To Ronald, Thank You...
Ronald Chase, San Francisco Artist; December 29, 1934 - December 20, 2025; Founder of San Francisco Art & Film For Teenagers.
The San Francisco Bay Area art community has suffered deeply from the 2022 closing of SFAI, to the more recent funding cuts of the NEA, the upcoming California College of the Arts (CCA) closing, the news that the di Rosa estate in Napa being put up for sale, and the pausing of the first free Thursdays at the SFMOMA, it’s been brutal.
There was an event hosted 2 weeks ago by SOMarts to gather the arts community to discuss the future of arts in San Francisco.
These high-profile institutions, along with the recent struggles and uncertainty of other art galleries and community spaces, have dominated the local Bay Area headlines, but there is one story I would like more people to know about, and that is of Ronald Chase and the San Francisco Art & Film For Teenagers program.
Ronald Chase, San Francisco Multimedia Artist, Friend and Mentor
On December 20, 2025, San Francisco lost one of the best in Ronald Chase, multimedia artist, beloved mentor, educator and friend. A notice was put out through his organization San Francisco Art & Film For Teenagers. I didn’t know Ronald, but I have met people who did, and I am always touched when I hear of people speak incredibly highly of others, unprompted.
I met Ronald years ago at his studio through a mutual friend, and I could immediately tell how much he cared about the arts and more so how much he loved sharing it with the world around him. Some of you reading this may have been there at that Twelfth Night parties of his in the Mission District back in 2016 (will confirm with Joerg).
In one of his earlier works, a film from the first officially permitted Gay Pride Parade in 1972, he captured the momentous event and incorporated voiceover interviews offering insight into the mood that day.
In 2014, Ronald did something pretty unique as as he opened up his studio to the public and gave away some of his work with one caveat - that people promised not to sell his work, that they framed the pieces of art and if they ever got tired of it, that they pass it along to a friend.
San Francisco Art & Film For Teens
Ronald started the San Francisco Art & Film For Teens, making arts accessible to youth of San Francisco. Over the years, the program evolved from gallery walks, symphony performances, film clubs to trips to Europe that inspired future artists.
As someone who grew up in Marin County, I took a few grade school field trips to the symphony and museums here in SF, and while impressive, they were largely isolated shows full of students from other schools, empty performance spaces, and partial viewings. I didn’t really get the full experience of attending a ‘real‘ show until much later in life. A program like this really opens up the doors to what can feel like a private, invite-only or in-the-know audiences only, given the attire, age, and socioeconomic backgrounds of the average attendee.
Given the closings and dire state of funding for our creative, music, and artistic institutions, artists, galleries and more, San Francisco Art & Film For Teenagers offers something unique and invaluable to our youth at a time when people are struggling to make/keep friends, find communities to facilitate opportunities to leave home and experience some of the incredible offerings of our city.
When I heard of Ronald’s passing, my thoughts went out immediately to those around him. I recently met and reached out to a few people who knew him and wanted to share these notes, and photos with you.
Learn more about the program here, including upcoming opportunities for teens to explore the arts with fellow passionate peers, and for many of the programs, at no cost, as well as ways you can support this remarkable program.
Interview with Isaiah Dufort, Executive Director San Francisco Art & Film For Teenagers
What spaces, performances or pieces are students most interested in?
The program that gets the most attention from our students is Cine Club, our weekly film screening series. We show a film every Friday evening up at the Randall Museum, a wide range of films from silent and classic films, to foreign language films and art house stuff, the kinds of things students are unlikely to discover on their own. It’s difficult to judge which films will be hits with students. We recently showed an Anna May Wong silent film that had the students totally captivated. Our free tickets programs where we take students to the SF Symphony, Ballet and Opera are also quite popular, they’re one of the easiest ways for local students to attend these events for free on a regular basis.
Can you tell me about your experience with the program as a student and how you became involved with it and ultimately became the executive director?
I found Art & Film when my high school English teacher, Gloria Daffner, recommended it to me. I started going to see the Friday night films and quickly became a regular. Ronald learned that I had some experience with theater tech and asked if I would be interested in running AV for the program. While at college I ended up becoming his assistant for his last opera production, Die tote Stadt at the NYC Opera. When I graduated he asked me to help run the non-profit and I never left. He “retired” at Art & Film’s 25th anniversary party, but naturally he was involved in running things right up until he passed. He was still teaching our Film Workshop a couple of weeks before he died, it was that important to him.
An Interview With One Of Ronald’s Students (San Francisco Art & Film For Teenagers)
What did you learn from Ronald?
He taught me how to have an opinion, how to talk about art, how to speak in public, and that what I had to say mattered. He gave me a sense of belonging in art galleries and symphony halls. He helped me understand that San Francisco’s arts institutions, especially the symphony, are world-class.
He taught me to slow down and to look carefully. He believed beauty was essential and worth making room for in everyday life.
He introduced me to 8½, which remains my favorite film.
Ronald made paper ornaments decades ago, twenty or thirty years ago I guess, and used the same ones every year on his Christmas tree. Near the end of his life, the tree was still up and lit beside his bed. It was one of the last things he saw.
He also encouraged me in small, practical ways: to hang art in my house, to put up a Christmas tree, to buy flowers every week. He liked to point out that it didn’t have to be expensive. Trader Joe’s was fine.
I encourage you to watch these select videos of Ronald, and by Ronald, to see the type of man he was and the lasting impact he will have on this city and the lives of people he touched here in San Francisco and beyond.
Ronald Chase, A Portrait (March 2013, shot in his Mission District Studio)
A Life Well-Lived, 2024
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Ronald Chase, San Francisco Art & Film for Teenagers, San Francisco