Fort Mason Art Points Of Departure Fall 2026

Reserve Space POINTS OF DEPARTURE FALL 2026 PRESENTED BY FORT MASON ART Points Of Departure is a new series of immersive live events celebrating the spectrum of Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture (FMCAC) as a place for innovation and discovery, a personal port of embarkation for its community, and a window on the world. Each program celebrates the vibrant past, present, and future of FMCAC as it charts a course toward its 50th anniversary in 2027. Points Of Departure is curated by Brad Rosenstein, Associate Curator of Public Programs. Two Points Of Departure Fall 2026 Events Happen in The Bayfront Theatre, Building B, Third Floor PROGRAM 1 TELL THEM WE WERE HERE Film screening and panel conversation Thursday, September 24, 2026 – 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Bayfront Theatre, Building B, Third Floor, Fort Mason Center For Arts & Culture (FMCAC), RESERVE SPACE TELL THEM WE WERE HERE Artist Alicia McCarthy Tell Them We Were Here (2021), a film by Griff Williams and Keelan Williams, chronicles visual/multidisciplinary artists currently living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area and how they extend the historical legacy of Bay Area creativity, activism, and community. Reflecting the spirit of FMCAC and its vibrant connection to local art and artists, the film centers the idea of art as a reflection of the place from which it emerges and helps to define the unique character of the Bay Area scene over the past 25 years. The film follows the work of Sadie Barnette, Amy Franceschini (Futurefarmers), Jim Goldberg, Tucker Nichols, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Alicia McCarthy, Nigel Poor (Ear Hustle), and Michael Swaine, a select group of artists who have chosen a less-worn path. It touches on the disappearance of cultural communities due to gentrification and economic instability, while reminding us of art’s power to transform and how vital creative communities are to healthy societies and political change. The screening is followed by a panel discussion with director Griff Williams, artists Amy Franceschini and Tucker Nichols, and curator René de Guzman (all featured in the film), exploring how the local art scene has continued to evolve in the five years since the film’s premiere. PROGRAM 2 CIRCUS BY THE BAY Panel conversation and live performances Tuesday, October 13, 2026 – 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Cowell Theater, Pier 2/Gateway Pavilion, FMCAC, RESERVE SPACE Pickle Family Circus at Fort Mason Center For Arts & Culture Lively Arts Festival 1978. Photo: Terry Lorant In the 1970s, San Francisco became an epicenter of the emerging new American circus – an intimate one-ring model that spurned animal acts and focused on traditional skills of juggling, clowning, acrobatics, and aerial work, all filtered through a countercultural vaudevillian sensibility. This “not-so-big-top” was pioneered by such local companies as the Pickle Family Circus and its later incarnation, the New Pickle Circus, which performed annually at Fort Mason Center For Arts & Culture, and longtime FMCAC residents Make*A*Circus. This movement spawned a stream of Bay Area talents that spread their influence from Cirque du Soleil and Broadway to movies, and TV, an impact which resonates to this day. Join us for a magical evening celebrating this uniquely San Francisco history through a conversation with some of its leading lights, all veterans of Pickle Family Circus and the New Pickle Circus: performer/writer/director Gypsy Snider, trapeze artist/choreographer/director Shana Carroll, clown/writer/teacher Jeff Raz, and artistic director/choreographer Tandy Beal. The program includes rare archival photos and video, and live performances by Unique Derique (Prescott Circus), Chloe Somers Walier (Dear San Francisco), Elise Hing (Circus Bella), and performers from San Francisco Youth Circus (SFYC), Circus Center’s pre-professional youth program. (performers subject to change). PROGRAM 3 LIFE ON THE WATER: A REUNION Panel conversation and rare performance video Thur…