"We believe in public spaces that are about the ideas and aspirations of the public themselves. And not us telling them what they should be aspiring to."

– NEIL HRUSHOWY, SF Planning Department

The Market Street Prototyping Festival believes that collaboration and rapid experimentation can help solve our biggest challenges. An equal partnership between Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the San Francisco Planning Department, the Prototyping Festival was born out of their shared desire to make Market Street a more vibrant, connected destination; one that brings together different people, communities, and neighborhoods.

Over the past several years, the City’s Better Market Street project has gathered extensive community feedback, with a clear response that the public wants a more vibrant and positive experience on Market Street. The City has responded with a commitment to redesigned sidewalks and “Street Life Zones” that make our public space more active, vibrant, and engaging. These are the zones we reimagine and activate during the Festival.

We believe that there is an ongoing need for this sort of experimentation and prototyping. Initiatives like the Prototyping Festival allow all those who are passionate about our city to engage in the civic process and to provide hands-on contributions to solving our community’s biggest challenges.

"We cannot make things happen behind closed doors, with only a few people thinking about the problems that affect so many."

– DEBORAH CULLINAN, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts