San Francisco Arts Education Project

10/29/2026

We’re thrilled to announce that SFArtsED will participate in with Libby Black’s 𝘼𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙮, 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙢𝙨 — an immersive, site-responsive exhibition tracing the evolution of the San Francisco State University professor and artist from student to artist to educator. At its heart is a larger question: How do art schools shape not only individual artists, but also artistic communities, cultural identity, and regional histories? The exhibition functions as a three-dimensional map of Black's artistic and educational journey, acknowledging the teachers, schools, students, and communities that shaped her. We're delighted to work with Libby and to bring this exhibition to life!

Libby Black: Along the way, in the rooms
March 6 – May 1, 2027
SFArtsED gallery, 1275 Minnesota street, SF

Further’s new website is now live, featuring our exhibition and others taking place at nonprofit arts organizations across Northern California. Browse exhibitions by region using the interactive map, create an account to save your selections, and share them with friends and family.

The inaugural Further Triennial, Around Here, runs March 10–June 10, 2027.
Explore the new website and follow for updates.




images courtesy of the artist and Anthony Meier
Libby Black portrait, 2025 photo by Chris Grunder
Libby Black: Alice Barber Stephens (detail), black and white ink drawing, 2020

10/28/2026

Every Saturday Night has extended its run through November 7th!

This powerful new musical is based on the childhood of esteemed Bay Area playwright, composer, educator, and SFArtsED Players Director Danny Duncan. Centered around the after-hours nightclub his mother operated during his youth, the story unfolds in San Francisco’s Fillmore District—a culturally rich and historically complex neighborhood that Duncan still calls home.

This production features the work of so many artists that SFArtsED has close connections with, including:
Danny Duncan, our Players Director for 25 years, wrote the book, music and lyrics
Rodney Earl Jackson Jr., a Players alum, is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of SFBATCO
Othello Jefferson, an SFArtsEd Artist Mentor, is the Music Director and Accompaniment
Noah Bossert, our Players Music Director & Summer Artist Mentor, is serving as Every Saturday Night’s Associate Music Director, Lead Orchestrator & Arranger
Tiersa Nureyev, our Players Costume Designer and Summer Artist Mentor, is also the Costume Designer for this production
Kaila Dyson, a Players alum, is a featured cast member

Every Saturday Night (A Harlem of the West Musical)
WORLD PREMIERE - COMMISSIONED BY SFBATCO
Based on a Story by Danny Duncan
Book by Danny Duncan and Michael Gene Sullivan
Music and Lyrics by Danny Duncan
Directed and Choreographed by AeJay Antonis Marquis
Music Direction and Accompaniment by Othello Jefferson and Noah Bossert
Dates: October 10 to November 7, 2026
The Strand Theater, 1127 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94103

Recommended for ages 13 and up; contains strong language.
Run time: 2 hours and 15 mins, with an intermission.

Tickets for the run can be purchased online here.
https://secure.act-sf.org/overview/every-saturday-night

10/27/2026

This is the last week to catch 's solo presentation 𝙁𝙖𝙡𝙨𝙚 𝙃𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙯𝙤𝙣, on view through October 31st! We recently sat down with Megan in her studio to discuss how her visual art practice and teaching practice overlap, here's an except from that interview.

False Horizon references a mirage—an optical illusion caused by atmospheric temperature inversions that bend light and create a deceptive visual boundary above or below the true sea or land horizon. Drawing on her experience at the MaréMotrice artist residency aboard a sailboat in the waters between Greenland and Iceland, the artist reflects on what is visible and what remains hidden to the eye in the shifting patterns of weather. Pushing the alchemical limits of copper plate etching, her printmaking process oscillates between control and chance, layering variations of forms reminiscent of floating ice on water. Like an iceberg, much of which remains submerged, the work invites the viewer to imagine what lies beneath the surface.

To learn more, you can visit
www.sfartsed.org/event/teachingpractice

10/13/2026

Free All-Ages Workshop this Saturday!

Join us on Saturday, October 17, 1-3 pm for a FREE Workshop designed by SFArtsED Artist Mentor Megan Broughton. Draw or write you own colorful textures and patterns using color pencils, crayons, construction paper, and rubbing plates. Then use oversized hole punches to create many circles of varying sizes from your drawings. We’ll then use those as collage material to create artworks in the style of Howardena Pindell’s abstract circle collages. Stop by and jump in at any part of the process, whether you want to spend some time exploring color and texture, help cut out circles, make your own collage, or do all three! This workshop is free for all ages, materials will be provided.

Megan Broughton is an interdisciplinary artist based in San Francisco, CA, addressing the climate crisis, loss, transformation, and the sublime. Her work stems from onsite study in the Arctic, where she has been an artist in residence with MaréMotrice in Greenland and The Arctic Circle Residency in Svalbard. Exhibition highlights include Berkeley Art Center, Richmond Art Center, and Minnesota Street Project. She received an Emerging Individual Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council in 2023 and is currently an Artist in Residence at The Exploratorium in San Francisco. Megan holds a BFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).

this workshop is made possible with support from Winslow & Associates

10/08/2026

We’re proud to share that SFArtsED is once again a San Francisco Grants for the Arts grantee! 🎉
The Arts Commission and Grants for the Arts recently announced a combined investment in the arts totaling over $25 million, supporting nearly 400 local artists and arts organizations.
This investment will directly support SFArtsED’s work over the next year to help us continue creating, connecting and contributing to San Francisco’s vibrant arts community.
We’re grateful for this investment in our organization and in the city’s vibrant arts and cultural ecosystem. Thank you, .gfta for supporting local artists and arts organizations! All the details are at sf.gov/artscommission

10/05/2026

10/05/2026

Watching young performers help create work in response to a visual art exhibition is thrilling, especially when the artwork is Seyed Alavi’s gorgeous rugs and tapestries in his “Layla & Majnun” show and the Artist Mentors guiding the show are Natalie Greene and Emily Keeler. The performances on Saturday as part of the exhibition’s opening celebration were stunning. Such sophisticated, beautiful and moving work.

10/03/2026

Layla & Majnun opens today!

Join us 4–6pm today for the opening reception for Seyed Alavi's exhibition 𝐿𝒶𝓎𝓁𝒶 & 𝑀𝒶𝒿𝓃𝓊𝓃, with a special dance performance which will activate the gallery space.

Created in collaboration with Seyed Alavi and in response to his exhibition, a special dance-based work will activate the liminal spaces between viewers and artworks in the gallery. Drawing on Alavi’s image manipulation and re-assembly techniques, the performers reimagine figure-ground relationships and explore the tensions between presence and absence, longing and love.

𝐿𝒶𝓎𝓁𝒶 & 𝑀𝒶𝒿𝓃𝓊𝓃
Inspired by the 12th-century poem by poet Nizami Ganjavi, Seyed Alavi’s solo exhibition Layla and Majnun reinterprets the ageless tale of love, longing and separation through an immersive display of two juxtaposed textile series which hang suspended in the gallery. Presented against a backdrop of dark blue walls, the installation invites the viewer to consider the physical distance between these two archetypal lovers to be a construct.

with performances by:
Agnes Post, Aida Samimi, Asher Wofford, Augustine Berenguer, Eve Belopolskaya, Liliana Dawson, Mira Woerner, Olivia Gale, Rosie Thau, Sage Zamora, Selah McGinley-Pak.
Directed by: Natalie Greene, in collaboration with Emily Keeler and Tiersa Nureyev and Pete Belkin. Sound Direction by Stephen Parris.

10/01/2026

Seyed Alavi: Layla and Majnoon
Artists' reception and performance
Saturday, October 3, 4–6pm.
1275 Minnesota street, SF

Inspired by the 12th-century poem by poet Nizami Ganjavi, Seyed Alavi’s solo exhibition Layla and Majnun reinterprets the ageless tale of love, longing and separation through an immersive display of two juxtaposed textile series which hang suspended in the gallery. Presented against a backdrop of dark blue walls, the installation invites the viewer to consider the physical distance between these two archetypal lovers to be a construct.

Besotted by Layla, Majnun obsessively serenades her with poetry, leading to condemnation by Layla’s father, who forbids their love and forces her to marry another. A banished Majnun turns to the forest to live in exile amongst the animals as Layla perishes of a broken heart. In spite of their separation and physical distance, their bond transcends the material world to form an iconic tale of eternal love.

Weaving together the visual languages of Persian miniature painting and rug design, the series of works depicting Layla invites viewers to reimagine the distinction between figure and ground. Majnun exists in a state of perpetual formation, his levitating body suggests a state of transcendence and focus while the unraveling materiality of the tapestries evokes the unruly nature of a figure whose name has become synonymous with madness.
- - -
Performance: Layla and Majnun
Created in collaboration with Seyed Alavi and in response to his exhibition, this dance-based work activates the liminal spaces between viewers and artworks in the gallery. Drawing on Alavi’s image manipulation and re-assembly techniques, the performers reimagine figure-ground relationships and explore the tensions between presence and absence, longing and love.

With performances by a group of the SF ArtsED Players:
Agnes Post, Aida Samimi, Asher Wofford, Augustine Berenguer, Eve Belopolskaya, Liliana Dawson, Mira Woerner, Olivia Gale, Rosie Thau, Sage Zamora, Selah McGinley-Pak.
Directed by: Natalie Greene, in collaboration with Emily Keeler, Tiersa Nureyev Sound Direction by Stephen Parris.

09/28/2026

Join us this Saturday, October 3rd, 4–6PM for the opening reception and performance for Seyed Alavi's Layla and Majnun.

Borrowing the title from Nizami Ganjavi’s 12th-century poem Layla and Majnun, the exhibition features two new series of works by Seyed Alavi. Layla brings together the visual languages of Persian miniature painting and Persian rug design. Figures, patterns, colors, and motifs appear to belong to different worlds, yet gradually become inseparable. The series of tapestries representing Majnun is also fragmentary, his figure emerging from calligraphic strokes which form his gesture. Separated from Layla, Majnun's longing gradually carries him beyond the desire for the beloved and toward the discovery of love itself – a force which forms an inseparable bond in spite of their distance.

Created in collaboration with Seyed Alavi and in response to his exhibition, a dance-based performance will activate the liminal spaces between viewers and artworks in the gallery. Drawing on Alavi’s image manipulation and re-assembly techniques, the performers reimagine figure-ground relationships and explore the tensions between presence and absence, longing and love.

With performances by a group of the SFArtsED Players:
Agnes Post, Aida Samimi, Asher Wofford, Augustine Berenguer, Eve Belopolskaya, Liliana Dawson, Mira Woerner, Olivia Gale, Rosie Thau, Sage Zamora, Selah McGinley-Pak. Directed by: Natalie Greene, in collaboration with Emily Keeler and Tiersa Nureyev. Sound Direction by Stephen Parris.

The exhibition will be on view through November 14.