{"id":11603,"date":"2022-07-15T18:06:06","date_gmt":"2022-07-16T01:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/?p=11603"},"modified":"2022-07-15T18:06:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-16T01:06:07","slug":"sf-art-institute-announces-its-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/sf-art-institute-announces-its-closure\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Art Institute announces closure after merger talks with USF"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"San
The courtyard tower at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), Chestnut Street campus. (Photo courtesy of SFAI)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Bay City News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) announced Friday that it will cease its degree programs after merger talks between the school and the University of San Francisco (USF) failed to lead to an acquisition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The school on Chestnut Street in Russian Hill was founded in 1871 and is among the oldest art schools in the country. SFAI held its final graduation ceremonies on Tuesday and, starting Saturday, said it will have only a few contractors to manage security, regulatory and financial matters, as well as help students and alumni access their academic records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SFAI and USF announced in February that they had signed a letter of intent to explore integrating operations and programs between the two schools, but Art Institute officials said Friday that they recently learned there would not be a takeover offer from USF and that the school is \u201cnot financially viable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SFAI is creating a nonprofit foundation \u201cto protect its name, its history\u201d and the school\u2019s archives, the school said in its closure announcement, citing a history including the creation of one of the world\u2019s first fine art photography departments by faculty member Ansel Adams after World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is deeply regrettable that we are now faced with this current outcome,\u201d SFAI Board of Trustees Chairman Lonnie Graham said in the statement. \u201cThe board\u2019s goal was to preserve the legacy of one of the last remaining fine arts institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

USF issued a statement Friday regarding talks with SFAI, saying issues standing in the way of a potential acquisition included \u201cSFAI\u2019s financial status, student enrollment projections, and the costs required for ADA compliance and deferred maintenance at SFAI\u2019s Chestnut Street property.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, USF plans to create a new fine arts program within its Department of Art + Architecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

USF President Paul Fitzgerald said in the statement: \u201cWhile we are disappointed by this outcome with SFAI, we remain committed to strengthening opportunities for our students and faculty to explore the fine arts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may be interested in: Children and teens paint Redwood City with hope<\/a><\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Por Bay City News El Instituto de Arte de San Francisco \u2012SFAI, por sus siglas en ingl\u00e9s\u2012 anunci\u00f3 el viernes que cesar\u00e1 sus programas de grado despu\u00e9s de que las conversaciones de fusi\u00f3n entre la escuela y la Universidad de San Francisco \u2012USF\u2012 no condujeran a una adquisici\u00f3n. La escuela en Chestnut Street en Russian […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14,78],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-cover","9":"category-san-francisco"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11605,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11603\/revisions\/11605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peninsula360press.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}