices worth following. Updated semi-monthly.
Last updated: February 26, 2026
Five prominent galleries closed in Q4 2025. CCA announced it will cease operations after 2026-27 and sold both campuses to Vanderbilt. Mayor Lurie celebrated the Vanderbilt deal on Instagram — seated in front of a painting by a CCA alum. Max Blue's column lays out the full picture: public funding is shrinking, private capital is flowing to initiatives that don't support the community, and the art scene is on track to become culturally anemic by 2027 unless the people who make it step up.
This is the context we're all working in. Read it.
A full day built for independent artists — panels on the business of being an artist, small-group consultations with industry leaders, music production labs. If you're a working musician in the Bay, this is the one to clear your schedule for.
160+ bands, 25+ venues, 33 years running. Saturday highlights include Illuminati Hotties, Jay Som, Beats Antique, and the Sun Ra Arkestra. Free happy hours at Bender's through Saturday.
The cosmic jazz institution, still transmitting. Two nights. If you've never seen them live, this might rearrange your understanding of what a band can be.
100 Bay Area floral designers create living arrangements inspired by the de Young's permanent collection. Evening hours added for the first time this year.
Curatorial chief Key Jo Lee presents an African diaspora "unbound" from earthly and chronological conceptions — spanning three floors of the reopened museum.
Monthly street party — DJs, live performances, drag, food trucks, dancing. Returning monthly for the full year.
The Tony-winning musical at the Golden Gate Theatre. Good for a night where you need to laugh until something loosens.
Drawing from Cervantes — a vibrant production of love, artistry, and joy. One of the season's signature productions.
80,000 bright tulips in a massive pop-up garden at Union Square. All for the taking.
Sup. Bilal Mahmood proposes a "theatre arts district" on Market Street. 48 Hills' Charles Lewis III argues it's not about supporting local talent — it's about making SF indistinguishable from every other city. Where's the tax on tech for artist housing?
The year-end state of the arts: five galleries closed, SFMOMA's worst show ever, the MoAD reopening, and the case for why the city must act — not just talk — if it wants to keep its creative class.
KALW's curated picks: the Mabuhay Gardens 50th anniversary punk celebration, the Industry Summit panel on saving space for the creative class, the music production pop-up lab, and the Sun Ra Arkestra.
A walkthrough of the Warfield Commons building — KALW's new "People's Studio," Psyched Radio, below-market leases for artists and cultural workers. What happens when creative infrastructure gets treated as essential.
Outlets and voices doing the work of covering Bay Area arts with depth and care.
Independent SF news — consistently the sharpest arts and culture coverage in the city, including the performing arts column Drama Masks.
Bay Area public radio since 1941. Now anchoring the Warfield Commons. Local storytelling, emerging artists, community journalism.
Monthly column in the SF Examiner. The most unflinching assessment of what's actually happening to the art scene.
Got an event, article, or artist we should feature? Send it to jawno info@eachartist.org
