Mick Glenn heard music outside his Market Street apartment last Saturday and followed his ears. He walked his tiny dog, Choco, first to The Hibernia, where a cabaret band was playing on the steps of the former bank, under its grand granite columns. On Market Street, he passed a massive mechanical insect crawling on the sidewalk. He arrived at a corner packed with salsa dancers in front of the newly opened restaurant De Dos Tierras, where the crowd spilled into traffic.
“I love seeing so many cultures getting to perform live in the street,” Glenn said, as Choco sat patiently at his feet.
For years, Mid-Market has trotted behind its downtown neighbors, hoping to catch the tailwinds of the nascent revival taking hold in Union Square and Yerba Buena. The closure of the San Francisco Centre mall this year, which was a long time coming, deepened the sense of a neighborhood left behind.
But business leaders, artists, and city officials have been betting that Mid-Market’s long-established arts scene can succeed where previous revitalization efforts have faltered. The festival was proof of concept.
The inaugural Market Street Arts & Theater Festival began in the afternoon of Oct. 17 and lasted into the night. It activated 35 locations across six blocks, with some spillover activity into Civic Center. The production was arranged by the Mid-Market Business Association & Foundation, a community organization that pushes for economic development.
Performers take a bow on the main stage in U.N. Plaza during the Market Street Arts & Theater Festival. | Source: Jason Henry for The Standard
The festival offered an early test of whether Mid-Market can revive itself as a thriving arts district after a decade marked by the exodus of tech companies and retailers. The investment in performances and cultural events aims to bring the neighborhood in line with other parts of downtown such as the Financial District, which has received more attention from private investors.
Mid-Market has long been home to a collection of theaters and music venues that bring in foot traffic and tourism. Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, whose district includes parts of the neighborhood, said Mid-Market is the largest theater district outside of New York City, able to bring in up to $1 billion annually.
“We think that all the bones are here,” said Fernando Pujals, executive director of the Mid-Market Business Association & Foundation.
But the theaters were hard hit by the pandemic and have struggled to regain their footing. Other venues felt it too. Stakeholders say that during the pandemic, concert bookers preferred venues in Oakland over The Warfield, a wake-up call for the neighborhood. The area between Fifth and 10th Streets continues to see rough street conditions and occasional violence, including a shooting this month that killed a security guard.
Jessie Ware at The Warfield and Sara Bareilles at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium were headliners for the festival, though tickets for those shows were sold separately.
The festival was an ambitious, though somewhat disjointed, pilot of what Mid-Market could look like as a thriving arts district. An outdoor opening ceremony gave way to people dispersing indoors, muffling the sense of spontaneity that comes from discovering activities on the street. Drag queen D’Arcy Drollinger zipped down Market Street aboard the Hotsy Totsy Cable Car, sharing the roadway with police cars, their sirens blaring, and Muni buses.
The Hotsy Totsy Cable Car rode up and down Market Street during the festival. | Source: Jason Henry for The Standard
The sense of cohesion improved as the sun set. From block to block, DJ sets transitioned to salsa music and cabaret. Pedestrians stumbled upon the shows, recording videos of active streets and impromptu fun.
Funding for the event came from a Svane Family Foundation Culture Forward grant, with support from the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Mahmood previously told The Standard that the lack of an overarching plan for Mid-Market relative to other parts of the city led him to seek private funding to support an arts district.
Another grant, announced earlier this month, will provide $500,000 to establish Mid-Market as an arts and theater district. Funding came from the Proper Hotel Group — which has its namesake hotel on Market Street — and Chris Larsen, the crypto billionaire who has funded arts projects in the Tenderloin. The Downtown Development Corporation also funded the grant, expanding its investment in tourism- and retail-focused projects.
But building an arts district takes more than putting on shows. While the city hopes artists will draw visitors and investment to Mid-Market, those artists need affordable places to live and work if they are to remain in the neighborhood. Pujals pointed to Warfield Commons, which offers below-market-rate offices and workspaces to artists, as an example of the support that’s needed. Separately, a city-supported apartment project at Market and Gough Streets will house artists (opens in new tab) at below-market rates.
Reducing those financial pressures, Pujals said, gives artists more freedom to experiment.
“[Artists] need the type of infrastructure that has financial support that allows them to really delve into their creativity,” Pujals said. “When you remove that association with the [economic] outcome, it opens the world of possibility for what they do.”
The festival also drew participation from Ingka Group, the company behind the Ikea store and Saluhall food hall at 945 Market St. Saluhall struggled to retain tenants, culminating in a push this year to reinvigorate the space with a new bar manager and drink program. Ingka worked with the Mid-Market Business Association to set up DJs in the food hall and book ballet dancers to sashay up the escalators, captivating puzzled shoppers.
On the third floor of Ikea’s building, a three-person artist collective transformed a space near the escalators into a gallery. The exhibition, “ (opens in new tab)IDEA in/formation (opens in new tab),” explores the intersection of art and technology.
Karin Denson, Shane Denson, and Brett Amory of non/phenomenal at their art show in the atrium of Ikea. | Source: Jason Henry for The Standard
Karin Denson takes videos of nature and runs them through software to pixelate them, then uses the results to paint or make collages of those corrupted images. The collective’s work reflects the evolving relationship between art and technology in a neighborhood long shaped by both.
“Art spaces can be living, accessible spaces,” Denson said.
The collective, which also includes Brett Amory and Shane Denson, said the work will continue to build on itself and grow in Ikea’s escalator space even beyond the festival.
“We respond to the room by listening to the space,” Denson said.
Outside Ikea, a couple peered in the windows, watching the dancers pirouette across the lobby. Amy and Bob Wong said they’ve been attending shows on Market Street, mostly at the Orpheum and the Golden Gate Theater, for 20 years. In the past few years, they’ve switched from evening shows to matinees, hoping to avoid the area after dark.
They said they have begun to feel safer in Union Square and at the Orpheum, but the blocks between the Muni stop and the Golden Gate Theater still make Amy hesitate to get tickets.
They had walked from U.N. Plaza to Ikea in daylight, slightly confused by the structure of the festival, which was primarily indoors. But they remained charmed by the performances they had seen, including a teaser of “Dear San Francisco” from Club Fugazi during the opening ceremony.
“It gave us a taste of ‘Dear San Francisco,’” Amy said. “We’ll probably give it a chance now.”