Welcome to Edge on the Square, the contemporary art hub located at the heart of San Francisco Chinatown. Our year-round programming is designed to bring together creators and educators for a well-rounded cultural experience. Our space welcomes Asian American artists for our twice annual art exhibitions and our signature annual contemporary art festival, as well as music events and community gatherings that foster cultural exchange and understanding.
We are passionate about providing a platform for Asian American artists to showcase their work and we are proud to support local merchants in the process. Our goal is to inspire and engage visitors through our diverse range of events and programming. Come and explore Chinatown with us through art!
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MSG: Making, Sharing, Gathering
October 19, 2024 - May 2025
MSG: Making, Sharing, Gathering is an interactive culinary series that invites participants to examine the anthropology of food via cooking rituals and traditions from the Asian American culinary landscape. Through their personal narratives, six Bay Area culinary stars demonstrate how food is a potent cultural practice. These monthly workshops entail unique experiences that celebrate the cuisine of the Asian diaspora, blending nourishment and creativity, resilience and reclamation.
Edge's Newest Exhibition
Walking Stories
Walking Stories Exhibition
Wednesday - Saturday | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
800 Grant Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94108
The exhibition, Walking Stories, contemplates the storied nature of human behavior and how individuals may be perceived as embodied "walking stories". Carried within the storyteller, passed down through generations are countless stories shared, given, received, and exchanged. Far from being fixed, stories are fluid in essence, constantly evolving as they are expanded on, abbreviated, and adapted per circumstance, context and audience. As such, how do we carry, gift, receive, exchange stories? What is said and intentionally left unsaid? How might we tell the untold stories of those who do not have capacity or reveal that which is not yet uncovered? In what ways do stories shape human connection, cross-generationally, personally and collectively?
This exhibition is co-presented by Edge on the Square and Asian Americans for Civil Rights & Equality (AACRE).
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Our Theory of Change
Edge shifts the dominant narrative of the immigrant experience by:
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Expanding knowledge and awareness of a “critical” immigrant story
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Being a strong voice for immigrants with an uplifting narrative
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Being the touchstone that holds the brand and a welcoming space to spark dialogues
Edge will become a sustainable socio-economic engine for Chinatown by:
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Providing stellar programs that motivate the public to visit, explore, and experience Chinatown
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Engaging with communities to build relationships and networks that amplify our collective voice and power
Edge widens the aperture of the human experience through:
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Empowerment, creativity, and optimism
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Sharpening tools to initiate and engage in meaningful discourse, build self-awareness, exercise agency, and activate social transformation
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Promoting attitudes of inclusivity, cultural curiosity, constructive exchange
Land Acknowledgement
Edge on the Square, situated in the vibrant heart of San Francisco's Chinatown, stands at the crossroads of history and culture. We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we stand is the ancestral and unceded lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone People who have stewarded this land throughout the generations. We recognize the historic discrimination and violence inflicted upon Indigenous peoples in California and the Americas. We also recognize the historical significance of this land to the diverse Chinese immigrant communities who have contributed to the rich cultural tapestry of San Francisco. We offer our deepest respect to the Ramaytush Ohlone as first peoples and express gratitude to the generations of Chinese Americans who have made this community thrive.
