The SFUSD (San Francisco Unified School District) Arts Festival is a nine-day celebration of student creativity. It was originated in 1987 by the San Francisco Arts Commission in partnership with the SFUSD, the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums, and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, originally called the San Francisco Youth Arts Festival. This year the 26th annual festival will be hosted by the Asian Art Museum at 200 Larkin Street in the Civic Center.
This year’s festival will present a generous variety of offerings in the performing arts, including different styles of music and dance. Those performances will take place from Sunday, March 3, through Friday, March 8. Events begin at 10 a.m. on all days except Sunday, when they begin at 11 a.m. The program generally run until about 2 p.m., with an evening event on Thursday that will run from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. A detailed schedule will be found on the Calendar of Events page of the Festival Web site.
Of particular interest is the fact that Sunday is Target Free Museum Day. This covers the entire Asian Art Museum space except for the Terracotta Warriors, which will require a special surcharge of $10 for all visitors over the age of eighteen. The featured performers that day will be the San Francisco Boys Chorus, the Hamlin School Girls Chorus, and the Presidio School Jazz Band.
The Thursday evening event will be the annual presentation of the Dreamcatcher Awards, which honor educators and community partners who have contributed significantly to arts education in San Francisco. Beginning at 5 p.m., the awards presentation will be preceded by Taiko Drums from the Academy of Arts and Sciences, the A. P. Giannini Jazz Band, and the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts Choir. The presentation of the awards will then be followed by the Presidio Middle School Jazz Band and the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts Orchestra.
Comments