What are the opening hours?

Wednesday 11am - 5pm Thursday 11am - 5pm Friday 11am - 5pm Saturday 11am - 5pm Sunday 11am - 5pm

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Name: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Address: 701 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA, 94103, US
Telephone: +14159782700

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Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts presents contemporary art, performances, film, and more. Open Thu-Su from 11a–5p, and Wed 11a–8p with free admission.

Situated in the center of downtown San Francisco, YBCA functions as a dynamic platform to generate ideas and nurture the talents of emerging and established artists. Centering artists as essential to social and cultural movement, YBCA is reimagining the role an arts institution can play in the community it serves.

08/05/2026

On Fri. 8/7 from 6–9p, be among the first to see “GaHee Park: Behind the Curtain” at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts!

As you explore Park’s fantastical and surrealist works, enjoy drinks and snacks inspired by visual motifs in Park’s work, from martinis and cocktails, to gummy worms and chocolate ants.

RSVP to step inside Park’s intimate and captivating world → https://bit.ly/44TNt89

Image credits:
GaHee Park, “Woman with Cocktail, Olives, and Caterpillar,” 2025. Photo by Paul Litherland. Courtesy of Perrotin.
GaHee Park, “Memory of a Table,” 2026. Photo by Paul Litherland. Courtesy of Jessica Silverman.
GaHee Park, “Still Life With Tired Moth,” 2024. Photo by Paul Litherland. Courtesy of Perrotin.
GaHee Park “Back to Mountain,” 2025. Photo by Paul Litherland. Courtesy of Perrotin and Jessica Silverman.
All work © GaHee Park.

08/04/2026

Beginning August 5, YBCA will host Creativity Explored as part of a new program offering free on-site arts activations to visitors. Artists from Creativity Explored (a progressive art studio that supports artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities) will showcase their artwork and produce new pieces in a reopened programming space on YBCA’s first floor.

You’re invited in to explore the art on view, to purchase work on display, and to make your own pieces alongside Creativity Explored’s studio artists: sharing art-making materials, conversation, inspiration, and community.

Stop by YBCA during regular gallery hours (701 Mission St, Thu–Su 11a–5p, Wed 11a–8p), and check out the calendar for accompanying free programs (including a film festival of animated shorts, printmaking night, and a puppet making workshop). → https://bit.ly/4helhEw

Images courtesy of Creativity Explored. Photos by Peter Prato. This program is made possible in part by Yerba Buena Partnership.

07/28/2026

Saturdays at 2p this fall: a new film series exploring voyeurism and theatricality, cocktail charm and social taboos.

Curated alongside GaHee Park’s exhibition of surrealist paintings, the series is a funhouse mirror of themes and motifs found in Park’s artwork. From classics like “Rear Window,” to iconic shorts by Maya Deren and Joan Jonas, to the technicolor epic “The Red Shoes,” it’s a highly personal survey of cinematic inspirations.

Best of all, it’s only $15 to enjoy a movie, themed snacks, and gallery admission. → https://bit.ly/4bL8R3d

Series kicks off August 15!

Co-curated by filmmaker Michael Vass and artist GaHee Park. Trailer edited by Michael Vass.

Video includes clips from:
“Rear Window” (1954). Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
“And Life Goes On” (1992). Courtesy of Celluloid Dreams, Kanoon Parvaresh Fekri, and MK2 Films.
“Goodbye, Dragon Inn” (2003). Courtesy of Homegreen Films, Wellspring Media, and Metrograph Pictures.
“Querelle” (1982). Courtesy of Gaumont and California Pictures.
“Pandora and Flying Dutchman” (1951). Courtesy of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
“Trouble in Paradise” (1932). Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
“Yourself and Yours” (2016). Courtesy of Finecut.
“A New Leaf” (1971). Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.
“The Music Room” (1958). Courtesy of Aurora Film Corporation, The Criterion Collection, and Cinephile Media.
“The Ceremony” (1971). Courtesy of Art Theatre Guild (ATG), Pushkar Films, and New Yorker Films.
“The Idle Class” (1921). Courtesy of First National Pictures.
“Meshes of the Afternoon” (1941). Courtesy of The Film-Makers' Cooperative.
“Organic Honey’s Visual Telepathy” (1971). Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix.
“The Red Shoes” (1948). Courtesy of Eagle-Lion Films and Universal Pictures.

07/24/2026

Opening August 7 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts: “GaHee Park: Behind the Curtain”

Visually captivating and subtly surreal, GaHee Park’s paintings explore fantasy, sexuality, and mortality through ambiguous depictions of private moments. Quiet portraits of domestic solitude merge with uncanny still lifes and gentle seaside landscapes, as Park inverts inner psychology and the outer world.

Insects, snails, and sardines linger, while contemplative women peer into cocktail glasses—who is imagining who?

A film series will accompany the exhibition, showcasing classic and contemporary films exploring similar themes of voyeurism, desire, and social taboo.

Plan your visit and step inside her captivating world → https://bit.ly/4eTEFpd

Image credits:
GaHee Park, “Dream with Still Life,” 2022. Photo by Eric Ruby. Courtesy of Jessica Silverman.
GaHee Park, “Woman with Shadow and Ants,” 2024. Photo by Guillaume Ziccarelli. Courtesy of Perrotin.
GaHee Park, “Thoughts at Dusk," 2024. Photo by Paul Litherland. Courtesy of Perrotin.
GaHee Park, “Woman with Dragonfly,” 2021. Photo by Tanguy Beurdeley. Courtesy of Perrotin.
All work © GaHee Park.
Photos of GaHee Park by Michael Vass.

07/17/2026

Don’t miss your chance to see “Esto No Tiene Nombre”! Audiences can't stop sharing how deeply the performance has stayed with them with one attendee sharing, "It felt like she was DJing. She constructs so many vantage points to create a dialogue of q***r world building."
⁠
📍See it at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on 701 Mission Street
📅 Fri 7/17–Sun 7/19 ⁠
🎟 Get tickets ⁠→ https://bit.ly/4dQCRMz

Photos by Chris Hardy

07/15/2026

This Friday, July 17 celebrate Criterion Collection curatorial director Ashley Clark’s new book “The World of Black Film: A Journey Through Cinematic Blackness in 100 Films” at YBCA.

GQ says: “‘The World of Black Film’ is “an indispensable guide for any film lover.”

Starting with the unfinished silent comedy “Lime Kiln Club Field Day” (1913) and concluding with Steve McQueen's World War II epic “Blitz” (2024), this book takes readers on an exciting journey through an eclectic mix of classics and hidden gems spanning more than 100 years and 30 countries.

As part of the evening, YBCA will screen Zeinabu irene Davis’ “Compensation” (featured in the book), with a discussion between Davis and Clark following the film.

📚 Arrive early for Ashley Clark's book signing at 6p, with books available for purchase.
📽️ Screening starts at 6:30p.

Get tickets to the event KQED calls a “rare treat” → https://bit.ly/4ujer3v

Photos courtesy of Laurence King Publishing.

07/14/2026

After an incredible opening night for “Esto No Tiene Nombre,” audiences are praising this moving performance saying "Denice is a powerhouse!" and "The Bay is in for a night they'll never forget!"

There's still time to experience this deeply, powerful show. Get your tickets and join us this weekend → https://bit.ly/4dQCRMz

Photos by Chris Hardy

07/12/2026

“Esto No Tiene Nombre” opens tonight! Denice shares what makes bringing these stories to a multidisciplinary art space so meaningful: “I think sharing multimedia work that uplifts stories about q***r people of color and brings these oral histories to life offers audiences a really powerful experience.”

Through monologue, poetry, audio interviews, and immersive visual projections, “Esto No Tiene Nombre” explores the stories Denice collected from Latina le***an elders including first kisses, pre-Stonewall police raids, and histories too often left out.

Get your tickets to experience this powerful celebration of memory, resilience, and q***r community from 7/11–7/19 → https://bit.ly/40Nh6Fs

Photos of “Esto No Tiene Nombre” by David Evan McDowell and Yuri K. Fujita.

07/10/2026

This week at YBCA, oral history interviews from q***r elders come to life across two different experiences—one in the galleries and one on stage—each offering a powerful way to listen, reflect, and connect.

🎭 On Sat 7/11 and Sun 7/12, poet Denice Frohman presents “Esto No Tiene Nombre,” where she transforms oral histories into a moving performance celebrating the lives and legacies of elder Latina le***ans.

🎧 Visit the exhibition “Conjuring Power” to listen to interviews collected by co-curator Caro De Robertis that include stories of love, resilience, and community from q***r elders of color whose contributions helped shape San Francisco.

Come by this weekend to hear these extraordinary stories onstage and in the galleries → https://bit.ly/40Nh6Fs

Photos of “Esto No Tiene Nombre” by David Evan McDowell.
Photos of “Conjuring Power” by Mahelly Ferreira for Drew Altizer Photography and Charlie Villyard.

07/08/2026

🎬 Join us on Friday, July 17 for a special screening of “Compensation” (1999) directed by Zeinabu irene Davis, to celebrate the new book “The World of Black Film” from Criterion Collection curatorial director Ashley Clark.

Set across two eras in Chicago, “Compensation” follows the parallel stories of two Deaf Black women (Malindy in the early 1900s and Malaika in the 1990s) as they navigate love, identity, and belonging. Through a blend of archival imagery, intertitles, ASL, and subtitles, Davis creates a landmark work that challenges assumptions about disability, race, and romance while centering the richness of Deaf culture.

As Screen Slate writes, the film is a reminder that “Amidst deadly ignorance, the only possible response is to open the mind and the heart.”

Following the screening, Davis will join Clark for a conversation celebrating Black cinema and Clark's new book, “The World of Black Film: A Journey Through Cinematic Blackness in 100 Films.”

📚 Arrive early for Ashley Clark's book signing at 6p, with books available for purchase.
📽️ Screening starts at 6:30p.

Get tickets → https://bit.ly/4ujer3v

“Compensation” stills feature John Earl Jelks as Arthur/Nico Jones and Michelle A. Banks as Malindy/Malika Brown. Courtesy of Janus Films.

Address

701 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA
94103

Opening Hours

Wednesday	11am - 5pm
Thursday	11am - 5pm
Friday	11am - 5pm
Saturday	11am - 5pm
Sunday	11am - 5pm

Telephone

+14159782700

Website

http://www.ybca.org/

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