San Francisco artists push boycott over privately funded Civic Joy events

San Francisco artists are pushing a boycott of events tied to the Civic Joy Fund, arguing that a private, donor-backed initiative has gained too much influence over who shapes the city’s public culture and which neighborhoods get the spotlight.

The fund says it began in 2023 as a program of the Civic Space Foundation, co-founded by Manny Yekutiel and Daniel Lurie. It says its work started with an effort to light up commercial corridors after the pandemic and has since expanded into painting hundreds of utility boxes, organizing weekly trash pickups, and staging events such as Downtown First Thursdays and neighborhood night markets.

That growth has put the fund’s money and network under sharper scrutiny. Its donor roster includes Chris Larsen, Joby Pritzker, Bob Fisher, Randi Fisher, Brian Shire, Carla and David Crane, Kevin and Julia Hartz, Jeff and Marieke Rothschild, Gretchen Sisson, Emmett Shear, Michael Seibel and Andrew Mason. Lurie stepped away when he entered the mayoral race, and later became mayor in 2025. Manny Yekutiel also later stepped back as the fund entered a new chapter in fall 2025 under Executive Director Luke Spray.

The fund’s most visible project is Downtown First Thursdays, a free, all-ages monthly block party held from 5 to 10 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month in downtown San Francisco. Its 2026 season was renewed for 12 months, from January through December, with support from the San Francisco Downtown Development Corporation, Chris Larsen, Bob and Randi Fisher and Salesforce. The event’s partners and curators include Into The Streets, The East Cut CBD, Yerba Buena Partnership, Natoma Cabana, 111 Minna Gallery, Grace Towers and Black Joy Parade.

The same private network has already left fingerprints on San Francisco streets. In November 2023, the fund partnered with Illuminate on a 12-laser Market Street installation during APEC week, a high-visibility public artwork that underscored how quickly donor money can move into civic space. Supporters say that speed matters in a downtown recovery still struggling to regain foot traffic, street life and a sense of safety.

Critics see something else: a soft-power project that can steer culture on terms set by the wealthy, not by residents or artists who do not have access to the same circles. The boycott push turns Civic Joy from a branding exercise into a governance question. In a city where private wealth already shapes public life, the fight is now over whether neighborhoods with fewer institutional connections will share equally in the money, the programming and the power.