The San Francisco Bay Area, California

The San Francisco Bay Area, Can disaster be a good thing for the arts? In the California San Francisco Bay Area, the answer is a qualified “yes.” A terrible earthquake has shaken loose mil- lions of dollars for the arts, while urban sprawl has boosted the development of arts centers right in the communities where people live. After the Loma Prieta earthquake struck in 1989, many key institutions were declared unsafe and had to be closed, fixed and primped. Here’s what reopened in the past five years alone: American Conservatory Theatre (ACT), the city’s major repertory theater, for $27 million; the War Memorial Opera House, home of the San Francisco Opera and Ballet, for $88 million; and on the fine arts front, the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, for $40 million; and the Cantor Center for the Visual Arts at Stanford University, for $37 million. Another $130 million is being raised to rebuild the seismically crippled M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, and at least $30 million is being sought to repair the Berkeley Art Museum. Within San Francisco itself, a vital visual arts center has been forged just within the last five years with the opening of the new $62 million San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Meanwhile the Jewish Museum, the Asian Art Museum, the Mexican Museum and a new African-American cultural center all plan to move to seismically safe buildings in the area in the next two years. Art galleries, on the other hand, limp along compared with those in Los Angeles or New York. One spokesperson, who didn’t wish to be named, at a major San Francisco museum puts it bluntly: “San Francisco is still not so good for rising young artists, but for dead artists it’s get- ting a lot better.” The San Francisco Bay Area is perhaps better known as a performing arts destination. University of California at Berkeley’s Cal Performances and the independent San Francisco Performances present international stars like Mikhail Baryshnikov, Salif Keita and Itzhak Perlman. The Bay Area also has one of the most enthusiastic dance audiences in the country, supporting major touring groups as well as the acclaimed San Francisco Ballet, at least eight smaller ballet companies with regular seasons, plus about a dozen modern dance troupes and even a festival of Japanese Butoh dance. In the last few years, the San Francisco Symphony has gotten a boost under the leader- ship of charismatic conductor and “great sales- man” Michael Tilson Thomas, and the symphony 88 REPORTING THE ARTS signed an amicable new contract after a tense wag, though, says the local rock scene suffers nine-week strike that ended in 1997. Meanwhile, from “enthusiastic mediocrity.” Rob van Haaren, San Francisco Opera has been praised for its an internationally known swing instructor, bold decision to take on the “Ring” cycle this meanwhile has called the Bay Area “the swingiest San Francisco year, although it is also under attack by critics city in the world” with its profusion of zoot-suit- Metropolitan Area who charge that it has been failing to bring in top ed dance bands and the thriving underground Population: 6,605,428 talent. But the most significant thing about clas- hip-hop scene. Top Five Cultural sical music, according to Georgia Rowe, the clas- The Bay Area’s strong ethnic communities Institutions sical music critic at the Contra Costa Times, is often organize their own arts events underneath (based on attendance) “the sheer volume of music being produced here, the radar of critics and major arts institutions. 1. California Academy of with groups at every level from amateur to top The Mexican rock group Mana recently filled Sciences 2. Alcatraz quality.” Regional symphonies, choral groups and large stadiums with fans without being 3. Exploratorium the early music community, led by Philharmonia reviewed by most of the English-language daily 4. San Francisco Museum Baroque Orquestra, are particularly strong. newspapers. Bay Area Mexican, Chinese, of Modern Art The theater still faces certain challenges. Filipino, Indian and Cuban arts groups are 5. Fine Arts Museums One repertory house, ACT, is the big fish in a especially active. small theater pond. A “Best of Broadway” series Arts funding remains a mixed bag. Within brings in major musicals like “Rent” and “Bring the city of San Francisco, organizations benefit in ’Da Noise, Bring in ’Da Funk,” and local gay from a built-in hotel tax that awarded $11 mil- theater is thriving. But the region’s big weak- lion to nearly 200 groups last year. Others ness is a “minor-league attitude—an unwilling- depend heavily on NEA funding, and many were ness to embrace something new unless it’s disappointed when skimpier awards were already been tried out of town,” according to announced in 1998. Smaller organizations that Contra Costa Times theater critic Pat Craig. have survived the cutbacks often attribute their That may explain why the area doesn’t originate success to intensifying their relationship with many touring plays. their communities. As usual, the really big Recently, the Bay Area has been dubbed with money goes to the largest, most established the hopeful moniker of “Hollywood North,” now groups. Everyone else struggles. that a few more L.A. filmmakers are choosing to One unusual factor puts the squeeze on Bay make their films in the Bay Area, partially Area arts. In the dead of winter, snowed-in because hangars on decommissioned military Bostonians or Minnesotans might opt for a cozy bases have become available as sound stages. The visit to museums or the theater. But Bay Area proximity of Silicon Valley talent helps explain residents can always choose a hike at Stinson why Pixar, with its creation of “Toy Story” and “A Beach, followed by citrus risotto at gourmet Bug’s Life,” leads the way in producing comput- restaurant Chez Panisse. The great outdoors and erized animation for film, while George Lucas’ a thriving culture of food compete with the arts Industrial Light & Magic regularly wins Oscars year-round. for its high-tech special effects. The area is also a Geography, as they say, is destiny. As the Bay hotbed of documentary filmmaking. Just last Area grows and traffic worsens, arts centers are year, five Bay Area documentaries were accepted expanding and new ones are springing up to at the Sundance Film Festival out of a total of 16. meet increased local demand. Affluent San Jose Why? As film pundit Mark Taylor has been quot- residents, for example, support the San Jose ed saying: “Northern California is a place where Repertory Theater, the San Jose Symphony, the people are unafraid to try things; it’s always been San Jose Museum of Art and the new $96 mil- a frontier.” lion Tech Museum of Innovation, plus an explo- The Bay Area is a destination for any major sion of dance. Even suburban areas near San rock, country or jazz act, and it has lately pro- Francisco, such as Marin and Contra Costa, fund duced its share of top rock bands including their own theater groups, symphonies and dance Green Day, Counting Crows, Third Eye Blind companies. Arts lovers can no longer go to San and Rancid, as well as jazz stars such as Benny Francisco and see it all, for the future seems to Green and Joshua Redman. One music industry promise even stronger arts hubs around the Bay. NATIONAL ARTS JOURNALISM PROGRAM 89 After a feisty, decades-long news war with William Randolph Hearst’s Examiner, the 130-year-old Chronicle was recently bought by its rival. If the morning and afternoon papers merge, the Chronicle may soon be the only local paper left on San Francisco’s newsstands. Despite the long and bitter struggle, the two papers entered a joint operating agree- ment. A cornerstone of their cultural détente is the “pink” weekend “Datebook” supplement—affectionately called “The Bible.” The 70-or-more-page section is edit- ed at the Chronicle, and it has proven so popular that newspapers in other cities use it as a model for their own advertising- heavy arts and entertainment tabloids. After some belt-tightening in the mid- 1990s, the paper has been pursuing a moderate growth strategy. The Chronicle put a new editorial structure in place, expanded its pop-culture coverage and increased its emphasis on the Bay Area scene. Part of this strategy means that the Chronicle no longer aspires to be a national daily paper—much to the chagrin of staff critics who had grown accustomed to great freedom and large travel budgets. Still, resources dedicated to arts are envi- able, and not just when it comes to “Datebook.” The paper not only employs four movie critics, but also full-time critics in oft-neglected beats such as visual arts and dance. The Chronicle is also one of only a handful of dailies to still have a full- fledged stand-alone book review section. Culture-savvy San Franciscans are famously critical of their newspapers’ arts coverage. In order to please them, the Chronicle offers its readers a large daily dose of high culture and decorative arts, emphasizing visual and performing arts— in particular opera—as well as architec- ture, interior design and fashion. This daily emphasis goes against the newspa- per industry trend of clumping most arts coverage at the weekend. Of all the papers we studied, the Chronicle was the paper with the most total arts column inches as well the one with the greatest proportion of total pagi- nation dedicated to the daily arts section.

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