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For most of its history, San Francisco was a place for art and artists. But in the past few decades, a tech boom has driven costs of living in the area sky-high, rendering the city unavailable and uninhabitable to many of the people who have informed its rich past. Now, thanks in part to the influence and renovation of the San Francisco Museum of Art, the art community is once again booming in the city, drawing in audiences new and old.
This month, following two years of closures for renovation and the building of new structures, a brand new, humongous SFMOMA will open its doors to the public. The new museum will be the largest of its kind, boasting more than 4,000 new works and several new floors of art. One of the most exciting things about the new museum is that almost all the works were donated or are on loan to the museum. A number of those loans came from people like Thomas Weisel, a legendary banker who will have three galleries named after him.
SFMOMA’s renewal has led to a fresh art buzz in the Bay Area. More local museums are refreshing their own images to attract more visitors, art fairs are moving to the city, and galleries are expanding into San Francisco. Gallerist Jessica Silverman acknowledges that a lot of the new boom is due to SFMOMA’s influence.
“They set up the FOG Design + Art Fair, and now they are re-opening the museum…Hundreds of Bay Area collectors have rallied around the museum and, in the process, they have given even greater meaning to collecting,” she said. “I expect that many more collectors and curators will come to San Francisco on a regular basis.”
In a city with so much culture and income clash, it’s interesting that a lot of the force behind the art boom comes from tech workers.
“Galleries are selling to people who build buildings, they’re selling to people who have tech companies, they’re selling to people who are venture capitalists,” says local art dealer Tony Meier. Art then becomes a literal part of the foundation in the city where it’s always lived.
Further still, the new art buzz has also brought a different audience to the city. Because of startups and the Silicon Valley industry, people are entering San Francisco from all around the world, bringing new eyes and new ideas to the Bay Area. The art scene there is likely to continue to change and evolve, but with the influence of enormous museums like SFMOMA and its patrons, hopefully the arts community will thrive.