The Grand, now with emojis. Photo by Daniel Hirsch.

While some events have been going on for months, renovations at the Grand Theater by the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts is finally, almost complete. Starting yesterday, Gray Area kick off its nearly complete new theater with a festival and conference for the arts and technology.

The Gray Area Festival included numerous panels Friday dealing with digital art and technology. Over the weekend, there’s more panel discussions and interactive workshops all day Sunday.  Tonight and Saturday there will be live performances featuring live music paired with a whole range of projected visuals. And all weekend and through next week, the Gray Area’s gallery space features work by “the renegade art organization”  the Free Art & Technology (F.A.T.) Lab.

More details and tickets here. For a teensy, tiny, (and sideways) peak of what’s in store, check out this video:

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Daniel Hirsch is a freelance writer who has been living in the Mission since 2009. When he's not contributing to Mission Local, he's writing plays, working as an extra for HBO, and/or walking to the top of Bernal Hill.

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  1. A strong component of the Fat Lab (an art collective whose members are international) art exhibition that you attended at Gray Area, Don, was grounded in a multinational urban graffiti culture. Did you miss that component of the work? Here’s some more information about the exhibit: http://grayarea.org/event/f-a-t-gold-san-francisco/

    Many of the artworks in the group exhibition were explicitly critiques of tech culture, including some dismantling exclusive proprietary systems and some addressing privacy and security issues. It is disingenuous to imply that the work on display is unrelated to the current issues facing the Mission. We do need conversations (and action!) about colonization, displacement and the other forces marginalized communities face. In particular, surveillance is an oppressive tactic that needs more attention. I’m excited Gray Area is in the neighborhood to help us have those conversations. More art, please. Raise up under-amplified, critical voices.

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  2. I was at the Thursday night opening and was confused if what I saw was performance art piece or artistic tone deafness from a new non-profit based in the Mission representing art things..

    The only Latina that I saw for the first 40 minutes was out near the front of the space with a broom and dust pan. It got me thinking about the conversation of colonization and displacement, but I guess that many of the guest didn’t understand the piece.

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