Map Shows How Many SF Art Spaces Are Gone — The Bold Italic — San Francisco

By Ann-Marie AlcĚÁntara

How many performance art spaces has San Francisco lost, or have shifted to other neighborhoods, over the years? Forty-one, according to a map created by Cara Rose DeFabio.

On an open Google Map, DeFabio has pinned and listed numerous spaces that are no longer with us or were pushed to relocate (there’s no specific time listed for these closures). Each venue is listed by its name and is accompanied by a video or photo of a past performance once held there. Anyone can edit and add other places that are now gone, making the project collaborative. Some spaces still exist — just in a different location, like The Lab, Intersection for the Arts, and The Garage. But, by placing all these spots on a map, DeFabio shows the viewer how some neighborhoods, like SoMa and the Mission, used to host more arts venues than they do now.

The idea of such a project originated from Jess Curtis and Alec White, who wanted to use a mix of their own and crowdsourced information as part of their performance project, The Dance That Documents Itself. To do their “Extinct Spaces” research, Curtis created a Facebook post that began naming places that haven’t existed since the ’80s. After gathering some responses, Curtis asked people to only focus on spaces that catered to dance and physical performances.

Concern over the growing number of disappearing cultural institutions and creative spaces is part of an ongoing conversation in this city, one that also includes highlighting the organizations leaving San Francisco.

DeFabio’s map is a dramaturgy, part of The Dance that Documents Itself, a performance project focusing on how tech, culture, and the body interact with each other in San Francisco. It opened on December 4th and runs through the 14th at CounterPulse.

H/t Mission Mission.

Top photo courtesy of torkbakhopper he dead/Flickr.

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