Your Guide to

San Francisco's Public Art This Spring

A new wave of permanent public art has officially arrived, transforming the way we move through San Francisco. From the long-awaited return of the beloved The Bay Lights to revamped, mural-lined alleys and fan-favorite sculptures, the city is filled with new, picture-perfect landmarks. Whether you’re a local on a morning commute or a visitor chasing the spring sun, here is the must-see permanent public artwork across the city.

Light Installations

The Bay Lights

Oakland Bay Bridge 

Set to return March 20, 2026, The Bay Lights, created by the acclaimed light artist Leo Villareal, will once again illuminate the northern cable plane. The beloved installation will now have 48,000 custom-engineered LEDs set to withstand all sorts of conditions. You can see The Bay Lights nightly from dusk to dawn on the Oakland Bay Bridge!

Murals & Street Art

Reflection and Projection

McLaren Park

Located in the second-largest park in San Francisco, a nearly eight-foot-tall, almost ten-foot-wide sculpture stands at the Herz Recreation Center. Created by visual artist Sanjay Vora, the installation features reflective, mirrored, stainless-steel tiles that create an ever-changing experience. 

Ross Alley

Chinatown

In the heart of the biggest and largest Chinatown in North America is a historical one-block alleyway. The famous Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory has been revitalized with multiple murals depicting various aspects of Chinese culture and history. 

Beyond the city's permanent artworks, San Francisco is currently hosting a rotation of fleeting, experimental works that invite us to rethink our urban environment. From a massive digital canvas to 3D-printed living soil, these temporary installations are transforming San Francisco into a participatory gallery. Catch these site-specific highlights before they depart.

Murals & Street Art

This Burning World

Mission Street between Fourth and Fifth streets

Configured from Jeffrey Gibson’s original 2022 video installation at ICA SF, “This Burning World,” this work speaks to our collective relationship to the planet while asserting the power of art to foster connection, reflection, and shared civic experience. This 433-foot-long installation will be on view through the summer of 2026. 

Light Installations

Echoes: A Voice from Uncharted Waters

Ferry Terminal Plaza

This immersive, 55-foot-long steel whale by artist Mathias Gmachl uses interactive light and sound to explore the delicate relationship between human activity and marine ecosystems. Unveiled in November 2025 as a centerpiece of the Big Art Loop, this temporary installation is scheduled for a one-year residency and will remain on display through November 6.

Murals

Coit Tower Murals

Telegraph Hill

Many might not know that Coit tower features stunning New Deal murals and paintings inside. Many of the most important Bay Area artists, like Diego Rivera, were hired to complete these murals in 1934. The murals take us through the lives of California workers during the Great Depression, showing the hardships of the time. 

Lincoln Park Steps

Land’s End, Lincoln Park

Located at the western end of California Street, the Lincoln Park Steps are a Beaux Arts-inspired public art installation. After decades of neglect, this historic staircase from the 1900s was transformed into a vibrant community landmark through a seven-year renovation led by local artist Aileen Barr and the Friends of Lincoln Park. Today, visitors can enjoy the intricate, nature-themed mosaic tiles that adorn the fifty-two steps, offering a colorful gateway to the Legion of Honor and breathtaking views of the city.

Hope for the World Cure

Market and 15th streets

Spanning 116 feet across the heart of the Castro, the Hope for the World Cure mural is a monumental tribute to the resilience of the San Francisco LGBTQ+ community. Painted in 1988 by seventeen artists personally affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, this 25-foot-high masterpiece serves as a moving visual narrative of the struggle, loss, and enduring hope for a cure.

Maestrapeace

3543 18th Street

The jewel of San Francisco's Mission District is a mural on The Women's Building by established Bay Area muralists: Juana Alicia, Miranda Bergman, Edytha Boone, Susan Kelk Cervantes, Meera Desai, Yvonne Littleton, and Irene Perez. Maestrapeace, meaning “Woman teacher of peace,” serves as a visual showcase of women's many contributions throughout history around the world.

Sculptures

Earth Wall, Tree Fall, Spire

Presidio

Woven into the historic landscape of the Presidio, Andy Goldsworthy’s trio of installations uses the park’s own fallen timber and clay to bridge the gap between art and ecology. Visitors can explore the towering Spire, the winding Wood Line, and the subterranean Earth Wall to witness a poetic lifecycle of the land. These sculptures prove that the most powerful art often grows directly from the earth.

Three Dancing Figures

The Moscone Center

Initially exhibited in San Francisco's War Memorial Plaza in 1998, the untitled piece—commonly referred to as “Three Dancing Figures”— by the late Keith Haring, has been at the Moscone Center since 2001. Haring’s art celebrates sexuality as natural and joyful while addressing the weight of the AIDS epidemic. 

Light Installations

Lucy in the Sky

Union Square    

Walking into the Union Square/Market Street subway station, it’s hard not to notice the hundreds of suspended color-changing LED panels above. Created by Erwin Redl, the panels are suspended along the entire length of the concourse-level ceiling, changing colors to create a kaleidoscopic experience. 

Language of Birds

North Beach

In the popular pedestrian plaza between Chinatown and North Beach, a suspended installation of books mimics a flock of birds in motion, their form created by the pages and their bindings. When passing under the “flock” of birds, there are words that have seemingly fallen from the pages of the books above. The words vary in language from Italian, Chinese, and English to represent the rich literary history of the neighborhoods surrounding the piece.