San Francisco’s two-year-old Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) will relocate to the city’s financial district at the end of October, into a building known as “The Cube” in a complex co-owned by Donald Trump and listed on a lender watchlist.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the museum struck a deal with the majority owner of the property, Vornado Realty Trust, to remain in the 78,000-square-foot space for two years rent-free.
Ali Gass, founding director of the ICA San Francisco, told Hyperallergic that the museum is not commenting on “the specific details of the exclusive partnership” with Vornado Realty Trust, but shared that the museum is “grateful for their commitment to the belief that the arts are an important force and catalyst for cultural change in cities.”
“Funds from the ICA will not go to the Trump organization,” Gass clarified. ICA San Francisco offers free admission and is largely funded by Silicon Valley tech money. The museum, which Gass recently described as a “start-up,” does not have a permanent collection.
In the center’s first two years, the organization hosted 10 exhibitions in its former home in the San Francisco Dogpatch district home, ending with Suchitra Mattai’s solo show she walked in reverse and found their songs, which opened in June.
The relocation of the center, according to a museum statement provided to Hyperallergic, is a strategic choice that will help the institution maintain financial health — and continue to pay employees “above livable” wages.
“In order to remain financially sustainable and meet these foundational goals, the ICA began exploring potential new sites earlier this summer,” Gass told Hyperallergic.
ICA San Francisco’s search for a new building coincided with a broader effort by local government to revive the city’s hallowed, post-pandemic Financial District.
Mayor London Breed introduced legislation in May that would create the city’s first “entertainment zone,” not far from the ICA San Francisco complex. Since the pandemic, storefront vacancies in the Financial District have grown to 35%, according to some estimates. This year though, venture capitalists have demonstrated a renewed interest in the city’s financial artery, with tech and crypto companies signing major leases in the area. Tech companies are moving in as the homelessness crisis remains a chronic problem in the city.
The nonprofit’s new neighbors will be several Fortune 500 companies, according to Vornado Realty Trust. The Cube building was originally constructed as the 1971 Bank of America flagship location and was recently renovated.
ICA San Francisco will welcome the public to its new home on Friday, October 25 with the opening of The Poetics of Dimensions, a show featuring “non-art” items transformed into a “poetic landscape,” and Maryam Yousif: Riverbend, the artist’s first solo museum exhibition.
