San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately 220 undergraduates and 112 graduate students were enrolled in 2021. The institution was accredited by the

Western Association of Schools and Colleges The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) was an organization providing accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, the territories of Guam, American Sam ...

(WASC) and the

National Association of Schools of Art and Design The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), founded in 1944, is an accrediting organization of colleges, schools and universities in the United States. The organization establishes standards for graduate and undergraduate degrees ...

(NASAD), and was a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD). The school closed permanently in July 2022.

History

The San Francisco Art Institute was established in 1871 with the formation of the

San Francisco Art Association The San Francisco Art Association (SFAA) was an organization that promoted California artists, held art exhibitions, published a periodical, and established the first art school west of Chicago. The SFAA – which, by 1961, completed a long sequence ...

—a small but influential group of artists, writers, and community leaders, most notably, led by Virgil Macey Williams and first president Juan B. Wandesforde, with B.P. Avery, Edward Bosqui, Thomas Hill, and S.W. Shaw, who came together to promote regional art and artists, and to establish a school and museum to further and preserve what they saw as a new and distinct artistic tradition which had developed in the relative cultural isolation and unique landscape of the American West. By 1874 the SFAA had 700 regular members and 100 life members and had raised sufficient funds and the necessary momentum to launch an art school, which was named the California School of Design (CSD). Painter Virgil Macy Williams, who had spent nearly ten years studying with master painters in Italy and had taught at

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

before coming to San Francisco, became the school's first director and painting instructor—positions he held until his sudden death in 1886.http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/cara/ucb/text/Cara_Volume_04.pdf#168 During Williams' tenure, the CSD developed a national reputation and amassed a significant collection of early California and western fine art as the foundation collected for a planned museum. In 1893, Edward Searles donated the Hopkins Mansion, one of the most palatial and elaborate Victorian mansions ever built, to the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

in trust for the SFAA for "instruction in and illustration of the fine arts, music and literature." Named the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art, it became San Francisco's first fine art and cultural center and housed both the CSD's campus and SFAA's art collection. Through this new affiliation, students of the University of California were able to enroll in classes at the CSD. In 1906 the devastating fire following the

San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

destroyed the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art building, and the CSD and SFAA facilities, records and art collection. At the time, the replacement value of the building and its contents was estimated at $2.573 million. However, the combined amount of numerous insurance policies yielded less than $100,000 for rebuilding. Nevertheless, within a year, the SFAA built a new but comparatively modest campus in the same location, and adopted the name San Francisco Institute of Art. In 1916, the SFAA merged with the San Francisco Society of Artists and assumed directorship of the San Francisco Museum of Art at the Palace of Fine Arts, which was established to host the 1915 World's Fair, Panama-Pacific International Exposition. In addition, the school was renamed the California School of Fine Arts (CSFA) to better reflect its mission to promote, develop and preserve regional art and culture. In 1926 the school moved to 800 Chestnut Street, which remains the school's main campus . In 1930 Mexican muralist

Diego Rivera Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...

was hired to paint ''The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City'', which is located in the student-directed art gallery. During its first 60 years, influential artists associated with the school included

Eadweard Muybridge Eadweard Muybridge (; 9 April 1830 – 8 May 1904, born Edward James Muggeridge) was an English photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. He adopted the first ...

, photographer and pioneer of motion graphics;

Maynard Dixon Maynard Dixon (January 24, 1875 – November 11, 1946) was an American artist. He was known for his paintings, and his body of work focused on the American West. Dixon is considered one of the finest artists having dedicated most of their art o ...

, painter of San Francisco's labor movement and of the landscape of the West;

Henry Kiyama ''The Four Immigrants Manga'' (1931), also known as , is a Japanese-language manga written and illustrated by Henry Kiyama (born , 1885–1951). It is an early example of autobiographical comics. The manga was created around 1924–1927 as 52 " ...

, whose '' Four Immigrants Manga'' was the first

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

published in the U.S.;

Sargent Claude Johnson Sargent Claude Johnson (October 7, 1888 – October 10, 1967) was one of the first African-American artists working in California to achieve a national reputation.

, one of the first African-American artists from California to achieve a national reputation;

Louise Dahl-Wolfe Louise Dahl-Wolfe (November 19, 1895 – December 11, 1989) was an American photographer. She is known primarily for her work for '' Harper's Bazaar'', in association with fashion editor Diana Vreeland. Background Louise Emma Augusta Dahl was bo ...

, an innovative photographer whose work for '' Harper’s Bazaar'' in the 1930s defined a new American style of "environmental" fashion photography;

Gutzon Borglum John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Mountain in Geo ...

, the creator of the large-scale public sculpture known as Mt. Rushmore; Rudolf Hess, German Expressionist painter and art critic, and numerous others. After World War II ended (1945) the school became a nucleus for Abstract Expressionism, with faculty including

Clyfford Still Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediately follow ...

Ad Reinhardt Adolph Dietrich Friedrich Reinhardt (December 24, 1913 – August 30, 1967) was an abstract painter active in New York for more than three decades. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) and part of the movement center ...

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Lat ...

, David Park,

Elmer Bischoff Elmer Nelson Bischoff (July 9, 1916 – March 2, 1991) was a visual artist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bischoff, along with Richard Diebenkorn and David Park, was part of the post- World War II generation of artists who started as abstract p ...

, and Clay Spohn. Although painting and sculpture remained the dominant mediums for many years, photography had also been among the course offerings. In 1946 Ansel Adams and Minor White established the first fine-art photography department, with

Imogen Cunningham Imogen Cunningham (; April 12, 1883 – June 23, 1976) was an American photographer known for her botanical photography, nudes, and industrial landscapes. Cunningham was a member of the California-based Group f/64, known for its dedication to t ...

Edward Weston Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...

, and

Dorothea Lange Dorothea Lange (born Dorothea Margaretta Nutzhorn; May 26, 1895 – October 11, 1965) was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Great Depression, Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administratio ...

among its instructors. In 1947 distinguished filmmaker Sydney Peterson began the first film courses at CSFA. In this spirit of advancement, in 1949 CSFA Director Douglas MacAgy organized an international conference, The Western Roundtable on Modern Art, which included

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

, and Gregory Bateson. The roundtable aimed to expose “hidden assumptions” and to frame new questions about art. By the early 1950s San Francisco's North Beach had become the West Coast center of the Beat Movement, and music, poetry, and discourse were an intrinsic part of artists' lives. Collage artist

Jess Collins Jess Collins (August 6, 1923 – January 2, 2004), simply known today as Jess, was an American visual artist. Biography Jess was born Burgess Franklin Collins in Long Beach, California. He was drafted into the military and worked on the product ...

renounced a career as a plutonium developer and enrolled at SFAI as a painting student. In 1953 he and his partner, poet Robert Duncan, along with painter Harry Jacobus, started the King Ubu Gallery, an important alternative space for art, poetry, and music. A distinctly Californian modern art soon emerged that fused abstraction, figuration, narrative, and jazz. SFAI faculty David Park,

, James Weeks, James Kelly,

Frank Lobdell Frank Lobdell (1921 - 2013) was an American painter, often associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement and Bay Area Abstract Expressionism. Life and career Frank Lobdell was born on August 23, 1921 in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Miss ...

, and

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he bega ...

were now the leaders of the Bay Area Figurative Movement, informed by their experience of seeing local museum exhibitions of work by Edvard Munch,

Max Beckmann Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (February 12, 1884 – December 27, 1950) was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s ...

, Edgar Degas, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Students at the school, including David Simpson, William T. Wiley, Robert Hudson, William Allan, Joan Brown,

Manuel Neri Manuel John Neri Jr. (April 12, 1930October 18, 2021) was an American sculptor who is recognized for his life-size figurative sculptures in plaster, bronze, and marble. In Neri's work with the figure, he conveys an emotional inner state that is re ...

, Carlos Villa, and Wally Hedrick, continued the investigation of new ideas and new materials, many becoming the core of the

Funk art Funk art is an American art movement that was a reaction against the nonobjectivity of abstract expressionism. An anti-establishment movement, Funk art brought figuration back as subject matter in painting again rather than limiting itself to th ...

movement. Renamed San Francisco Art Institute in 1961, SFAI rejected the distinction between fine and applied arts. SFAI stood at the forefront of recognizing an expanded vocabulary of art-making that hybridized many practices including performance, conceptual art, new media, graphic arts, typography, and political and social documentary. Students in the early to mid-1960s included artists

Ronald Davis Ronald "Ron" Davis (born 1937) is an American painter whose work is associated with geometric abstraction, abstract illusionism, lyrical abstraction, hard-edge painting, shaped canvas painting, color field painting, and 3D computer graphics ...

, Robert Graham,

Forrest Myers Forrest Warden Myers, also known as Frosty Myers (born 1941 in Long Beach, California) is an American sculptor. He is best known for his pieces ''Moon Museum'' (1969) and ''The Wall'' (1973), the latter being a monumental wall sculpture in the S ...

, Leo Valledor,

Michael Heizer Michael Heizer (born 1944) is an American land artist specializing in large-scale and site-specific sculptures. Working largely outside the confines of the traditional art spaces of galleries and museums, Heizer has redefined sculpture in terms ...

, Ronnie Landfield, Peter Reginato, Gary Stephan, and John Duff and in the late 1960s

Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of Jo ...

, who would soon begin photographing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' magazine; Paul McCarthy, well known for his performance and sculpture works; and Charles Bigelow, who would be among the first typographers to design fonts for computers. Alumni

Ruth-Marion Baruch Ruth-Marion Baruch (1922–1997) was an American photographer remembered for her pictures of the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s. Early life and education Baruch was born in Berlin on June 15, 1922. She and her family migrated in 1927 to t ...

and

Pirkle Jones Pirkle Jones (January 2, 1914 – March 15, 2009) was an American documentary photographer and educator. Biography Pirkle Jones was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. His first experience with photography was when he bought a Kodak Brownie at th ...

documented the early days of the Black Panther Party in northern California. In 1969, a new addition to the building by

Paffard Keatinge-Clay Paffard Keatinge-Clay (born 1926) is an English-born architect in the modernist tradition who spent most of his professional life in the United States of America, before moving to southern Spain, where he has increasingly focussed on sculpture. ...

added of studio space, a large theater/lecture hall, an outdoor amphitheater, galleries, and a cafe. Installation art, video, music, and social activism continued to inform much of the work of faculty and students in the 1970s and 1980s. The faculty during this period included

George Kuchar George Kuchar (August 31, 1942 – September 6, 2011) was an American underground film director and video artist, known for his "low-fi" aesthetic. Early life and career Kuchar trained as a commercial artist at the School of Industrial Art, now k ...

, Gunvor Nelson,

Howard Fried Howard Fried (born June 14, 1946, in Cleveland, Ohio) is an American conceptual artist who became known in the 1970s for his pioneering work in video art, performance art, and installation art. He lives and works in Vallejo, California. Biography ...

Paul Kos Paul Joseph Kos (born December 23, 1942) is an American conceptual artist and educator, he is one of the founders of the Bay Area Conceptual Art movement in California. Kos incorporates video, sound and interactivity into his sculptural installa ...

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member of ...

Kathy Acker Kathy Acker (April 18, 1947 isputed– November 30, 1997) was an American experimental novelist, playwright, essayist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that dealt with themes such as childhood trau ...

Robert Colescott Robert H. Colescott (August 26, 1925 – June 4, 2009) was an American painter. He is known for satirical genre and crowd subjects, often conveying his exuberant, comical, or bitter reflections on being African American. He studied with Fernand L ...

, and many other influential artists and writers. Among the students were a number of performance artists and musicians, including Karen Finley, whose performances challenged notions of femininity and political power, and

Prairie Prince Charles Lempriere "Prairie" Prince (born May 7, 1950) is an American drummer and graphic artist. He came to prominence in the 1970s as a member of the San Francisco–based rock group The Tubes, was a member of Jefferson Starship from 1992 to 2 ...

and Michael Cotten, who presented their first performance as the Tubes in the SFAI lecture hall, and became pioneers in the field of

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

. The school became a hub for the Punk music scene, with bands such as

the Mutants ''The Mutants'' is the fourth serial of the ninth season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in six weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 April to 13 May 1972. The serial is set on and high above th ...

, the Avengers, and

Romeo Void Romeo Void was an American new wave/ post punk band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. The band primarily consisted of saxophonist Benjamin Bossi, vocalist Debora Iyall, guitarist Peter Woods, and bassist Frank Zincavage. The ban ...

all started by SFAI students. Technology also became part of art practice: faculty Sharon Grace's Send/Receive project used satellite communications to create an interactive transcontinental performance, while Survival Research Laboratories, founded by student Mark Pauline, began staging large-scale outdoor performances of ritualized interactions among machines, robots, and pyrotechnics. Since the 1990s the studio and classroom have become increasingly connected to the world via public art and community actions. As students at SFAI,

Barry McGee Barry McGee (born 1966) is an American contemporary artist. He is a well known graffiti artist, and a pioneer of the Mission School art movement. McGee is known by his monikers: Twist, Ray Fong, Bernon Vernon, and P.Kin. Life and education Barry ...

, Aaron Noble, and

Rigo 23 Rigo 23 (born Ricardo Gouveia, 1966) is a Portuguese-born American muralist, painter, and political artist. He is known in the San Francisco community for having painted a number of large, graphic "sign" murals including: ''One Tree'' next to the ...

, among others, were part of the movement known as the

Mission School The Mission School (sometimes called "New Folk" or "Urban Rustic") is an art movement of the 1990s and 2000s, centered in the Mission District, San Francisco, California. History and characteristics This movement is generally considered to have ...

, taking their graffiti-inspired art to the streets and walls of the city. Faculty and students have created site-specific projects in locations from the San Francisco waterfront (Ann Chamberlain and Walter Hood's monument to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade) to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico (a sculpture by artist Pedro Reyes and SFAI students for the U.S. Department of State's Art in Embassies program). Organizations like

Artists' Television Access Artists' Television Access (ATA) is a non-profit art gallery and screening venue in San Francisco's Mission District in the United States of America. ATA exhibits work by emerging, independent and experimental artists in its theatre and gallery ...

(ATA) and Root Division, founded by alumni, and SFAI's City Studio program engage and educate local communities and cultivate a vital artistic ecosystem. The school's history was recognized in 2016, when its campus was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

Closure

Due to financial mismanagement, declining enrollment, high real estate costs, and a reliance on income from campus property rentals, which was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the school announced on March 23, 2020 that it would stop accepting new students for the following fall semester. The institute marked its 149th birthday on Thursday, March 26, 2020, shortly after failed merger talks. They briefly announced that the fall semester was canceled before reversing their decision and allowing for online and offline classes through the next school year. In July 2020, after securing $4 million in donations, the board and administration announced an agreement had been reached to retain all tenured faculty for the coming academic year, resulting in the continuation of courses for the following academic year and the reinstatement of the degree program for those within a year of graduation. In February 2022 the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

and SFAI announced that they are studying an acquisition of SFAI by USF, however USF backed out of the deal in July. SFAI ceased its degree programs but will remain as "a nonprofit organization to protect its name, archives, and legacy." On July 16, 2022, the school closed permanently.

Academics

SFAI offered

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

(BA), Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA),

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

(MA), and Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees. SFAI also offered Low-Residency MFAs and Post-Baccalaureate certificates in Studio Art.

Photography

Founded by Ansel Adams in 1945, the Photography Department became the first program of its kind dedicated to exploring photography as a fine-art medium. Adams designed the school's darkrooms and attracted photographers for the original faculty, including

, Minor White, and Morley Baer, who became Head of the Department after White's departure in 1953.

Painting

Throughout the SFAI Painting Department's history, it had been home to celebrated artists such as

Jay DeFeo Jay DeFeo (March 31, 1929 – November 11, 1989) was a visual artist who first became celebrated in the 1950s as part of the spirited community of Beat artists, musicians, and poets in San Francisco. Best known for her monumental work ''The Rose' ...

, Fred Martin,

, David Park, David Simpson,

, Roy De Forest, Joan Brown,

, William T. Wiley, Toba Khedoori,

, Inez Storer and

Kehinde Wiley Kehinde Wiley (born February 28, 1977) he returned to Nigeria, leaving Freddie to raise the couple's six children. 3/sup> Wiley has said that his family survived on welfare checks and the limited income earned by his mother's 'thrift store' – ...

among others and was central to movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Bay Area Figuration, Color Field, California Funk, and the

New Genres

founded the performance and video department (now New Genres) at the San Francisco Art Institute. In the late 1970s, a long-lost collection of

photographs was found and an auction of the materials financed the creation of the department — and the purchase of two Portopak cameras. (More than a century before, the English artist had presented the first ever public showing of moving pictures on campus and apparently left something behind.)

Music

Among the many artist musicians who studied at SFAI are Jerry Garcia, guitarist in Grateful Dead;

Dave Getz Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After some i ...

, drummer for

Big Brother and the Holding Company Big Brother and the Holding Company is an American rock band that formed in San Francisco in 1965 as part of the same psychedelic music scene that produced the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and Jefferson Airplane. After som ...

and Country Joe and the Fish;

The Tubes The Tubes are a San Francisco-based rock band. Their eponymous 1975 debut album included the single "White Punks on Dope," while their 1983 single " She's a Beauty" was a top-10 U.S. hit and its music video was frequently played in the early d ...

;

Debora Iyall Debora Kay Iyall (; ; born 29 April 1954), is a Cowlitz Native American artist and was lead singer for the new wave band Romeo Void. Iyall got her surname from her family adopting their ancestor Iyallwahawa's "first" name written at the time as ...

; Freddy (aka Fritz) of

; Penelope Houston of the Avengers,

Courtney Love Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and actress. A figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s, her career has spanned four decades. She rose to prominence as ...

, actress and rock musician; Jonathan Holland of Tussle; Devendra Banhart.

Housing

In Summer 2010, SFAI moved its housing program to two locations in

Nob Hill Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highes ...

: Sutter Hall at 717 Sutter Street, and Abby Hall at 630 Geary Street. In Spring 2020, the housing program was dissolved due to financial exigency.

Exhibitions and public programs

Students were given direct access to exhibitions, lectures, symposia, films, and other unique interdisciplinary events. An integral part of campus life, such events connected students to the larger community of artists, art, and contemporary ideas. The

Walter and McBean Galleries The ''Walter and McBean Galleries'' are located at in Russian Hill, as part of the former San Francisco Art Institute's Chestnut campus. It has presented an influential program of exhibitions highlighting innovative work by emerging artists and expe ...

(on the 800 Chestnut Street campus) house exhibitions, workshops, and other alternative and experimental avenues for presenting work by international contemporary artists. Students also had the opportunity to display their work in a number of spots on SFAI's two campuses, including the

Diego Rivera Gallery The Diego Rivera Gallery is building, formerly a student-directed art gallery and exhibition space for work by San Francisco Art Institute students. History The gallery provided an opportunity for BFA, MFA and Post-Baccalaureate students to pres ...

Adaline Kent Award

Former board member (1947–1957),

Adaline Kent Adaline Dutton Kent or Adaline Kent Howard, (August 7, 1900 – March 24, 1957) was an American sculptor from California. She created abstract sculptures with forms inspired by the natural landscape. Early life and education Kent was born on ...

was a sculptor and alumni of the school. Upon her death in 1957, she bequeathed $10,000 for the establishment of an annual award for a promising California Artist. Each year since 1957 the prize was awarded by the San Francisco Art Institute Artists' Committee. Winners included

Ron Nagle Ron Nagle (born February 21, 1939) is an American sculptor, musician and songwriter. He is known for small-scale, refined sculptures of great detail and compelling color. Nagle lives and works in San Francisco, California. Life Born in San Fr ...

(1978), Wally Hedrick (1985), Mildred Howard (1991),

Clare Rojas Clare E. Rojas (born 1976), also known by stage name Peggy Honeywell, is an American multidisciplinary artist. She is part of the Mission School. Rojas is "known for creating powerful folk-art-inspired tableaus that tackle traditional gender role ...

(2004), and as the final award, Scott Williams (2005).

Notable former faculty

* Ansel Adams, landscape photographer, founded the photography department in 1945 *

Gertrude Partington Albright Gertrude Partington Albright (September 11, 1874 – September 7, 1959) was a British-born American artist known for portrait etchings and her Cubism-influenced California landscapes. She taught at the California School of Fine Arts for nearly thi ...

, painting and etching (1917–46) *

Roy Ascott Roy Ascott FRSA (born 26 October 1934) is a British artist, who works with cybernetics and telematics on an art he calls technoetic by focusing on the impact of digital and telecommunications networks on consciousness. Since the 1960s, Ascott ...

, Dean 1975-1978 * Craig Baldwin, filmmaker * Blixa Bargeld, musician (2008) *

, painting * Charles Boone, composer *

James Broughton James Broughton (November 10, 1913 – May 17, 1999) was an American poet and poetic filmmaker. He was part of the San Francisco Renaissance, a precursor to the Beat poets. He was an early bard of the Radical Faeries, as well as a member of ...

, filmmaking 1969-1982 *

Rea Irvin Rea Irvin (August 26, 1881 – May 28, 1972) was an American graphic artist. Although never formally credited as such, he served de facto as the first art editor of ''The New Yorker''. He created the Eustace Tilley cover portrait and the ''New Y ...

Stan Brakhage James Stanley Brakhage ( ; January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film. Over the course of five decades, Brakhage created a larg ...

, filmmaker * Joan Brown, painting * John Collier, visual anthropologist *

Christopher Coppola Christopher R. Coppola (born January 25, 1962) is an American film director and producer. Early life Coppola was born in Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as ...

, film director/producer * Linda Connor, large-format photographer * Dewey Crumpler, muralist and painter *

, portrait photographer *

(1976) *

* James Budd Dixon, painting *

, painting * Trisha Donnelly * Okwui Enwezor *

, installation, performance, video artist, founded the New Genres department *

Sonia Gechtoff Sonia Gechtoff (September 25, 1926 – February 1, 2018) was an American abstract expressionist painter. Her primary medium was painting but she also created drawings and prints. Early life and education Sonia Gechtoff was born in Philadelphia t ...

, painting * María Elena González * Rene Green * Doug Hall * Julius Hatofsky, painting * Wally Hedrick * Hou Hanru * Robert H. Hudson, sculpture *

, photographer *

, conceptual artist *

(1972–2011), filmmaker * Tony Labat, installation artist *

, photographer *

Pedro Joseph de Lemos Pedro Joseph de Lemos (25 May 1882 – 5 December 1954) was an American painter, printmaker, architect, illustrator, writer, lecturer, museum director and art educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to about 1930 he used the simpler name Ped ...

, decorative design, director, 1911-1917 *

Leo Lentelli Leo Lentelli (20 October 1879 – 31 December 1961) was an Italian sculptor who immigrated to the United States. During his 52 years in the United States he created works throughout the country, notably in New York and San Francisco. He also taugh ...

, sculptor *

Janis Crystal Lipzin Janis Crystal Lipzin, (born 1945) is an American artist working with film, photography, video, audio, multi-media installations, and media performance. She has been an active filmmaker since 1974, when she became attracted to using Super-8 camera ...

, filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist *

, painting * Brenda Louie *

Lydia Lunch Lydia Lunch (born Lydia Anne Koch; June 2, 1959)Martin Charles Strong. ''The Great Indie Discography''. 2003, page 85 is an American singer, poet, writer, actress and self-empowerment speaker. Her career began during the 1970s New York City no ...

* Eric Spencer Macky, painter, former Dean from 1919 until 1935. *

Arthur Frank Mathews Arthur F. Mathews (October 1, 1860 – February 19, 1945) was an American Tonalist painter who was one of the founders of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Trained as an architect and artist, he and his wife Lucia Kleinhans Mathews had a s ...

, muralist, painter * Tom Marioni * Fred Martin, beat-era, post-war painter and writer and Professor Emeritus. *

Alicia McCarthy Alicia McCarthy is an American painter. She is a member of San Francisco's Mission School art movement. Her work is considered to have Naïve or Folk character, and often uses unconventional media like housepaint, graphite, or other found mater ...

, painter *

Jane McGonigal Jane McGonigal (born October 21, 1977) is an American author, game designer, and researcher. McGonigal advocates using mobile and digital technology to channel positive attitudes and collaboration in a real-world context. Biography Early years ...

, game designer and author *

Frederick Meyer Frederick Heinrich Wilhelm Meyer (November 6, 1872 – January 6, 1961) was a designer and art educator prominent in the Arts and Crafts Movement. He was a long-time resident of the San Francisco Bay Area. Early years Meyer was born near Ha ...

, founder of the

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in Sa ...

(1907) * Jose Moya del Pino, painter *

Bruce Nauman Bruce Nauman (born December 6, 1941) is an American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives near Galisteo, New Mexico. Life and work ...

, Process & Conceptual Art. *

, sculpture *

Charlemagne Palestine Chaim Moshe Tzadik Palestine (born 1947), known professionally as Charlemagne Palestine, is an American visual artist and musician. He has been described as being one of the founders of New York school of minimalist music, first initiated by La M ...

* David Park, painting * Sidney Peterson, film director, initiated first film courses at SFAI (1947) * Jim Pomeroy, new media *

Brett Reichman Brett Reichman is a painter and Professor at the San Francisco Art Institute where he teaches in both the graduate and undergraduate programs. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he has lived and worked in San Francisco since 1984. His work came to ...

, painter *

, painter (1947, 1949) * Hassel Smith, painting *

Ralph Stackpole Ralph Ward Stackpole (May 1, 1885 – December 10, 1973) was an American sculptor, painter, muralist, etcher and art educator, San Francisco's leading artist during the 1920s and 1930s. Stackpole was involved in the art and causes of social realis ...

, sculptor, painter *

, painter (1946-1950) * Inez Storer, painter (1981–99) * Larry Sultan, photographer *

Taravat Talepasand Taravat Talepasand (born 1979) is an Iranian-American contemporary artist, activist, and educator whose labor-intensive interdisciplinary painting practice including drawing, sculpture, and installation questions normative cultural behaviors withi ...

* Leo Valledor, painting * Carlos Villa, painter * James Weeks, painting * Henry Wessel, Jr. (1972-2014), one of the

New Topographics "New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape" was a groundbreaking exhibition of contemporary landscape photography held at the George Eastman House's International Museum of Photography (Rochester, New York) from October 1975 to Febru ...

photographers. * Minor White, photographer * Al Wong (born 1938), experimental filmmaker, mixed media installation artist, taught at SFAI from 1975 until 2003. * Caveh Zahedi, filmmaker

References

External links

* {{authority control Art schools in San Francisco Film schools in California Universities and colleges in San Francisco Russian Hill, San Francisco San Francisco Designated Landmarks Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Educational institutions established in 1871 1871 establishments in California School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco