The Contemporary Jewish Museum, which has been closed to the public for over a year, now plans to sell its Yerba Buena area building in order to "right-size" the organization.

In the second example of a financially struggling museum organization in downtown San Francisco in recent years, the Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) now plans to sell off its 63,000 square foot headquarters on Mission Street at Yerba Buena Lane. Much like its would-be neighbor, the Mexican Museum, which has failed to open in nearby 706 Mission Street due to ongoing fundraising woes, the CJM has been struggling with large debts and an existential crisis, leading to the decision to sell its main asset.

As CJM Director Kerry King tells the Chronicle this week, the museum's board and remaining staff are looking at "right-sizing" the organization in order to continue its mission of celebrating Jewish culture and the diversity of the Jewish experience. Founded in 1984 as a non-collecting museum, the CJM expanded into the space at 736 Mission, a former PG&E substation, in 2008, after adding a contemporary addition to the building designed by prominent architect Daniel Libeskind.

With an annual operating budget of $7.5 million, the CJM refinanced some existing debt during the pandemic, taking out a $28 million loan.* In November 2024, the organization announced that the museum would be closing and laying off 80% of its staff, and taking a year-long hiatus to regroup. King now tells the Chronicle that they have managed to bring down the debt load by about half since that time, to $14  million, and to stabilize the endowment.

What comes next is unclear, though the organization plans to resume programming at some point, and to find new space in which to operate. One possibility King mentions is remaining in some portion of the existing building in a lease-back arrangement with a new owner.

The architect Libeskind, who the blue-metal-clad 2,200-square-foot Yud Gallery with 26 diamond-shaped windows symbolizing life in celebration of the phrase l'chaim (to life) issued a statement about the sale of the building. He said that he hopes the building "continues to inspire all who encounter it, serving as a lasting testament to Jewish life in San Francisco and the creativity and cultural exchange it was conceived to foster."

Previously: Contemporary Jewish Museum In Downtown SF to Lay Off Much of Its Staff, Close for One Year or More

*This article has been corrected to show that the museum did not acquire go into debt during pandemic, but refinanced existing debt.

This week: Protecting newt migrations, returning the Tule elk to their land, and remembering Humphrey the Humpback whale. Also, Joan Baez in Alameda, mentors for trans youth, 20 years of MoAD, calendar and puzzle fundraiser by East Bay creatives, and a 1912 tugboat for sale.

Big top music

Joan Baez has joined The Soiled Dove at Alameda Point, lending her voice to a circus set in 1890s San Francisco along the Barbary Coast. The show blends live music with acrobatics and dinner-theater, creating a lively mix of spectacle and story.

Originally set to close last weekend, its run has been extended through November 15 due to popular demand. — NBC Bay Area

Hearts in conversation

A new series, Love You for You, follows trans and nonbinary kids as they talk with the people who support them. In one conversation, an 8-year-old navigates school, family, and teasing; in another, a 16-year-old shares his coming-out story with a close family friend.

The episodes highlight small but meaningful ways mentors and relatives affirm identity — from correcting pronouns to celebrating creativity. Across generations, the series captures how guidance and care shape these young lives. Three episodes feature six conversations, all focused on thriving with love and understanding. — KQED

Woven galaxies

Museum of the African Diaspora’s Continuum marks 20 years of showcasing Black art and culture, bringing together two decades of exhibitions, programs, and artists into a living archive that celebrates creativity, resilience, and community. Among the works, Ramekon O’Arwisters’ sculpture Bitten 8 channels imagination and reckoning, using shards — discarded, jagged, and marginalized—to confront anxiety, anger, and the permanence of White-body supremacy. Continuum runs through March 1, 2026.

Additionally, O’Arwisters is hosting one of his regular CrochetJam events at MoAD on Saturday, November 6, where community members stitch together connection with the same care and energy he brings to his work. — 7 x 7

East Bay talent

East Bay creatives have turned their lens and craft toward community care with Oakland Leaves No Crumbs, a 2026 calendar and puzzle that highlight local businesses while raising funds for Centro Legal de la Raza. The project brought together photographers, stylists, and artisans who donated time, food, and props to capture everything from Lunar New Year and Day of the Dead imagery to neighborhood roasters and bakeries.

Pre-orders are open through November 11 with a launch event on December 13 showcasing food from the featured businesses as well as limited calendars and puzzles for sale. — Oaklandside

Migration under moonlight

Each winter, the California newts of Tilden Park make their perilous pilgrimage across South Park Drive, drawn toward the creeks where they breed. To spare them the wheels of passing cars, the East Bay Regional Park District closes the road from November through March — a tradition more than 25 years old.

Cyclists and hikers still pass through, moving slowly while dogs are kept at a distance; the newts’ skin carries a potent toxin. Grizzly Peak Boulevard and Wildcat Canyon Road serve as detours through migration season. — Berkeleyside

Seasoning the earth

The chaos-gardening enthusiasts at SFinBloom are inspiring the public to scatter native wildflower seeds with the casual flair of seasoning a meal — letting color and pollination make their way into nearby alleys, on medians, and other forgotten corners.

Armed with custom parmesan-style shakers filled with seeds, “Mr. Bloom” encourages people to fight “plant inequity” and climate gloom through small acts of restoration. His key advice: don’t wait for spring — plant now, and let the wild things take the lead. — SFinBloom

Returning the hills

After decades away, Tule elk have stepped onto the Sierra foothills once more, roaming lands recently restored to the Tule River Tribe. The 17,000-acre Yowlumne Hills connect tribal territory to forested corridors, opening space not only for elk but for beavers, waterways, and wildfire-resilient ecosystems.

Tribal members and supporters gathered to release the elk last week, part of broader stewardship that blends cultural knowledge, prescribed burns, and habitat restoration. The land is envisioned as a place to gather, heal, and witness the deep ties between people, wildlife, and the ancestral landscape. — SFGate

Tidelines and time machines

A 1912 wooden tugboat that once hauled cargo in Alaska has, for more than 40 years, served as the floating home of Stewart Brand — founder of The Whole Earth Catalog and co-founder of the Long Now Foundation — and it’s now for sale in Sausalito for $1.4 million.

The Mirene was converted into a one-bedroom retreat with a gourmet kitchen and library, reflecting Brand’s lifelong ethos of reuse and reinvention. Its deck faces the San Francisco skyline, a fitting view for a vessel built to endure and adapt. The 64-foot boat also includes its own tender for short trips across the Bay. — Bay Area News Group, Dwell

Riverbound whale

Forty years ago, a humpback named Humphrey took a wrong turn into the Sacramento River and turned a small Delta town into the center of the world. Rio Vista’s residents watched the 40-ton visitor thread through sloughs and levees, stuck at times, stubborn at others, as scientists, volunteers, and onlookers scrambled to guide him safely back to the river.

Kids in local classrooms today still follow his story through whale-themed reading charts and plush mascots, a reminder that his journey was both spectacle and shared memory. On November 4, 1985, Humphrey finally returned to the Pacific, leaving behind a trail of stories, flare-lit celebrations, and a town that keeps him alive in song and spirit. — KALW

Top Image: Matt Knoth/Flickr

Previously: Field Notes: Capybara Pups, Falcons, Supermarket Dance Parties, and Living on a Shellmound

The abandoned former Birkenstock factory in Marin County and the 88.5 acres it sits on have been acquired by the heirs of design icons Charles and Ray Eames, who have plans to build a major art and design museum there that will also house the Eames Archives.

You've likely seen the striking, white, multi-peaked concrete roof of the former Birkenstock factory along the 101 freeway in Novato — which was originally built to house a distribution center for publisher McGraw Hill back in 1964. Birkenstock moved out of the 123,000-square-foot building in 2019, and now the property, which includes 88.5 acres of land and another 43,000 square feet of office space, has been purchased by the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, a nonprofit that is run in part by the granddaughter of Charles and Ray Eames, Llisa Demetrios, for a reported $36 million.

Demetrios resides on Eames Ranch in Sonoma County, which was established by her mother, the only child of Charles Eames and stepchild of Ray Eames, the artist and designer Lucia Eames. And currently, the Eames Archives collection is being housed in Richmond, where tours and visits are available to the public. (Though not very available, as the Chronicle notes there's a waitlist 1,000 people long.)

The Eameses are best known as the designers of midcentury furniture, in particular the Eames lounge chair (pictured above) first produced by Herman Miller in 1956. They were also fillmmakers, and the designers of buildings, toys, and an array of more utilitarian furniture like the items seen below.

"To share my grandparents’ vision with the world is the honor of a lifetime," Demetrios says in a statement about the new museum project. "Ray and Charles’ boundless curiosity for solving problems through design has been at the core of the Eames Institute’s mission, and this expansion will allow us to share those gifts with our community on an even larger scale."

The vision for the planned museum is being led by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, who designed San Francisco's deYoung Museum, with local firm EHDD serving as executive architects.

Plans for the museum include immersive art exhibitions, makerspaces and workshops, high-impact educational programming, accessible public open space, culinary and retail offerings, and space for displaying a portion of the Eames Collection and family archives, among other collections and works.

"The acquisition of the Birkenstock campus is a transformational step for the Eames Institute — the culmination of a long-held dream and our deep commitment to the North Bay community," says John Cary, President & CEO of the Eames Institute, in a statement. "This extraordinary space will enable us to expand our programming and reach a broader audience, while serving as a permanent anchor for creativity and innovation in the Bay Area. We’re immensely grateful for the support that has brought us to this moment, and eager to bring this to life in partnership with the City of Novato."

The Eames Institute was established in 2019 and only launched publicly in 2022. It is separate from the Eames Foundation, which also oversees the preservation of Charles and Ray Eames's famed Case Study House #8 in Pacific Palisades, in Los Angeles. Until recently, the Eames House, as it's locally known, was the main design landmark associated with the couple, until the Archives, based in Richmond, were opened to the public in February 2024.

The institute also now owns San Francisco-based William Stout Architectural Books.

The debut of the Novato museum, which still does not have an official name, will mark the most significant publicly accessible design mecca for all things Eames, with an opening date to be in announced in the coming years.

Calling the news about the museum "incredibly exciting, David C. Howse, the president of California College of the Arts, says, "The Eames legacy is a cultural treasure, and the Institute’s new campus will be a platform to share this more broadly than ever before."

An exhibit of the Eameses' later furniture designs is currently on view at the Transamerica complex in downtown San Francisco. It's open daily from 10 am to 5 pm at the Transamerica Pyramid Annex Gallery, 535 Washington Street.

The saga of San Francisco's Mexican Museum, which has not actually had a museum space to call home for the better part of a decade, continues to be a troubled one.

Last we heard, the Mexican Museum in San Francisco had announced its intention to open its first phase in a new location at 706 Mission Street by early 2025, a city audit in March 2024 suggested that likely wasn't possible, a subsequent Chronicle headline called out "misuse of funds" and said the museum's future was "in doubt," and museum's board fired back that the Chronicle piece was "full of misrepresentations, erroneous assertions, and slanderous accusations targeting the museum’s leadership and management practices."

No retraction was made after the museum threatened legal action against the Chronicle, but the Chronicle piece did note a correction made to "better reflect the language used in the audit."

Originally founded in Mission District in 1975, the Mexican Museum has had its sizeable collection in storage since 2018, when it closed its former location in Fort Mason Center. A new location was built in the first four floors of the Four Seasons Private Residences at 706 Mission, a building that was completed in 2020, via an agreement with the city and its former Redevelopment Agency — now the Office of Community Infrastructure and Investment (OCII). The city controls the space, which it has had a contract to lease to the museum since 2012. The museum, as part of the agreement, was supposed to begin construction on tenant improvements in the space — a project that could cost around $50 million or more — within 24 months of receiving the keys to the space, which reportedly occurred in the summer of 2023.

Since then, as the Chronicle now reports, the museum has said it has pledges totaling $16 million. But last week, the museum missed a June 14 deadline to secure its access to that cash, which puts a $6.6 million grant from the city at risk — though OCII has apparently given the museum a 60-day reprieve.

Construction of its first phase of the buildout is expected to cost around $11 million, and the museum had until June 14 to raise around $4.5 million from private donors to qualify for the release of the city funds.

The city's Real Estate Division has now issued a default notice to the museum, and it now faces a potential lease termination.

The city gave the museum two months to complete its first-phase buildout, which is most certainly not going to happen.

"The city reasonably anticipates that [the museum] will fail to meet this lease obligation, and therefore, the city is giving notice of this anticipatory breach and the opportunity to cure," said Andrico Penick, director of the city’s Real Estate Division, in the notice of default, per the Chronicle.

Board members of the museum have yet to comment on the situation. Former board secretary Xochitl Castañeda, a UC Berkeley professor, confirmed to the Chronicle that she is no longer involved with the organization.

It was Castañeda who issued the scathing press release last March about the Chronicle piece, saying in part, "The Mexican Museum is entitled to cultural parity within the Yerba Buena Gardens, aligning with the standards of other premier City art institutions. The people of San Francisco and the State of California deserve a world class institution that accurately reflects and honors Latino narratives, and the City and County of San Francisco must affirm its commitment to realizing The Mexican Museum’s future home at 706 Mission Street."

As the Chronicle notes, "The Mexican Museum's fundraising may have been hurt by its lack of physical galleries to show off its collection to donors. But, there were signs that it was cash-strapped long before the pandemic."

And former Supervisor Aaron Peskin sounded a note of hopelessness for the museum's future under Mayor Daniel Lurie, telling the Chronicle that former Mayor London Breed was aware of the realities with the Mexican Museum's finances but "didn’t want to upset the apple cart while she was running for reelection.”

"This organization does not have the capacity, it has repeatedly failed to perform and it’s time for the city to move on," Peskin tells the paper.

Photo via the Mexican Museum

The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (ICA SF) opened as planned over the weekend in its new digs in The Cube building at 345 Montgomery Street.

It's a major move for the ICA SF, which was founded in 2022 and has spent two years in a more modest space in Dogpatch. The museum was started with seed funding from the couple behind the Minnesota Street Project, Andy and Deborah Rappaport, as well as Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and his wife Kaitlyn Trigger, who are underwriting the salary of museum director Ali Gass for the first three years.

We learned in late August that, in a deal with Vornado Realty Trust, the ICA SF was moving to this 73,000-square-foot building, and will get to stay there rent-free for the first two years.

Ethan Beard, the chairman of the ICA SF, said in an August statement that the move to the Financial District "is looking to take advantage of our nimbleness and size to quickly adapt to opportunities," and Beard added, "We are trying to build something that is a lasting institution and looking to find a more sustainable financial path."

The museum's mission is "to make contemporary art relevant and meaningful for all audiences," and it is a non-collecting museum that exhibits art from artists around the globe. As it was in its Dogpatch space, the new museum on Montgomery Street is free to enter, and each weekend from 11 am to 5 pm it will feature a Makers Studio, with crafting for all ages.

The opening exhibitions in the new space include The Poetics of Dimensions, a group show curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah that includes "the works of visual artists who have honed artistic practices utilizing quotidian materials such as durags, shoelaces, felt, leather, single-use plastic, and more."

Also on view is a collection of sculptures by New York-based artist Kathleen Ryan, which are larger-than-life depictions of rotting food made with encrusted stones and faux gemstones.

Telegraph Hill resident Lisa Kenney, who attended the museum's opening weekend, tells the Chronicle that she's happy to see the long-vacant, former Bank of America flagship branch building put to use.

"I’ve been looking at this building for ages, and it’s always been empty," Kenney says. "This is a big step to making this area more vital."

The ICA SF is open Wednesday to Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm, and in keeping with downtown SF art-world tradition, it will be open late on Thursdays, until 7 pm.

Previously: Institute of Contemporary Art Moving to Downtown SF's 'Cube' Building

The two-year-old Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco is expanding and moving to a new space in San Francisco's Financial District, in a deal with a real estate investment firm.

"Vornado Realty Trust has invited us to partner with them to activate The Cube (a unique historic building at 345 Montgomery Street, the heart of the Financial District Downtown) for two years starting this fall," the ICASF writes in an Instagram post. "Their offer will pave the way for financial sustainability and fully commit our resources to excellent contemporary art."

The Cube is a 73,000-square-foot contemporary building, designed by Skidmore Owings & Merrill in 1971 and recently redeveloped by the same firm, that originally served as Bank of America's flagship retail branch location. It sits adjacent to and downhill from the entry plaza of 555 California, which was originally built as Bank of America's headquarters, and has been sitting vacant for quite a while. (As the Chronicle notes, both 555 California and The Cube are partly owned by the Trump Organization, which maintains a 30% stake in the properties.)

As the New York Times reports, the ICASF will relocate there after the closing of its current exhibition in its Dogpatch space on September 15. It will reopen on October 25 at 345 Montgomery with a group show put together by independent curator Larry Ossei-Mensah, to coincide with Black Art Week.

"This move is looking to take advantage of our nimbleness and size to quickly adapt to opportunities,” says Ethan Beard, the chairman of the ICASF, speaking to the Times. "We are trying to build something that is a lasting institution and looking to find a more sustainable financial path."

Vornado Realty Trust has offered the space to the museum rent-free and utility-free for two years.

The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco opened in 2022 at 901 Minnesota Street, in a former kids' gynasium, with the help of $1 million in seed funding from the couple behind the Minnesota Street Project, Andy and Deborah Rappaport.

The museum is not affiliated with other institutions with similar names, like the Institute of Contemporary Art in San Jose, where ICASF director Alison Gass formerly worked.

"The ICASF has quickly become an essential part of San Francisco's vibrant arts scene," says Mayor London Breed in a statement. "The move to 345 Montgomery Street not only reflects the growth of the institition, but also the city's commitment to fostering a dynamic cultural environment and revitalizing our downtown landscape."

Breed's statement adds, "I'm thrilled to see this new chapter unfold, and to witness the impact that ICASF will continue to have on our community and beyond."

21 museums across San Francisco will be open to the public free of charge on the weekend of December 3, thanks to some generous, anonymous patrons of the arts who are underwriting the weekend.

The Chronicle reported Monday that the SF Free Museum Weekend will be divided into two days, December 3 and 4, with a group of museums open for free each day. These include museums both big and small — and the special exhibitions, like the Diego Rivera retrospective at SFMOMA, will be free as well.

"In these economically challenging and politically divided times, museums provide a critical place of discourse, reflection and inspiration,"says Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, in a statement. “Increasing access to art spaces and removing barriers to experiencing art is crucial.”

The museums are asking for people to reserve tickets — and these are likely to be crowded days.

Saturday, December 3 will be the day for the de Young Museum and Legion of Honor, the Cartoon Art Museum; Museum of Craft and Design, the Walt Disney Family Museum, California Academy of Sciences, GLBT Historical Society Museum, American Bookbinders Museum: Letterform Archive, SF Camerawork, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts: Truhlsen-Marmor Museum of the Eye, Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, and the Minnesota Street Project.

And on Sunday, December 4, the free museums will be SFMOMA, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Museum of African Diaspora, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Children’s Creativity Museum, the Asian Art Museum, and The Exploratorium.

Some museums across the city offer free days once a month — like SFMOMA, which for many years has had a tradition of being open for free on the first Thursday of every month. But this is the first time in memory that such a coordinated free museum day has been organized around the holidays.

"The San Francisco Free Museum Weekend couldn’t come at a better time," says Jay Xu, director and CEO of the Asian Art Museum, in a statement. "As we re-emerge from the challenges of the past months, Bay Area museums are here to help our communities reconnect with each other and with the artists that inspire them."

Photo: Georg Eiermann

San Francisco's newest art museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (ICASF), is readying for an October opening, and this week the non-collecting museum announces its latest philanthropic bequest.

First announced last fall, the ICASF has garnered interest from SF's tech and venture-capitalist worlds, which have historically stood apart from San Francisco's art and culture scene and the city's established donor bases for the arts. Underwritten with $1 million in seed funding from Andy and Deborah Rappaport, the couple behind the five-year-old Minnesota Street Project, the ICASF is taking shape inside another building in Dogpatch, a former kids' gymnasium at 901 Minnesota Street.

Also among the early donors were Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and his wife Kaitlyn Trigger, who offered to fund the salary of museum director Ali Gass for the first three years. Gass previously served as director of the unaffiliated Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose.

The Chronicle reports that a new, unrestricted $1 million gift has just come in from venture capitalist David Hornik and philanthropist Pamela Hornik, who previously underwrote exhibitions at the ICA San Jose.

"It’s not that often that the opportunity comes along to be involved at the inception, the very start of a museum," said Pamela Hornik in a statement to the Chronicle. "That opportunity, and my connection to Ali going back to our time together when she was curator there, was irresistible."

The Horniks are collectors themselves, and others in the local art world tell the Chronicle that the couple has been deeply involved with the art institutions and artists — Pamela Hornik also serves on director’s advisory board at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, and as a trustee of the Berkeley Art Museum. Berkeley artist Lava Thomas tells the paper that the couple "have been incredibly supportive, not only to my own career, but to many artists, especially from marginalized communities and artists of color."

The opening shows this fall at the ICASF will be exhibitions of work by Jeffrey Gibson, Liz Hernandez, and Ryan Whelan, and a group show titled "Resting Our Eyes," curated by Tahirah Rasheed and Autumn Breon.

Like other unaffiliated ICAs around the country, including the one in San Jose that Gass previously worked for, ICA SF is taking a pragmatic approach to its mission — and being a non-collecting institution is part of that.

"Collections cost an enormous amount to display and preserve,” Gass told the Chronicle last year. "One of the tenets of ICA SF is to address issues of pay equity for artists and staff. Instead of an arms race of collecting, we are committed to paying artists and museum workers an above-average salary for our region."

The buildout is nearing completion, and Gass says that the unrestricted gift comes just in time, as unexpected expenses keep arising.

The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco opens October 1 to the general public. Follow them on Instagram for more updates.

ICASF - 901 Minnesota Street  - Opening October 1

Photo via Instagram

A national search for the Exploratorium’s new chief has yielded the former CEO of PBS North Carolina Lindsay Bierman, who digs weightlifting and CBD.

This evening’s installment of the Exploratorium's popular Thursday night cocktails-and-DJ museum night will be After Dark: Sexplorations, featuring sexy talks and exhibits like Sex Lives of Zebrafish, Live Sex Show: Sea Urchin Egg Fertilization, and Gonad A-Go-Go ("Take an inside look at bull testicles, pig ovaries, and other impressively sized organs").

But what the Exploratorium is really swooning over is that they’ve completed their national search for a new executive director. The Chronicle reports that the Exploratorium has announced a new executive director, 56-year-old Lindsay Bierman, most recently a UNC chancellor and CEO of PBS North Carolina

“I think I will spend 110% of my time on fundraising,” Bierman told the Chronicle, in a statement that might not necessarily turn on the zebrafish. “There is nothing more gratifying than aligning philanthropic interests and goals with institutional vision.”

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A post shared by Lindsay Bierman (@lindsaybierman)

Yet Bierman does have an interesting resume and biography, as seen above with his weightlifting and “CBD at bedtime really helps!” recommendation. The Detroit native has a master’s in architecture, and for the last seven years has served as Chancellor of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and as CEO of PBS North Carolina. He left, however, in part because North Carolina’s same-sex marriage laws have made healthcare benefits difficult for his partner to obtain.

Bierman’s first day on the job is April 15, 2022.

You may want to pop over to the Exploratorium to congratulate them sometime on the new hire. But sorry, the pitch-black but very fun Tactile Dome remains closed over COVID-19 restrictions.

Related: ‘Dinosaur Train’ Host Named New Director of the Academy of Sciences

Image: lindsaybierman via Instagram

San Francisco is getting an Institute of Contemporary Art — a new contemporary art museum without a permanent collection — in the already artsy Dogpatch neighborhood, and it's being partially bankrolled by the same folks behind the Minnesota Street Project.

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) San Francisco is coming to 901 Minnesota Street, an 11,000-square-foot industrial warehouse space that was formerly a kids' gymnasium. As the New York Times reports, its director will be Ali Gass, who formerly directed the ICA San Jose, and has held curator positions at SFMOMA and Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center.

The new museum has raised $2.5 million so far, which includes $1 million in seed funding from Andy and Deborah Rappaport, the couple behind the five-year-old Minnesota Street Project down the street.

Other ICAs already exist in Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and elsewhere, though they are unaffiliated museums.

"There is a truism in the venture capital world that the best companies get started at the worst times,” says Andy Rappaport, who is also a partner at August Capital, in a quote to the Chronicle. “We were attuned coming out of COVID to saying, how can we take advantage of the fact that there is a fertile environment now for that kind of creative thinking, and frankly a lot of energy for positivity and moving forward."

Also among the ICA San Francisco's first funders is Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and his wife Kaitlyn Trigger, who have agreed to fund the director's salary for the first three years.

Krieger tells the Chronicle, "We love getting in on the ground floor in the investing world,” said Mike Krieger. “(ICA San Francisco) is just getting started, getting ready to build out their space, creating their first programming."

Gass tells the Times that she was attracted to the idea of a non-collecting museum when she took the job at ICA San Jose.

"Collections cost an enormous amount to display and preserve,” she says. “One of the tenets of ICA SF is to address issues of pay equity for artists and staff. Instead of an arms race of collecting, we are committed to paying artists and museum workers an above-average salary for our region."

As for what the new museum will show, Gass says it will be 50-50 split between up-and-coming Bay Area artists and established artists.

"Starting an institution from scratch allows us to think deeply about contemporary art as a navigation tool for local and global issues," Gass tells the Times.

And as she told the Chronicle, "I think more than ever, museums are going to be less kind of formal discussions about our historical sort of artistic progression and much more, ‘Let’s learn with and through contemporary art practice how we can be better global citizens.’"

Construction is underway and the plan is to open ICA San Francisco next summer. The space will be open, however, while under construction, in January, to coincide with the FOG Design+Art Fair.

Photo: Google Street View

After being closed for over a year, the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) will reopen to the public on June 18 — which will also kick-off the museum's three free community access days.

Like San Francisco's roster of cultural institutions, OMCA has contended with the pandemic by hosting virtual panels and digital galleries, mixed in with the occasional outdoor happening. But no longer will Oakland's foremost museum have to shackle itself to WiFi speeds and 3D renderings; starting June 18, both the on-site galleries and campus will reopen to the public.

Announced in a press release, OMCA will again be open to the public after a long period of closure due to COVID-19, which inadvertently allowed for construction work on OMCA’s campus renovation project that included the reinstallation of its sculpture garden.

In its initial phase, the museum will be open to the public Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in order to manage capacity and prioritize safety. (Though California is set to drop its mask-wearing and social-distancing mandates on June 15, it's unclear how this will affect the museum’s capacity limits.) And from June 18 to June 20, admission into OMCA will be free of charge as part of their community access program.

The newly-redesigned outdoor gardens — which will be accessible for free — are set to open in tandem with the museum’s Galleries of California Art, History, and Natural Sciences; guests will need to purchase and reserve tickets in advance to access the latter galleries.

Visitors can expect to see exhibits like 2020's You Are Here: California Stories on the Map, and also other ongoing exhibitions, Dorothea Lange: Photography as Activism and Black Power, IRL... as opposed to viewing them behind a computer or phone screen.

“We are thrilled to finally be reopening, and to welcome back the community that has done so much to help sustain us during this challenging time,” said OMCA Director and CEO Lori Fogarty in the release. “We’re excited to share the updates that have taken place on campus during the closure, which have enhanced the Museum’s role as a public gathering place by creating new spaces for the community to convene."

Set to debut alongside the museum galleries later this summer is OMCA's new cafe, Town Fare — Brown Sugar Kitchen owner Tanya Holland's newest project, featuring a predominantly plant-based, environmentally sustainable menu. Also opening this summer will be the first major temporary exhibition since the museum closed: Mothership: Voyage Into Afrofuturism, a celebration of Black imagination and the ways in which Afrofuturism is present in our everyday lives.

For more information on OMCA's current on-display exhibits, as well as ticket information, visit museumca.org.

Related: The Castro's Renowned GLBT Historical Society Museum Now Open to the Public

Image: Courtesy of OMCA

San Francisco’s Legion of Honor museum is set to reopen next month, on May 7, with two new exhibits — one of which celebrates the culture of food and drink in Pompeii, which the museum's director says was “kind of the Sonoma Valley of ancient Rome.”

While sister museum the deYoung reopened to the public in early March, the Legion of Honor has waited for more restrictions to be lifted. It will open to members of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) on May 5, and then to the general public on the 7th, the museum announced Thursday. Online ticket purchases are encouraged, and those go on sale next week, on April 14.

"We’re all very excited that the end of this long period of constraint seems to be in sight," says Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of FAMSF, in a statement to the Chronicle. "That said, we’re still taking quite a cautious approach for the safety of our staff and visitors."

Like the deYoung's rules, museum-goers are asked to stay six feet apart and remain masked indoors, and not to enter the museum if you are feeling sick. And there's a bunch of hygiene theater with hand sanitation stations the wiping of high-touch surfaces.

When the Legion of Honor welcomes the public back in, there will be two new exhibits to see. One, which originated at Oxford in 2019, is titled "Last Supper in Pompeii: From the Table to the Grave," and FAMSSF Ancient Art and Interpretation curator Renee Dreyfus has expanded the show with items from the museums' own collections.

The exhibit features 150 objects, including Roman sculpture, mosaics, frescoes, and precious metals, all around the theme of food, drink, and celebration in Pompeii before its destruction by Mount Vesuvius erupting in 79 A.D.

Comparing Pompeii to Sonoma, Campbell says, the theme of "feasting and rituals of food in the shadow of the destruction of Pompeii" took on new meaning since the exhibition was first being planned, with so many of us having our own brushes with mortality and needing to refrain from gathering.

"That tempus fugit sense is very much at the heart of the exhibition," Campbell tells the Chronicle.

The other new exhibit features the work of Kenyan American artist Wangechi Mutu, in a show titled "I Am Speaking, Are You Listening?" Mutu, a Brooklyn-based multimedia artist, is known for large-scale collages, sculpture, and video works, and her pieces will be on display in the museum's courtyard and in the Rodin Galleries.

Campbell tells the Chronicle that Mutu's works provide a "poetic counterpoint" to the Legion of Honor's collection, which was "made for white Europeans who prospered from global expansion and colonialism."  

The "Last Supper" show is on through August 29, and Wangechi Mutu's work will be up through November 7.

Another exhibition that will be on for another month after the museum reopens is "The Book of Now: Dieter Roth and Ed Ruscha," featuring the limited edition artist's books produced by Dieter Roth and California artist Ed Ruscha.

Over the past few days, many of San Francisco's bastions for arts and culture have started to emerge from their SIP-spun chrysalises, welcoming the public back into their hallowed halls — and The Castro's beloved GLBT Historical Society Museum is among one of them.

As we've reported prior, SF's museums, science centers, and other like-minded institutions are now allowed to reopen... if they follow certain City-mandated COVID-19 safety guidelines. For example: SFMOMA opened to the public today with crowd capacities capped at 25 percent and, like the Conservatory of Flowers — which opened its doors this past Thursday — those wishing to venture inside must have prior reserved their tickets online and agreed to all the present safety measures. Saturday, the GLBT Historical Society Museum, too, started to again greet guests (new and old) to peruse its exhibits.

Understandably, no new on-site displays are featured in the museum as of now; the same exhibits, which include Performance, Protest, & Politics: The Art of Gilbert Baker and the permanent Queer Past Becomes Present showcase, that were on display some six months ago still populate the 4127 18th Street address.

“For me, it’s about young kids. It’s 2020, but kids still get a lot of bullying and I think it’s important that people can get a sense of their heritage and identity from these stories that they don’t necessarily get at school or at home,” says GLBT Historical Society Museum's Executive Director Terry Beswick, who's also an AIDS-era activist and local founding member of ACT UP — a grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic — to the Examiner.

Beswick waxes that the reopening of the nexus for queer history and LGBTQ+ activism was far from an easy feat, given the City's musical chairs of health orders, as well as ever-changing information about the coronavirus and tight financial resources.

Nevertheless, the collective persisted — and the much-loved touchstone for queer history (that's also a conduit for both local and national political engagement) is open to the masses again.

Like we hinted at prior: it's not exactly business as normal. Only a select number of time-specific tickets will be available each operational day, and they must be purchased online in advance. To ensure the well-being of those also snaking through the galleries during your visit, museum-goers must agree to a temperature check and fill out a general health questionnaire before entering the building.

And if you're still uneasy about venturing out in public amid the global health crisis, don't fret: the GLBT Historical Society Museum still has a plethora of virtual exhibits to fawn over. You can find those online displays — like their incredibly well-curated ode to Pride's 50th anniversary this year — at glbthistory.org/online-exhibitions

For more information on the museum’s operating hours and days, as well as ticket information and COVID-19 safety etiquettes, visit glbthistory.org/museum-about-visitor-info

Related: Bay Area Now 78% 'Red' On State's COVID-19 Reopening Map

SFMOMA Set To Reopen Next Week With New Large-Scale Wall Projects, Pandemic-Inspired Artwork

Image: Visitors at the Main Gallery of museum viewing the "Life and Death in Black and White: AIDS Direct Action in San Francisco, 1985–1990" exhibit that was on display from March 2012 through July 2012. (Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons via GKoskovich)

Many of San Francisco's notable art hubs — like the de Young Museum and Asian Art Museum — opened this week at 25 percent capacity. And SFMOMA, too, is set to open its doors on October 1, revealing a new indoor mural and a timely collection featuring Bay Area artists’ responses to the pandemic.

Like we reported earlier this week, 78 percent of the Bay Area is in the “red” on CA's COVID-19 reopening map — which, for San Francisco, means churches, gyms, and, of course, museums can open at limited capacity. With that news, SFMOMA is gearing up to reopen to members of the institution on October 1 and will open its doors to the general public on October 4. Out of the exhibits on display, both non-members and insiders will have a chance to gaze up at an all-new, expansive indoor mural and an exhibit inspired by local artists' takes on the pandemic.

Among the to-be-revealed works, none perhaps are as striking and captivating as Twin Walls Mural Company's Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams, which was commissioned just or SFMOMA. It’s a self-described deeply personal project from artists Elaine Chu and Marina Perez-Wong, who say that the piece is rich with symbolism — chakras are found throughout the piece and exist as the foreground for the 46-foot-long, floor-to-ceiling mural.

Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams also focuses on the "healing and resiliency" in response to the imbalances of our world from COVID-19, generational trauma, pollution, and inequality; Perez-Wong’s is also battle battling stage IV breast cancer, so the work harps on that chord, as well.

(The piece lives as part of a greater series at the museum called Bay Area Walls, an initiative meant to fill SFMOMA with suitable works that reflect the local artist community, as well as larger, global issues at hand.)

SFMOMA will also present the Close to Home: Creativity in Crisis, an exhibition featuring seven local artists’ responses to the pandemic, beginning next week. The collection brings together seven Bay Area artists — among them Carolyn Drake, Rodney Ewing, and Andres Gonzales — to share how they perceive the COVID-19 pandemic and, frankly, this moment in human history.

The works, which will all be featured in the museum’s third-floor photography galleries — though, it's not all too clear if all the on-display projects will solely be made up of photographs — wax on how this year's disrupted our collective daily routines; thrown us into endless protesting and rallying; left millions woefully unemployed and financially precarious; and, more or less, made us all say that "2020 can't get anywhere worse.”

That is until it actually does.

But at least we'll have some sublime expressions of creativity to look at… whenever the next blow this year decides to inevitably throw down on all of us hits.

Both Close to Home: Creativity in Crisis and Bay Area Walls will be displayed alongside ongoing exhibits like Elemental Calder, Open Ended, and Thought Pieces. SFMOMA is also celebrating two weeks of "Free Community Days and free parking at the museum" from October 4 to October 18.

You can read more about the museum’s safety protocols and COVID-19 visitor guidelines, here.

Related: Bay Area Now 78% 'Red' On State's COVID-19 Reopening Map

SFMOMA Executive Steps Down After Instagram Institutional Racism Incident

Image: Courtesy of Katherine Du Tiel, via SFMOMA

The newly named executive director of the California Academy of Sciences doesn’t just play “paleontologist Dr. Scott” on the Jim Henson Company animated series Dinosaur Train, he is a renowned fossil expert and CEO of Science World British Columbia.

A major shake-up in the San Francisco museum community hit the fan earlier this month when society-pages heiress Dede Wilsey stepped down as board president of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which runs the Legion of Honor and the de Young Museum. But across from the de Young, we have a major executive-level change at the California Academy of Sciences as well. The San Francisco Business Times reports that the Academy of Sciences has hired a new executive director, one whom watchers of children’s television programming may know as Dr. Scott from the PBS show Dinosaur Train.

His full name is Dr. Scott D. Sampson, and since the 2009 debut of Dinosaur Train he’s popped up at the end of each animated episode for a live-action segment explaining some dinosaur curriculum to the children. It’s unclear whether he will remain with the Jim Henson Company-produced series, which is expected to release new episodes this summer, but you can have a look at the type of segment he does below.

Those bits are kind of “eat your vegetables” educational content in an otherwise whimsical children’s television series about English-speaking cartoon dinosaurs who ride trains and often break into musical numbers. The show has produced the quite funny cult-hit number “Every Dinosaur Poops,” and below we see its opening theme that seemingly indicates the dinosaur mom has maintained multiple romantic partners.

But Dr. Sampson has bona fides well beyond that of a children’s show. According to an Academy of Sciences announcement, “Sampson is highly regarded for his expertise on Late Cretaceous dinosaurs, from theropods in Madagascar to horned dinosaurs in North America.” He’s currently CEO of Science World British Columbia, has previously served in high-level positions at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and the Natural History Museum of Utah.

So the Academy has hired a legitimate science guy, an encouraging sign they will not go the Instagram-trap route that is the current fad in San Francisco museum exhibition. Sampson’s tenure at the Academy of Sciences begins September 3, 2019.

Related: The 10 Coolest Niche Museums In San Francisco [SFist]