Sanchez Art Center

About ArtReach Studios
The Arc of San Francisco opened ArtReach Studios in 2004 to provide an art institute experience for adult artists with developmental disabilities living in San Mateo County. The mission of ArtReach Studios is to provide a full range of academic and integrated arts instruction and practice to promote personal and professional development in artists with developmental disabilities.

ArtReach teaches art history and theory in addition to practice and technique in drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, film and videomaking, theatre, dance, writing fiction, plays, and poetry, and more. ArtReach students research various movements throughout history in order to inform their own artistic endeavors and personal development.

A Typical Day at ArtReach
ArtReach is open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Classes are taught four mornings a week by ArtReach instructors and by guest artist lecturers. Afternoons at ArtReach, students work on their own personal projects and research while receiving individualized guidance. A regular feature of all lessons is facilitated peer critique, in which students are encouraged to speak about their own creations, as well as to exchange ideas with their fellow artists about their unique inspirations and visions, and the creative process.

Learning About the Arts in the Community
Students also learn about art by traveling around the Bay Area exploring museums such as the DeYoung, Legion of Honor, SF MoMA, Asian Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Fort Mason, San Jose Museum of Art, UC Berkeley Art Museum, and the Stanford Museum of Art, and touring private artists’ studios and workshops, performance spaces, and galleries.