SFUSD Arts Festival

Wednesday morning in front of San Francisco's City Hall, there were speeches and performances heralding the upcoming SF Unified School District Arts Festival, which will be taking place at the Asian Art Museum starting Saturday, March 2nd and running through Sunday, March 10th (click here for a schedule).



There were a number of self-congratulatory speeches about the value of the arts in San Francisco's public schools from politicians that included Superintendent Richard Carranza, School Board member Hydra Mendoza, and Board of Supervisors President David Chiu above.



Meanwhile, the children from Bessie Carmichael Elementary School were yawning with boredom as they patiently sat on the Polk Street stairs of City Hall as the adults droned on.



Finally, the children were allowed to sing an amusing ditty about eating right and studying and exercising...



...with a few of them above looking ready to step into the new Broadway production of Annie at a moment's notice.



After the children's song, a band from Burton High School stationed across the street in the plaza began a short concert that was sensational fun...



...led by a young conductor who looked to be a fellow student.



After the concert, the rally broke up but the Burton teenagers hung out in the plaza...



...and at one goofy moment broke into a free-form dance.



It was a delightful novelty seeing so many young people in the Civic Center neighborhood, and there is hope that the public Ruth Asawa School of the Arts will finally move out of its location at the top of Portola and O'Shaughnessy and move into a planned facility at 130 Van Ness next to the new SFJAZZ Center.



In the meantime, check out the young performing talent this coming week at the Asian Art Museum. According to the SFUSD website, "All performances take place in Samsung Hall of the Asian Art Museum. Admission to the Asian Art Museum is free to those coming to the SFUSD Arts Festival." So just tell them at the front door that you are there to cheer on the kids.