New Mid-Market Arts District Launches With $500K Investment From SF Billionaires

SF business leaders and wealthy donors are funding a new Mid-Market arts district, which launches alongside a free festival Saturday, as a growing number of Bay Area artists call for a boycott of events funded by billionaires.

A coalition of downtown business and civic leaders is putting $500,000 toward a new Market Street Arts & Theater District, with plans to fund performance spaces, live music pop-ups, and other arts programming, as the Chronicle reports. Backers include the San Francisco Downtown Development Corporation, the Proper Hotel Group, and crypto-billionaire Chris Larsen, with a free festival Saturday marking the launch.

The Market Street Arts & Theater District will initially focus on the 900 block of Market Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. Plans reportedly include activating vacant spaces, adding lighting and public art, and funding pop-up performances and other arts programming over the next year.

According to the SF Examiner, Saturday’s inaugural Market Street Arts & Theater Festival will bring more than 50 performances and artistic experiences to 35 venues across six blocks, from Fifth Street to Van Ness Avenue, with UN Plaza serving as its central gathering place. The free event runs from 4 to 10 pm.

The opening ceremony at UN Plaza will feature circus-theater acrobatics from Dear San Francisco and aerial dancing by Bandaloop. Visitors can sing Broadway songs at the Orpheum Theater, take a Tenderloin walking tour with Del Seymour, learn embroidery and Japanese cord-making, customize denim, and watch video-art projections at Eighth and Market streets.

The festival also debuts “Idea In/Formation,” a six-month immersive art installation exploring consciousness and technology at 945 Market Street. Other offerings include drag shows and karaoke aboard the Hotsy Totsy Cable Car, plus live music, food, and drinks at the Timbri Hotel.

The initiative comes as groups like the Downtown Development Corporation and the Chris Larsen-back Civic Joy Fund, both of which support the monthly Downtown First Thursday series, face growing scrutiny from the local arts community.

Local content creators, including the account Carl at Cole, have called for a boycott of events tied to the Civic Joy Fund, largely in part over recent allegations against its co-founder, Manny Yekutiel.

As Coyote Media reported in April, some artists object to the billionaire-backed groups due to their political connections, opaque finances, and relatively short-term investments. Critics say these highly visible events are doing little to address the deeper problems confronting San Francisco’s arts community, including venue closures, cuts to public funding, unaffordable housing, and limited opportunities for working artists.

“You could have saved an entire community with that,” said musician Austin Waz, speaking to Coyote, in reference to the money invested in large-scale events, arguing that sustained support could help venues survive for years rather than funding a single event.

Some artists who boycott Civic Joy-funded events say that refusing gigs can mean losing income.

Moth Belly Gallery, which previously organized the long-running grassroots SF First Thursdays Art Walk in Lower Nob Hill and the Tenderloin, has also criticized the downtown event for adopting a similar name without initially reaching out to discuss the overlap. In an account published by Roborant Review, Moth Belly gallery owner John Vochatzer said that Yekutiel later offered to include the Art Walk in Downtown First Thursdays promotions, which Vochatzer ultimately declined, explaining he did not want the event to be affiliated with the organizers.

The backlash has also inspired the satirical punk band Civic Joy Fucks, which debuted at Moth Belly last weekend. (See the footage here, which is 18+.)

Per Coyote, the band’s masked members portray Mayor Daniel Lurie, Larsen, and Yekutiel, and its demo includes songs titled “We Love Police,” “Cameras Everywhere,” (in reference to Larsen’s support of SFPD’s surveillance center) and “Have Some Joy, Motherfuckers.”

The Mid-Market area was previously the site of two one-off block party events dubbed UNSTAGED, one in August 2024, and one in June 2025. Supervisor Bilal Mahmood then proposed the creation of a Mid-Market arts and theater district back in February of this year, and said he would be seeking $5 million from philanthropic sources to get it off the ground.

Previously: Supervisor Mahmood Wants to Establish a ‘Theater Arts District’ to Gussy Up Mid-Market