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The Best Art Parties, Festivals, and Fairs in San Francisco Right Now

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Oh boy! Oh boy!  There’s a bunch of fun, interesting, artsy extravaganzas happening all over San Francisco this July. The next couple weeks are garden parties, world class workshops, world records, opera auditions, and of course music, dancing & costumes all over the place.  It’s time to get out there and mix it up with thousands of other beautiful bay area weirdos.  Here are the art centered events starting this weekend and running through all of July in San Francisco:

The Biggest Human Flower Ever

Have you ever set a Guinness World Record?  Have you ever gotten into the Asian Art Museum Summer of Love exhibit FREE?  Well, stop dilly-dallying around and join Broke-Ass Stuart and thousands of other awesome folks at the Civic Center Saturday, you’ll get a cool pancho, and you’ll get a poster of us celebrating our achievement (in the annals of history) as the largest human flower the world has ever seen.  Then we can all go to Summer of Love Exhibit for free!  It’s #LotusLive and it is going to be a fun afternoon.

SAT, JULY 15, 2017
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM PDT
ASIAN ART MUSEUM – CIVIC CENTER PLAZA

REGISTER FOR LOTUS LIVE & FREE MUSEUM ADMISSION HERE


2nd Annual Burner Infused Extravaganza

Are you a dirty burner? (nods)  Do you like Tesla Coils (nods) Do you like daytime street parties full of costumed freaks, electronic music, and art (tail wags).   Once a year The Flaming Lotus Girls, Janky Barge, Sextant, and Imprint City join forces to present a magic mixture of art, music, science and interactive surprises for an event to inspire the senses!  Get some in the Bayview

Bayview SPARC Block Party
Jul 15 3:00 pm – Jul 16 12:00 am
1439 Egbert Avenue, San Francisco

Tickets


I Object! at SF Art Institute

I Object! Self-Organization and Political Agency as Aesthetic Practice

Learn how to be a proper art activist with world renowned Cuban protest artist Tania Bruguera & performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña.  Symposium speakers will consider [re]current illegal actions and uncertain futures, generated by elected governments, through a variety of artistic practices centered on the possibility of political agency through the creation of sites for the creation civil disobedience in the post-State age.  #immigrantrigts.  And checkout Tania’s protest art exhibition and classroom at YBCA all summer as well!

SATURDAY, JUL 15, 2017, 9:00AM – 6:00PM
Chestnut Street Campus
800 Chestnut Street

RSVP


Amazing Tickets Day at SF Symphony

Usually when you see a line stretching around the block in San Francisco it means one thing: brunch. But the line above is from one of the most magical days of the year: The SF Symphony’s Single Ticket Day!  On Monday July 17th you can get the best seats to the hottest concerts starting at just $15. But you have to be there at 8am when the box office opens, because when the online sales commence at 10am, some of the best deals are already gone. 8am is when the adventure begins!  There will be awesome food trucks and refreshments there as well ; )

Monday Jul 17th, 6am – 10am (ticket office opens at 8am)
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness Avenue; San Francisco

MORE INFO


Calling All Bay Area Artists 

Become an ArtSpan Artist and register for the 42nd annual SF Open Studios. The Premier Artist Registration gets you included in the SF Open Studios Guide (20,000 full-color print copies distributed) and eligible for the SFOS Exhibition at SOMArts Cultural Center! Find more information about registration benefits here.  For the first time this fall SF Open Studios will be expanded to FIVE weekends of art, providing more opportunities for collectors to connect with ArtSpan Artists. Click here for a map of the weekend divisions, and click here for event information.

Premier Artist Registration Deadline – July 18

Register


Summer of Love Art Walk

Celebrate the Summer of Love with an art walk through five Art In Neighborhoods Exhibitions. You’ll enjoy an Artist Reception with Happy Hour refreshments at each location. The full art walk can be completed in 15 minutes, but you’ll want to stick around for more at each happy hour event! Click here for a map.  Visit all 5 exhibitions for a chance to win a special prize from Blick Art Materials!

Thursday, July 20, 4:30-9pm
Starting at: The Mosser Hotel
54 4th Street, SF, CA 94103

MORE INFO & RSVP HERE


NightGarden Piano in GG Park

There’s quite possibly nothing more magical.  This time of year (July 13-24 & free for sf residents) the Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate park have pianos placed all around the gardens, so the forest lights up with music and talented citizenry.  There’s even a nighttime gathering that might blow your mind.  Beautifully lit pathways guide visitors to pianos aglow with performances by Sunset Piano all-stars and open pianos to play. Food and drink will be available for purchase. Tickets are $40 each with all proceeds helping to fund Flower Piano.

NightGarden Piano Party
July 22 from 7:30-10:30pm
Sf Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park

INFO HERE


The Art Critique Comedy Show

Do you love making fun of bad art, I know I do.  Comedians roasting thrift store art is hosted by Jeremy Talamantes (Big Pine Comedy Festival) and Jordan Cerminara (Leafly Comedy Tour w/ Nikki Glaser). There will be free pizza, box wine, and an open gallery of featured thrift art before the 8PM comedy show.   Raffle prizes/auction of the thrift art immediately after, and it’s at Art Attacks now location!  Ages 21+

Friday, July 21 at 8 PM – 9:30 PM
Art Attack SF
2358 Market Street, Ste # 1, San Francisco

Tickets


sf art book fair

The 2017 SF Art Book Fair is an annual multi-day festival of artists’ publications. This event is FREE and OPEN to the public and will feature artists’ books, art catalogs, monographs, periodicals, zines, printed ephemera, and artists’ multiples. These works will be presented by over 100 independent publishers, antiquarian dealers, artists, collectors, and enthusiasts. Over the course of the weekend, the fair will be complemented by a diverse range of talks, discussions, book launches, on and off-site special projects, exhibitions and signings.
1275 Minnesota Street
San Francisco, CA 94107
Saturday, July 22nd – 11am – 6pm
Sunday, July 23rd – 11am – 5pm

More info


Free Symphony Concert at the Waterfront

FREE SF Symphony concert overlooking the waterfront at Pier 27 Port of San Francisco Cruise Ship Terminal! Bring a picnic blanket and enjoy a summer program conducted by SFS Director of Summer Concerts Edwin Outwater.  And if you’re looking to catch an aweome concert or film at the symphony in July checkout the lineup here.

Sunday, July 23 at 12 PM – 3 PM
Pier 27 Port of San Francisco Cruise Ship Terminal

Facebook Event Page


Open Auditions at the SF Opera

Ever dreamed of performing live in a world class opera house?  Well, it won’t get any easier than this folks.  The San Francisco Opera is holding an Open Audition for Adult Supernumeraries and Extras for the upcoming Fall 2017 Season productions: Turandot, Elektra, La Traviata, Manon and Girls of the Golden West. Rehearsals and performances run between August 8–December 10. The roles are non-speaking and unpaid, but objectively awesome.

This is a volunteer opportunity; an honorarium is provided to those cast in these productions.

Monday, July 31, 2017 at 6pm
War Memorial Opera House
301 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco

Info


Airport Welcoming Committee

Everyone is welcome here! On behalf of the city of San Francisco and the entire U.S.A., let’s give a joyful welcome to arrivals at the International terminal at SFO. Join me, the First Female President, on Sunday, July 30, as we shake hands, pose for photo ops, and generally cheer folks as they arrive in San Francisco.  Immigrant rights are human rights.
*Exact meet-up location and details to be announced closer to the event.*

What you can bring:

  • Homemade signs with positive, welcoming messages (multi-lingual messages encouraged)
  • Flowers to give away (why not!)
  • Red, white & blue balloons
  • Your friends!

RSVP + More Info


5 Bay Area Artists at SFMOMA

5 amazing bay area artists are exhibiting works on the 4th floor of the SF Modern Art Museum this summer.  They are the 2017 SECA Art Award winners, and they are getting their first major museum presentations!  Checkout the works of Liam Everett, Alicia McCarthy, Sean McFarland, K.r.m. Mooney, and Lindsey White all summer long!

July 15–September 17, 2017
SFMOMA
151 3rd St, San Francisco

More info

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Alex Mak - Managing Editor

Alex Mak - Managing Editor

I'm the managing editor and co-owner of this little experiment. I enjoy covering & Publishing Bay Area News as well as writing about Arts, Culture & Nightlife.

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