Sat April 27th Open 11 AM–5 PM
Press Release
YBCA Relaunches Film and Educational Programs As Part of Bay Area Now 9
Multidisciplinary Programming Throughout Exhibition Highlights Diverse Practices of Bay Area Artists and Offers Public Interactive Experiences
Image: Bay Area Now 9 artist Indira Allegra at YBCA. Photo courtesy of YBCA.
San Francisco (December 13, 2023) – Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is pleased to announce a robust slate of programming to accompany its current triennial exhibition, Bay Area Now 9 (BAN9). Designed to expand the exhibition beyond the galleries, BAN9 programming presents a series of ongoing public and educational programs that highlight artists from throughout the region. The programming brings together artists and practitioners working in a variety of disciplines, including visual art, sound, film, dance, music, poetry, fashion, social practice, and more. Offered through the spring of 2024, the programs were designed in collaboration with the BAN9 Curatorial Counsel, and offer interactive and participatory experiences for visitors to tap into their own creativity and to experience the exhibition in a more hands-on way. Recurring programs run four days per week, and are complemented by special monthly events. Among the offerings are a rotating film series, visual arts and dance workshops, community yoga classes, and weaving workshops with artists, all of which build on the themes presented in BAN9. In addition to programs through 2023, beginning in 2024, YBCA will host several new series and festivals that expand into disciplines including poetry, music, and fashion, through collaborations with multiple Bay Area organizations.
FILM
YBCA is thrilled to re-launch its film program, providing visitors with continuous access to cinematic content during exhibition hours. Organized by Curatorial Counsel member Gina Basso, the film program includes both looping video works as part of the exhibition, and a series of screenings that will take place throughout the year. In December, Prismatic Permutations will offer a collection of expanded cinema performance documentation presented by Shapeshifters Cinema—an experimental microcinema located in Oakland, CA. YBCA will also present a weekly series of filmmaking workshops curated by Shapeshifters Cinema, including a cyanotype workshop with John Davis on December 17. The full schedule of events is available at this link.
MOVEMENT + DANCE
YBCA invites people of all skill and interest levels to join free weekly dance and yoga classes. In partnership with the International Museum of Dance (IMOD), YBCA is offering classes led by a diverse array of artists from the Bay Area dance community—including MOLODI’s body percussion, Parangal’s Filipino folk dance, Clyde Evans Jr.’s Hip-Hop, and others. The classes will take place at 1pm on Saturdays in 2023 and 1pm on Sundays in 2024.
On Wednesdays from 4-5pm, YBCA is presenting Art + Asana, a class led by Suzanne Zuber, an expert guide in yoga and movement science and an arts educator, independent curator, art historian, and translator. The weekly class will begin by looking at an artwork and reflecting on it during yoga practice.
EDUCATION + WORKSHOPS
A series of ongoing workshops offer visitors the opportunity for an interactive approach to engaging with the exhibition, and to think expansively about the work on view. All listed workshops series are free with RSVP.
Weekly Events
Each Wednesday, YBCA Teaching Artist Joyce Nojima is facilitating a series of drop-in art workshops inspired by different work presented in BAN9. Taking place on Wednesdays from 2-4pm, the workshops are open to the public and welcome participants of all ages. Art materials are provided, and participants will be able to take their artwork home as a souvenir. The pARTicipate workshops take place on one of YBCA’s free admission days and align with SFUSD’s early school-release day, offering after-school engagement opportunities for local youth.
Monthly + Bimonthly Programs
Bay Area author, designer, and educator Lynda Grose will lead participants in a dynamic conversation on second-hand clothing, sustainability, and the fashion industry every Sunday. Participants can bring their own thrifted garment or browse a selection from Goodwill to take home. Participants will have the option to add a Goodwill label to their second-hand selection, sewn on by Grose, and participate in a portrait-sitting.This event is part of Grose’s larger work, the Goodwill Stories Project, which aims to bring awareness to social norms related to fashion, sustainability, branding, and labels associated with second-hand clothes. The full selection of dates is available on YBCA’s website.
Community Weaving Workshop with Charlene Tan
Throughout the run of the exhibition visitors will be invited to contribute to a large-scale weaving artwork featured in BAN9. In this workshop led by artist Charlene Tan, visitors are invited to co-create her Research and Remembering installation—an immersive woven structure that celebrates the visual language of Filipinx textile. Facilitators will guide participants through weaving patterns inspired by traditional indigenous Filipino design. YBCA launched this workshop in October and will present two more opportunities to participate on February 24 and May 4.
About Bay Area Now 9
Bay Area Now 9 is the ninth iteration of YBCA’s signature triennial exhibition, on view through May 5, 2024. Bringing together 30 artists working across a broad range of creative practices—including visual art, dance, performance, music, film, sound, new media, technology, fashion, poetry, and social practice—the exhibition underscores YBCA’s role as one of the only interdisciplinary arts centers in the Bay Area.
Bay Area Now has long been recognized as a platform for showcasing the vibrant artistic ecosystem and the rich diversity of cultures and communities that define this region. Spanning YBCA’s entire campus, including outdoor spaces, BAN9 includes site-specific commissions as well as new and historic work. The exhibition is curated by Martin Strickland, Director of Curatorial Initiatives, and independent curator Fiona Ball, under the artistic leadership of Amy Kisch, Head of Art + Public Programs, alongside a Curatorial Counsel of eight individuals from diverse disciplines and communities from throughout the Bay Area Erina Alejo, Gina Basso, Jason Bayani, Mina Girgis, Candace Huey, Aay Preston-Myint, José Ome Mazatl, and Lehua Taitano.
For more information about BAN9, including participating artists, events, programs, and workshops, visit www.ybca.org.
About Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Opened to the public in 1993, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) was founded as the cultural anchor of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens neighborhood. Our work spans the realms of contemporary art, performance, film, civic engagement, and public life. By centering artists as essential to social and cultural movement, YBCA is reimagining the role an arts institution can play in the communities it serves. For more information, visit ybca.org.
YBCA is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11:00am to 5:00pm. YBCA will be open every third Thursday from 11:00am to 8:00pm. Admission is $9 and can be purchased in person or reserved in advance at ybca.org. Admission is free every Wednesday and on the second Sunday of each month.
PRESS INQUIRIES
Abby Margulies
[email protected]
614-827-5810
