#community-arts

#community-arts

Every first and third Friday of the month, locally sourced Artist Activators offer up free art making. Block Fest animates and celebrates the unit block of Turk Street with free arts activities, cultural offerings, community information, and discussion for the local residents, workers, and visitors. From live performance and art exhibition to screen printing workshops and crochet jams, Block Fest is a monthly celebration of the Tenderloin's creative spirit.

T.A.L.L. the Tenderloin Art Lending Library loans framed, original artwork, much of it by Tenderloin artists, for free to lower income residents. Take a work home for one month, bring it back and borrow another piece for one month. Just like the public library TALL: Tenderloin Art Lending Library 1st Tuesday of the month | 12 pm 80 Turk St, San Francisco FREE

The verb for the act of making musical sounds is play. Yet too often, parents and musical professionals approach it as something else - as work, or showbiz, or obligation, or eat-your-peas self-improvement technique. Instead of being something you do for your own enjoyment, making music becomes something you do for others, because you're supposed to, not because you want to. It's a great way to discourage kids from learning music.

Forget pricey tickets and velvet ropes-this weekend, the circus is coming to town, and you won't need to shell out a dime to see it. The brand-new Down to Earth Festival is set to turn New York City parks and plazas into open-air stages, with a lineup that mixes contemporary circus, high-wire thrills, opera installations and participatory dance. It all kicks off Friday, August 29, and runs through September 7.

EPACENTER, East Palo Alto's creative youth development center, will now offer its arts-related job training opportunities and arts programs to people of all ages and abilities.

Ten Fifteen Theater, a nonprofit community theater in Astoria, stages thought-provoking shows for local audiences. It primarily targets adults and recently featured productions like 'Macbeth' and 'AGAIN! The Act of Perfection,' a story by local artist Marco Davis.

For 18 years, this outdoor "open mic-without-a-mic" has welcomed poets, musicians, emcees, comedy, and everything in between. In the best of San Francisco tradition, everyone is welcome, all forms of expression, in any language.

"For us, it's a triple threat... It's not just a budget cut. It's existential." - Naomi Fisher, co-founder of BFI, on the cumulative impact of funding cuts.