Laurene Powell Jobs starts nonprofit to save the SF Art Institute

The billionaire widow of Steve Jobs wants to buy the bankrupt San Francisco Art Institute and its Diego Rivera fresco on Russian Hill and start a new arts school.

Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs heads a new nonprofit that aims to purchase the historic campus at 800 Chestnut Street, the San Francisco Business Times reported, citing unidentified sources. 

Powell Jobs is joined by Brenda Way, founder and artistic director of San Francisco’s Oberlin Dance Collective and David Stull, president of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

The head of the Steve Jobs Trust of the late Apple co-founder will provide an endowment to secure the 2-acre property and support the unnamed nonprofit. The amount of her contribution is unknown.

The 97-year-old Spanish Colonial Revival landmark — with its sweeping views, soaring bell tower and fresco by the Mexican muralist — holds a special place in the hearts of San Francisco. 

“Art is the past and the future of San Francisco,” Way said in a statement. “This visionary project, picking up the thread of a brilliant artistic history, will be a catalyst in the renaissance of our cultural identity.” 

The 152-year-old San Francisco Art Institute closed last year after dwindling enrollment. The land and original 1926 building are owned by the Regents University of California. There’s also a 1968 addition with a rooftop amphitheater.

The campus has been valued at $40 million. Rivera’s 40-foot-by-30-foot “The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City,” completed in 1931, is valued at $50 million. They were listed this summer after the institute declared bankruptcy last spring.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin has launched legislation to create a special use district specific to the property and allow an unaccredited institution to move in.

If advanced by the city’s Planning Commission next month, the ordinance must be approved by the Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor London Breed. The pending deal isn’t expected to close until the ordinance becomes effective, likely in mid-December, according to the Business Times. A sale must also have approval of a bankruptcy court. 

— Dana Bartholomew

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