Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Public Library, KQED, and Circuit Network partner with Villa Albertine for its signature marathon of talks, performances, art, and collective imagination on April 11, 2026 at the Main Library + Asian Art Museum 

SAN FRANCISCO, March 31, 2026 – Villa Albertine San Francisco, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Public Library, KQED and Circuit Network announce the full program for San Francisco’s 2026 Night of Ideas on April 11, 3 p.m.– 12 a.m. Free to the public, Night of Ideas returns with an after-dark celebration of art, innovation, and culture across cities in the U.S. This year, San Francisco’s theme “Lighting the Way,” invites our Bay Area audiences to explore how ideas, creativity, and collective action can illuminate paths forward, helping reveal new ways of thinking and connecting about the future as we look ahead to the next 250 years after the American Declaration of Independence.  

From cultural expression to shared responsibility, “Lighting the Way” asks what guides us, what inspires positive change, and how we can actively shape a more connected future together. Ahead of the evening program, Afternoon of Ideas returns with a family-friendly experience designed to welcome youth and families into the spirit of the event. Through hands-on workshops, playful performances, and creative activities led by artists, educators, and children’s book authors, the daytime program invites curiosity, play, and intergenerational exchange. Art lovers will have plenty to view, including two exhibitions on the Main Library’s 6th Floor, Patricia Owen Design Bookbinding: A Retrospective and Under the Bed: Monstrous Selections from the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor. Mini tours will also be hosted throughout the night at the Asian Art Museum, showcasing stories of repatriation from the collection and the new exhibition Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries.  

Don’t forget to stop by the Small Business Marketplace, located on the 1st Floor of the Main Library, which showcases local makers who specialize in jewelry, winemaking, jams, chocolates, and handmade wearable art. And a new addition this year for astronomy fans: Astro Everywhere and Skymapper will bring star gazing to the Main Library’s top floor terrace.  

Since its inception in 2016 by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Night of Ideas has been hosted in more than 100 countries and 300 cities worldwide, with 18 U.S. cities participating in 2026 including Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, and New York City. Join Villa Albertine San Francisco, Asian Art Museum, Circuit Network, KQED, and San Francisco Public Library for a dynamic marathon of talks, live performances, workshops, food, art and shared exploration. Together, Night of Ideas creates space for collective imagination where ideas are exchanged, perspectives are expanded and the way forward is shaped in real time. 

Highlights from the Afternoon of Ideas: 

• Drag Story Hour with SF Drag Laureate Per Sia
• Family Dance-Along and Ballet Barre Class with the San Francisco Ballet School
• Human and Artificial Intelligence Workshop presented by Everyone.AI
• Henna with Renda Dabit
• Tinkering with The Exploratorium
• Instrument Petting Zoo with the San Francisco Symphony
• Learn to Ride Class with the SF Bike Coalition 

Highlights from Night of Ideas: 

• A French Touch San Francisco Premiere: Détroit, original live music by Victor Le Masne, Musical Director of the 2024 Paris Olympics and Classical Revolution String Quartet
• Lighting the Future: Ethical AI for the Next Generation with Everyone.AI, Stanford Social Media Lab, FreedomAI
• Ocean Healing: Interdisciplinary Restoration with Reef Check Foundation Foundation and Kalie Granier
• Electric Runway: Tackling Climate Change with KQED Science featuring a fashion show
• Art Museums and the Asian Century with the Asian Art Museum
• Afrofuturism: Our Futures Will Not be Colonized, with Kim McMillon, Ayize Jama-Everett, D. Scot Miller, and Isis Asare
• The Worst of Broke-Ass Stuart: 20 Years of Love, Death and Dive Bars with author Stuart Schuffman, and Olivia Allen-Price Host and Senior Editor of KQED’s Bay Curious
• The Evolving SF Arts Ecosystem, with Zully Adler, J.D. Beltran, Kristen Jacobsen, Bradley McCallum, and Sabine de Maussion OceanOneK with Oussama Khatib
• Zine Making Workshop Inspired by Hamburger Eyes
• KQED's Affordability Series: How We Get By with Ryan O'Connell, ADU Housing Advocate, and Erin Baldassari, Housing Affordability Correspondent
• Knowing What You Don’t Know: Seeing Beyond the Unseeable with SETI Institute, Berkeley Lab, Jupiter Laser Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• KQED Climate Book Club with Danielle Venton, Science and climate reporter, and Claudia Polsky, Director of the Environmental Law Clinic, UC Berkeley
• On Beat: Hip Hop from Paris to the Bay with Eric Blaze, hip hop beatmaker and producer, and Pendarvis Hardshaw, KQED Journalist and Hip-hop Historian  

Plus, drop in and enjoy performances throughout the night by Club Foot Quintet, who will delight all by accompanying Buster Keaton’s film Day Dreams; live music on Fulton Plaza with record label and production company EMPIRE and bands Naked Roommate and The Mermen; taiko drumming on the Asian Art Museum’s front steps; sitar with tabla and saxophone, and API drag troupe Rice Rockettes in Samsung Hall. The night will be capped off with a crowd favorite, a dance party under the disco ball in the Main Library’s Atrium. 

EVENT DETAILS  

Night of Ideas 2026 

April 11, 2026, 3 p.m.– 12 a.m. 

San Francisco Public Library Main Branch + Asian Art Museum 100 + 200 Larkin Street 

Information and to reserve a ticket visit nightofideas.org/san-francisco 

Night of Ideas 2026 is presented by Villa Albertine and Albertine Foundation thanks to the leadership support of the Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation. It is coordinated worldwide by the InstitutFrançais.  

About Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education 

Villa Albertine is an institution of the French Embassy in the United States, supported by the French government and Albertine Foundation. Villa Albertine’s mission is to strengthen ties between the United States, France and the French-speaking world through culture and education.  

In the arts and culture sphere, we encourage collaboration among French and US-based organizations and provide creators, thought leaders, and professionals with customized residencies, immersive networking experiences, grants, and connections to audiences so they can explore and share new insights into society’s pressing issues. 

In the field of education, we craft projects and programs aimed at making French language and culture accessible to young US-based audiences, expand opportunities for students to study and complete internships in France, and support partnerships between French and American higher education and research institutions.   

Villa Albertine is present in 10 major US cities — Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Washington, DC — and publishes an annual magazine States. It is headquartered in New York’s historic Payne Whitney mansion, home to Albertine, our bookshop and nexus for French-American intellectual exchange.  

Follow Villa Albertine on Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.     

villa-albertine.org    

 About Albertine Foundation 
Albertine Foundation is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting French-American relations through innovative cultural and educational projects. In partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, Albertine Foundation promotes artistic, literary, and educational exchange and collaboration between creative professionals from both countries. With additional corporate, foundation, and individual support, Albertine Foundation administers grant programs in the performing and visual arts, cinema, translation, and secondary and higher education, while providing financial sponsorship to French-American festivals and other cultural initiatives. Albertine Foundation focuses on new and recent work of living artists and the promotion of bilingualism and the French language. AlbertineFoundation.org 

 
Located in the heart of San Francisco, the Asian Art Museum is home to one of the world’s finest collections of Asian and Asian American art, with more than 20,000 awe-inspiring works ranging from ancient jades and ceramics to contemporary video installations. Dynamic special exhibitions, cultural celebrations, and public programs for all ages provide rich art experiences that unlock the past and spark questions about the future. 

San Francisco Public Library connects our diverse communities to learning, opportunities and each other. The library system is made up of 27 neighborhood branches, the San Francisco Main Library at Civic Center and four bookmobiles. 

KQED serves the people of Northern California with a public-supported alternative to commercial media. An NPR and PBS member station based in San Francisco, KQED is home to one of the most listened-to public radio stations in the nation, one of the highest-rated public television services and an award-winning education program helping students and educators thrive in 21st-century classrooms. A trusted news source, leader and innovator in interactive technology, KQED takes people of all ages on journeys of exploration — exposing them to new people, places and ideas. 

Circuit Network, founded in 1984, is a non-profit producer and artists’ service organization dedicated to fostering the development of contemporary dance, theater, music and performing artists who are creating work of high artistic caliber, deep social import and wide cultural impact. Circuit implements its mission by developing partnerships between artists and communities, booking engagements, providing project development and management services, and producing events locally in San Francisco with our roster artists and ensembles. The current roster includes Culture Clash, Richard Marriott's Club Foot Orchestra, Ruben Martinez, Sara Toby Moore, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Dan Wolf and Felonious, and Pamela Z. https://www.circuitnetwork.  

About the Institut français 
The Institut français is responsible for France’s international cultural program. Supervised by both the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and by the Ministry of Culture, it promotes French culture abroad through cultural exchange initiatives. Operating in a space where the arts, intellectual exchange, cultural and social innovation, and linguistic partnerships interact and intersect, it is also responsible for promoting the French language and the sharing of works, artists, and ideas all over the world. The Institut français is one of Villa Albertine's main French partners. Institutfrancais.com 

The consulate general of France in San Francisco. France is represented in the United States by its embassy in Washington D.C. and 10 consulates general.  The consulate general of France in San Francisco extends its competence over 10 states in the northwestern United States. The Consulate reports on political, economic, technical, scientific and cultural issues in its constituency and builds partnerships between French and American companies, institutions, universities on both sides of the Atlantic. Through the Villa Albertine and its residency programs, the consulate supports and promotes the artistic, educational and academic communities.  

Presenting Partner: The Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation 
The Foundation’s work has included underwriting of such public spaces as Washington’s Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Holocaust Museum; and in New York the new Statue of Liberty Museum. In connection to French culture and history, it has underwritten efforts at Notre Dame restoration, the Louvre Endowment, and to Holocaust studies including the 1988 Academy Award winning documentary, Hotel Terminus, the Life and Times of Klaus Barbie.