{"id":28345,"date":"2023-09-09T13:16:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-09T20:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=28345"},"modified":"2023-09-09T13:16:10","modified_gmt":"2023-09-09T20:16:10","slug":"sf-art-institute-could-be-saved-as-an-art-school-group-including-laurene-powell-jobs-looking-to-buy-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/09\/09\/sf-art-institute-could-be-saved-as-an-art-school-group-including-laurene-powell-jobs-looking-to-buy-it\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Art Institute Could Be Saved as an Art School; Group Including Laurene Powell Jobs Looking to Buy It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

8 SEPTEMBER 2023\/SF NEWS<\/a>\/JOE KUKURA<\/a> (SFist.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of deep-pocketed investors and arts patrons is reportedly lining up a bid to buy the bankrupt and shuttered SF Art Institute, a group including Laurene Powell Jobs \u2014 and they\u2019d be keeping the famed Diego Rivera mural right where it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whenever we\u2019ve written about the severe financial problems<\/a> and eventual bankruptcy and permanent closure<\/a> of the 152-year-old San Francisco Art Institute \u2014 which includes the famed 74-foot wide Diego Rivera mural<\/a> \u2014 many commenters on this site wondered why some local wealthy local tech types and philanthropists wouldn\u2019t just step in to preserve the institution. Commenters, you may have been on to something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SF Business Times reported Thursday that a group of investors and arts patrons are looking to buy and resurrect the SF Art Institute<\/a>. This is a highly credible group of people who absolutely have the means, including Steve Jobs\u2019s widow and prominent philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, ODC\/Dance Company founder Brenda Way, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music president and CEO David Stull (whose institution has certainly been expanding<\/a> lately).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is in its nascent stage but tremendously exciting,\u201d Stull told the Chronicle<\/a> of the offer. \u201cWe are working to see that the Art Institute is preserved for aspiring artists to advance their work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt will also serve as a resource for established artists to come together as well as a center for community and the arts,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contentious fate<\/a> of the Diego Rivera mural The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City<\/em> at the 800 Chestnut Street campus is obviously at play here, but this group insists they would keep the mural in place and preserve it. (This is not to be confused with Rivera\u2019s separate Pan American Unity<\/em> mural, which had long been at City College, got moved to the SFMOMA<\/a> in 2021, and is expected to return to City College<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As recently as late July, ArtNews was reporting that realtor Cushman Wakefield was willing to sell off the mural<\/a> to the highest bidder. If that highest bidder was the heir of the Steve Jobs fortune, Cushman Wakefield would surely be delighted with that arrangement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed buyers would only want the Chestnut Street campus with the mural, and not the school\u2019s Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture campus. That campus was, in retrospect, a spectacularly unwise $15 million investment for the soon-to-be-bankrupt school, as it closed just three years after opening because of declining student enrollment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should this investment group close the deal, would the school still be the \u201cSF Art Institute?\u201d Details are very unclear at the moment. Note that Stull did say that the group hoped the \u201cArt Institute is preserved for aspiring artists to advance their work,\u201d so he did use term \u201cArt Institute.\u201d Though the school would presumably get new management top to bottom, which is probably a good thing, as previous management did not acquit themselves particularly well these last few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: <\/strong>SF Art Institute Has Declared Bankruptcy, Looks Finished After 152 Years [SFist]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image: Slsmithasdfasdf via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 SEPTEMBER 2023\/SF NEWS\/JOE KUKURA (SFist.com) A group of deep-pocketed investors and arts patrons is reportedly lining up a bid to buy the bankrupt and shuttered SF Art Institute, a group including Laurene Powell Jobs \u2014 and they\u2019d be keeping the famed Diego Rivera mural right where it is. Whenever… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1038],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28345"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28347,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28345\/revisions\/28347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}