Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents contemporary art, performances, film, and more. Open Thu-Su from 11a–5p, and Wed 11a–8p with free admission.

Situated in the center of downtown San Francisco, YBCA functions as a dynamic platform to generate ideas and nurture the talents of emerging and established artists. Centering artists as essential to social and cultural movement, YBCA is reimagining the role an arts institution can play in the community it serves.

🌈June is Pride Month—and the YBCA calendar is full of programs and exhibitions exploring identity, activism, and liberat...
06/01/2026

🌈June is Pride Month—and the YBCA calendar is full of programs and exhibitions exploring identity, activism, and liberation.

🖊️ Join us Wednesday 6/3 from 6–8p for “Dreams, OMENS, and Language” with Small Press Traffic—an evening of readings by Bay Area writers responding to “The Prince of Homburg.” → https://bit.ly/3QtWBwn

✨On Thu 6/4 at 7p, see art, activism, and fabulousness collide during “Drag For Your Life!” Swing by during Downtown First Thursday for performances highlighting drag as radical imagination. Free! → https://bit.ly/47uBPCm

🎬 On Saturday 6/6 at 1p, catch the final installment of “New Q***r Cinema x Trans New Weird,” curated with Frameline. Watch a double feature exploring q***r adolescence and coming of age across generations. → https://bit.ly/4plVPhm

✨ Keep the celebration going on Sun 6/7 from 2–4p with Pride in Yerba Buena! Presented by Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, this outrageous afternoon promises to dazzle with drag, circus arts, music, aerial performance, and q***r joy. → https://tinyurl.com/mnnj67er

🖼️ While you’re here, don’t miss the exhibition “Conjuring Power” Wed. from 11a–8p or Thu–Sun 11a–5p. → https://bit.ly/4qgoAvA

See you in the neighborhood soon!

Photos by Mahelly Ferreira for Drew Altizer Photography and Corey Marsau

Programs for Free Wednesdays at YBCA are made possible with support from Yerba Buena Partnership, Mayor Daniel Lurie, and San Francisco Office of Economic & Workforce Development, as well as support from Rodney Strong Vineyards, ALO Drink, and Woodridge Snacks.

Downtown First Thursday programs are supported by The Svane Family Foundation, Yerba Buena Partnership, Mayor Daniel Lurie, and the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development.

05/27/2026

“Color has been a way to really draw someone into the kind of textures, the emotions, the physicality of the work.” – Diedrick Brackens

Watch our video to hear directly from Brackens and curator Eungie Joo, as they discuss the artist’s process and approach to color in “Diedrick Brackens: gather tender night.”

See the exhibition Wed from 11a–8p or Thu–Sun from 11a–5p. → https://bit.ly/4rQ9ZZg

Filmed and edited by Corey Marsau

From July 11–19, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will present “Esto No Tiene Nombre,” a one-woman show where Denice Froh...
05/23/2026

From July 11–19, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will present “Esto No Tiene Nombre,” a one-woman show where Denice Frohman uncovers and retells the stories of her Latina le***an elders.

Drawing upon interviews from “I See My Light Shining: Oral Histories of Our Elders,” the show shares intimate memories of first kisses, pre-Stonewall police raids, clandestine community gatherings, and histories erased. Through monologue, poetry, audio interviews, and visual projections, Frohman inhabits these stories as a way to break free from what she’s been carrying—and to find her own path forward.

Join us for this vibrant portrait of Latina le***an lives, families, and communities. → https://bit.ly/4dQCRMz

“Esto No Tiene Nombre” was created and developed with support from Baldwin for the Arts, Emerson Collective, Journey Arts, the Philadelphia Foundation, and The Clemente/Historias.

Video featuring “Esto No Tiene Nombre” 2025 performance at The Clemente Center.
Photos by David Evan McDowell.

Announcing new exhibitions and performances! Here’s what’s coming to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for the rest of 202...
05/18/2026

Announcing new exhibitions and performances! Here’s what’s coming to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for the rest of 2026:

📆 July 11–19: “Esto No Tiene Nombre” is a one-woman show by acclaimed poet Denice Frohman, bringing the oral histories of Latina le***an elders to life.

📆 Opening August 7: “GaHee Park: Behind the Curtain” features the artist’s surrealist paintings of domestic solitude, inner contemplation, and ambiguous layered narratives. Curated by Dorothy Dávila.

📆 Opening Sep 29: “Rael San Fratello: Prototypes and Provocations” is the most comprehensive exhibition to date by the renowned Bay Area architecture studio. Curated by René Morales.

📆 Opening Sep 29: “Dread Scott: The Body Politic” brings together work that confronts political issues and explores American patriotism. Curated by René Morales.

📆 Oct 29–31: Celebrate spooky season with the return of The Haunt, a grassroots haunted house and immersive Halloween hangout with local artists, tarot readers, DJs, and more!

Learn more about what’s coming → https://bit.ly/40Nh6Fs

Image credits:
Digital rendering of “Sanctuary,” 2026, Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael. Courtesy of Rael San Fratello.
“Esto No Tiene Nombre” performance photo by Yuri K. Fujita.
“Woman with Shadow and Ants,” 2024, Gahee Park. Photo by Guillaume Ziccarelli.
“The Workshop,” 2026, Virginia San Fratello and Ronald Rael. Courtesy of Rael San Fratello.
“Fight the Power,” Dread Scott, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Cristin Tierney Gallery.
Photo from The Haunt by Jason Henry.

05/15/2026

Air Between Us will be at the from 5/15-5/17 ! I got to preview this during their dress rehearsal and it was so fun to watch the aerial performers do everything from scale walls, to walk upside down, to soar across the room. It’s a cool new choreography by that’s shaped by gravity, trust, and interdependence. Grab your tickets now and have fun. You gotta check it out!

📍701 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103

05/11/2026

🪽🤸 May 15-17 at YBCA: Megan Lowe Dances takes flight! Experience “Air Between Us” as as our building becomes a stage for aerial dancers.

Get your tickets for dance that defies the floor → https://bit.ly/3Ns1WTM

After the Sat, May 16 performance, stick around for a post-show talk with Megan Lowe, the dancers, and Joanna Haigood, Artistic Director for Zaccho Dance Theatre.

“Split Perspectives” composed by William Cenoté. Lyrics and vocals by Megan Lowe.

On Wednesday June 3, Small Press Traffic and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts present an evening of poetic texts in dialo...
05/09/2026

On Wednesday June 3, Small Press Traffic and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts present an evening of poetic texts in dialogue with the dream-like video installation “The Prince of Homburg” by P. Staff.

Four Bay Area writers—Marcel Pardo Ariza, Snowflake Arizmendi-Calvert, Mara Hassan, and willow wilderness hour—will respond to the exhibition through newly commissioned texts which move between reflection, resistance, and reimagination.

The program celebrates the launch of Small Press Traffic’s “The Back Room” summer folio, OMENS, featuring all four writers.

Both the reading and gallery admission are free, as part of Free Wednesdays at YBCA. Guests are invited to view the video installation before or after the program.

RSVP today → https://bit.ly/3QtWBwn

Video still from “The Prince of Homburg,” courtesy of the artist and Commonwealth and Council.
Image 6 by Tommy Lau

Seen in Hyperallergic: “Diedrick Brackens: gather tender night” is a “homecoming exhibition (which) unfolds as a meditat...
05/04/2026

Seen in Hyperallergic: “Diedrick Brackens: gather tender night” is a “homecoming exhibition (which) unfolds as a meditation on personal memory, myth, and the natural world.”

In the review, Natasha Boas says “Brackens constructs stories, illustrated and embedded in the medium itself…and past traditions are reworked through the present and projected toward imagined futures.”

Read the full article → https://bit.ly/4tI0gVZ and then spend time with these works in person Wed from 11a–8p or Thu–Sun from 11a–5p → https://bit.ly/4rQ9ZZg

Photos by Natasha Boas, Charlie Villyard, and Mahelly Ferreira for Drew Altizer Photography.

We’re excited to announce that Essence Harden will be joining Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as Senior Curator.Harden m...
04/30/2026

We’re excited to announce that Essence Harden will be joining Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as Senior Curator.

Harden most recently served as curator for the 2026 editions of EXPO Chicago and the Focus section for Frieze LA, and co-curated The Hammer Museum’s biennial “Made in LA” in 2025.

Having grown up in Oakland and Berkeley, CA, Harden says “returning to the Bay Area through YBCA feels deeply meaningful. I’m excited to develop exhibitions with artists and colleagues that push aesthetic and conceptual boundaries, while situating the region within the diasporic and global exchanges shaping contemporary art.”

Harden has also served as visual arts curator at CAAM, and curated exhibitions at the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA), Art + Practice, the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), and the Oakland Museum of California, among others.

Harden will begin at YBCA in May.

🔮✨On Wed 4/29 from 5–8p, step into an evening of insight, art, and q***r imagination at Modern Q***r Tarot.Join “Conjuri...
04/24/2026

🔮✨On Wed 4/29 from 5–8p, step into an evening of insight, art, and q***r imagination at Modern Q***r Tarot.

Join “Conjuring Power” artist and deck illustrator Tanya Wischerath and co-creator Bobby Barber for exclusive tarot readings from their 78 card deck which reimagines archetypes through q***r histories.

While you’re here, go beyond the table reading and explore the exhibition “Conjuring Power,” a striking tribute to q***r resilience, transformation, and legacy.

It’s all free as part of Wednesdays at YBCA. RSVP at → https://bit.ly/41naLSe

Address

701 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA
94103

Opening Hours

Wednesday 11am - 5pm
Thursday 11am - 5pm
Friday 11am - 5pm
Saturday 11am - 5pm
Sunday 11am - 5pm

Telephone

+14159782700

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Yerba Buena Center for the Arts posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts:

Shortcuts

Share

Category