Mission & Goals
 
The San Francisco International Arts Festival is a Project of the Eyes & Ears Foundation

SFIAF’s mission
SFIAF's mission is to promote the arts and San Francisco through production of an annual, multi-disciplinary festival that brings together the world community of artists and audiences. The festival:

  • Works with multiple artists and arts organizations to commission and present innovative, collaborative performances and projects that push the boundaries of artistic excellence and genre that are focused on increasing human awareness, appreciation and understanding.
  • Is a catalyst for the emergence of a cohesive, culturally and socially diverse artistic community in San Francisco that is actively engaged in addressing the civic, social, and cultural issues of our environment and time.
  • Establishes San Francisco as a model for integration of the arts into the fabric of the community in a meaningful, productive and mutually beneficial fashion.

SFIAF’s goals are

  • To frame the work of Bay Area artists within an international context.
  • To insure the City of San Francisco's future allure as a vibrant, creative artist community by informing and enriching the arts at home through encouraging an innovative international dialogue between Bay Area artists and their peers throughout the world.
  • To collaborate with other San Francisco arts organizations to share our resources and stage the Festival in the most cost effective manner possible.
  • To provide rich and meaningful learning experiences through a wide range of residency activities aimed at multiple sectors of the population.
  • To promote the festival to a local, statewide, national and international audience.
  • To raise the City's profile as an international culture destination.
  • To demonstrate how the arts perform a vital role in stimulating and positively impacting the economy of San Francisco.

Curatorial Priorities
SFIAF seeks to achieve a balance between the following three criteria when considering projects for inclusion in the Festival.

  • Projects in which Bay Area based artists are participating as a lead artist in an international collaboration.
  • Projects in which Bay Area artists are performing as part of a shared bill or in repertory with artists from other countries.
  • Projects that feature world-class artists from outside of the United States whose work has a consistent record of excellence.
SFIAF Core Values
Rather than building an event that is the sole responsibility of a single producer, SFIAF is dedicated to working with an array of San Francisco arts organizations to develop a paradigm that utilizes the shared resources of multiple local presenters to reach mutually-beneficial goals. The Festival's core values are based on principals of cultural and economic equity. Therefore SFIAF places a high priority on the participation of culturally diverse and smaller arts organizations that represent the City's broad demographics. Activating and supporting relationships between large and small organizations and individual artists is also a key component of what SFIAF does.