Project Artaud is a pioneering arts complex in San Francisco’s Mission District, for artists of all disciplines: visual artists, dancers, actors, writers, filmmakers, and arts presenting groups. We’re a member-run, non-profit organization, providing support for artists and arts activities, and a model of how artist communities can be shelters for artisans and resources for a city.

In 1971, our founding members purchased, rehabilitated, and converted a 100,000 square foot factory and the city block on which it resides to create affordable housing, studio spaces, artists’ resources and a community in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission District. They named this colony Project Artaud, in the spirit of Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) who believed art should be made in non-traditional spaces. From its inception, the mission of Project Artaud has focused on providing sustainable spaces for artists to live and teach the principles of their craft, to develop the appreciation of literary, dramatic, and manual arts within under-resourced communities, and, through these efforts, to promote a new community-focused urban consciousness. 

Today a multi-generational colony of artists, craftspeople, and educators guide this organization forward, which houses four performance theaters, a mixed-use visual arts gallery, and 79 sustainable live/work spaces for over 100 painters, sculptors, dancers, performance artists, writers, photographers, and musicians.