Unique San Francisco

I have highlighted concerns in my previous blogs about the post-pandemic drop in tourism for San Francisco.  Despite the pandemic, the empty storefronts, and the tech-bro exodus of the last four years a number of wonderful and relevant institutions remain.

If you are interested in art, let me recommend two galleries which are quite different in theme and scope, but worth seeing.  The Meyerovich Gallery in our Union Square neighborhood, is curated by Alexander Meyerovich, and offers an eclectic collection of both well-known modern artists, and local ones as well.  He even has a few Picassos you can view.    The marvelous thing about the Meyerovich Gallery is that there are no velvet ropes, and although it is not a museum, you can get close to the art.

Here is their website: www.meyerovich.com

Creativity Explored in the Mission District is an organization which provides studio space and instruction for developmentally disabled artists. Some of the work is child-like, but there are many pieces which I feel rival the works of Kandinsky and Mondrian.

One of the many mind-blowing art installations at Creativity Explored

I'm a big fan Lance Rivers. He is one of Creativity Explored's artists, and specializes in painting obscure San Francisco bay area landmarks.  He does capture the images of notable bay area icons like the Golden Gate Bridge, but his repertoire are those places we drive by all the time yet unable to place when we see them out of context.  I’m such a fan, that I own four of his pieces.  

An Original Lance Rivers Painting

Here is their website: www.creativityexplored.org

Somehow the Audium has stuck around the local performance scene for over 60 years.  This under-appreciated performance space utilizes hundreds of speakers in a mocked-up, theater-in-the-round experience.  A conductor, for lack of a better term, merges a symphony of sounds into an auditory display.  Some are artificially produced, some are recordings of real places, but integrated together.  

You are going to want to know more, so go to their website: www.audium.org

Lastly one of my favorite, and free, institutions are the City Guides walking tours.  This non-profit operates out of the San Francisco Library.  They conduct over 50 free walking tours all over the city, and include popular destinations such as Chinatown and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Yet they also cover many neighborhoods in San Francisco not known to visitors like Dogpatch and Lands End.

Lands End.  One of the fascinating, and free, experiences on a City Guides walking tour

I am always surprised to discover how many San Franciscans join the City Guides walking tours, for the simple reason they use want to know more about the place they live. 

City Guides also conducts tours which have a unique appeal, such as Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco.  This two-hour walking tour takes you to locations seen in Hitchcock's classic films shot in the city like the 1958 film, Vertigo and his last film The Family Plot, shot in 1976.  The tour guides are all volunteers, and must show that they have command of the subject matter before they lead their first group.

It’s interesting, free, and you get good exercise while you are at it. I have personally gone on half a dozen City Guide walking tours and look forward to doing more of them.  

Here is their website and phone number: (415) 557-4266

www.sfcityguides.org