San Francisco International Arts Festival Mission

San Francisco International Arts Festival's mission is to embody an imaginative microcosm of the Bay Area’s arts community, to present innovative projects that are focused on increasing human awareness and understanding and to promote a multicultural international performance platform that inspires local and global audiences.

To fulfill its mission SFIAF actively seeks to promote diversity and equity, activism and advocacy, education and the free exchange of ideas through a multi-faceted three week program presented at, and in collaboration with, the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.

SFIAF presents ground-breaking artists from the Bay Area and around the world; many of the international artists have no US representation and have rarely (or never previously) performed in this country. From 2003-19 SFIAF and more than 100 presenting partners have coordinated, presented and/or produced performances by over 400 arts ensembles from the Bay Area and over 57 countries, as well as conducting numerous educational and outreach activities.

SFIAF is dedicated to coordinating the shared resources of multiple organizations to reach mutually beneficial goals. The organization’s core values are based on principals of cultural and economic equity. In addition to working with larger institutions, SFIAF places a high priority on the participation of culturally diverse and smaller entities—including communities whose histories have been left out of the prevailing American narrative. Activating and supporting relationships between such organizations and artists is a key component of SFIAF.

SFIAF develops long-term relationships with Bay Area artists based on their unique program, infrastructure and capacity needs. The goal is to create cross-cultural performances that will expand their artistic horizons, develop stronger community connections, have an extended shelf-life for the work and yield subsequent earned-income opportunities.