Our History
30 Years of Excellence in Arts Education
SOTA was founded in 1982 by a
group of artists and teachers who believed that arts education is
essential for all students. This group included internationally renowned
artist and long-time San Francisco resident Ruth Asawa. SOTA has evolved
over the past 30 years, starting as a school-within-a-school
at the McAteer campus, then moving in 1991 to an abandoned elementary
school near San Francisco
State University. In 2002, SOTA returned
to its original location at the McAteer campus, at the intersection
of Portola and O’Shaughnessy. In February 2010, SOTA was renamed
the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, a Public School,
in honor of
Ruth Asawa's contributions and lifelong dedication
to arts education and the children of San Francisco's public schools.