San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral builds community with arts membership program

[Episcopal News Service] One year ago, Patricia Lee, a longtime San Francisco, California, resident, had no relationship with nearby Grace Cathedral until she went to an organ recital and subscribed to the cathedral’s email list. After reading an advertisement for a weekly yoga program for senior citizens at Grace, Lee, 74, tried it in January 2024. Now, she not only does yoga at Grace every week, but she’s also an active member of the cathedral’s growing GraceArts program.

“I think that for seniors, offering programs like senior yoga is particularly important, especially in the city, because there are so many seniors – in many cases widowed or single like myself – who feel isolated,” Lee told Episcopal News Service. “Grace Cathedral has really created a sense of community in the Nob Hill area, and it has really amazed me.”

In 2022, Grace Cathedral – the seat of the Diocese of California – founded GraceArts, a cultural museum-like paid membership program that offers discounted and early access to visual and performing arts events. The program also reduced rates on classes, including yoga, and guided tours are discounted or free for GraceArts members. The program was an instant hit, and membership continues to grow. Today, Grace Cathedral has more GraceArts members than parishioners, and that’s perfectly OK by the Very Rev. Malcolm Clemens Young, the cathedral’s dean.

“People tend to think that a cathedral just serves the people who show up on Sunday mornings, but a cathedral really is committed to the well-being of the entire community that we find ourselves in,” Young told ENS. “The cathedral serves everyone, whether they’re Jewish or Muslim or evangelical Christian or agnostic or atheist –whatever it is they believe in.”

Grace Cathedral’s arts programming is a diverse mix of tradition, pop culture, spirituality and modern technology – where old meets new. Drag queens and trapeze artists have performed inside the cathedral. Musical events range from religious choral and orchestral concerts to chamber ensemble recitals featuring melodic arrangements of music from the Pokémon video game series and Studio Ghibli films. At sound bath events, participants lie down and intently listen to live meditative music while the changing colors light up the cathedral. The sounds from the instruments vibrate throughout the cathedral, which may help participants relax and improve their mood. Performance art exhibitions and dance shows are also popular.

Lee said her two favorite events so far are “Grace Window,” an installation where lasers shining from the roof of nearby Fairmont Hotel through the Grace Cathedral’s Rose Window moved to music in real-time, and “Grace Light,” a large-scale immersive light show where participants lay on the cathedral’s large indoor Chartres-style labyrinth while watching colorful lights overhead move to an original score composed for the installation.

“Those shows were the two most impressive, awe-inspiring experiences that I’ve had with GraceArts,” Lee said.

GraceArts members also can attend exclusive exhibition openings and meet artists before new works are unveiled to the public. This spring, Grace Cathedral displayed “2000 Dragons,” a one-sided 4-foot-by-500-foot artwork with 2,000 unique dragons painted onto a scroll made by Don Ed Hardy, a now-retired tattoo artist who’s the namesake of the Ed Hardy apparel and accessories brand. Hardy was present at the exhibit’s opening, which included a behind-the-scenes discussion. The scroll was on display hanging down the cathedral’s nave during California Bishop Austin Rios’ consecration in May.

Eva Woo Slavitt, Grace Cathedral’s canon for marketing and communications, told ENS that she credits GraceArts members for making it possible to display “2000 Dragons” at the cathedral.

“We had people fly in from Los Angeles and overseas for a chance to meet Ed Hardy … and celebrate this beautiful piece of art,” Slavitt said. “Cultural programming encourages people to come and gather for unique experiences. In this way, we feel like we’re serving the community, and it’s part of our ministry.”

In August, the New York Times reported that the GraceArts membership and arts programming fees help offset the roughly $17,000-per-day cost of operating the cathedral. However, Young stressed that the arts membership and programming are “not about the money.”

“Everything we offer exists for everyone, including people who are not GraceArts members or parishioners. The purpose of our arts programming isn’t to get more money from anybody, but rather giving the community something that’s life-giving to enjoy,” Young said.

Art has always been a cornerstone of Grace Cathedral, which boasts murals by Jan Henryk “John” De Rosen and Antonio Sotomayor. Many famous musicians, including Bobby McFerrin, Duke Ellington, Art Garfunkel and Vince Guaraldi, have performed there. The cathedral has also appeared in several feature films, including Alfred Hitchcock’s “Family Plot,” “Milk” and “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.” Inside the cathedral’s north tower lobby, the AIDS Interfaith Memorial Chapel’s focal point is “The Life of Christ,” by Keith Haring. The bronze and white gold triptych altarpiece is the last work of art the graffiti pop artist completed before he died from AIDS in 1990 at 31 years old.

Since 2012, Grace Cathedral has offered an art residency program where selected artists create work highlighting the cathedral’s annual theme. Patrick Makuakāne, a Hawaiian hula dancer and cultural preservationist, is this year’s artist-in-residence, producing hula art around the 2024 theme, the “Year of Memory.”

In 2016, the “Year of Home,” Grace Cathedral had two artists-in-residence, Benjamin Bergery and Jim Campbell, who created art using LED lights. They created two light installations during their residents: “Miracle Fragments,” a two-night-only light and sound show depicting various biblical miracles, and “Jacob’s Dream: A Luminous Path,” which uses light and moving images to depict a pathway between heaven and Earth, “between the visible and invisible.” “Jacob’s Dream” is a ladder made with LED tube lights, wire, rice paper and low-resolution video footage of people moving. When the art piece is lit, the people in the video appear as if they’re floating or moving up and down the ladder, evoking the story of Jacob’s Dream at Bethel from Genesis 28:10-22, also known as the story of Jacob’s Ladder. “Jacob’s Ladder” was intended to only be on display inside the cathedral’s nave for up to three months, but it remains an indefinite part of the church today.

Campbell told ENS that he’s had a positive experience working with Grace Cathedral over the years.

“[Grace Cathedral] is completely open to everyone,” he said. “It’s a special place that’s felt and really known – a special community.”

Other cathedrals worldwide have attracted new visitors with special programming in recent years. In 2022, Peterborough Cathedral in England hosted the touring exhibition “T.rex: The Killer Question,” which displayed animatronic dinosaurs, including a 40-foot Tyrannosaurus rex model, and a life-size T. rex skeleton replica throughout the 900-year-old building.

Earlier this year in the United Kingdom and Europe, several historic cathedrals hosted themed silent disco parties, where participants listen to music through wireless headphones, which, to people not wearing headphones, gives the impression that they’re dancing to nothing. Some members of the Church of England described the events as “profane,” though Young said he disagreed. During the 81st General Convention in June in Louisville, Kentucky, Christ Church Cathedral hosted a silent “Episco-disco” dance party on “Diocese of Kentucky Night” as a tribute to Louisville being the city where more than 90% of all disco balls worldwide are made.

“Cathedrals are meant to be a welcoming place for the local community, for pilgrims and for travelers,” Young said.

Bergery echoed a similar sentiment.

“If the church is the house of a living God, then it is only natural that the church should have its own life and continue to evolve on all levels, including, of course, art,” he told ENS.

Young said the cathedral isn’t trying to evangelize GraceArts members, but they’re reminded at events that Grace is an active cathedral with many different ministries that serve the wider community, and all are welcome to receive pastoral care if needed. A few people have become parishioners after joining GraceArts, though, including a couple whose child died a few months after they started going to worship services on Sundays.

“When I gave the mother a blanket the knitting group at Grace Cathedral made for her, she had tears running down her face and she expressed how much she appreciated that there was a community of people who loved her family and were praying for them,” Young said.

Anyone who visits Grace Cathedral, whether they’re parishioners, GraceArts members or just visiting for the day, is welcome to reach out for pastoral care. No matter their faith, or lack thereof, Young said, “pastoral care is for everyone.”

Lee said she isn’t interested in attending a worship service at Grace Cathedral, and she’s never felt pressured by anyone to go or treated as an outsider. She has also on several occasions lit a candle inside the cathedral in memory of her husband, though, and she appreciates the opportunities to socialize in a friendly and welcoming environment.

“Being a part of GraceArts has been an enriching experience,” Lee said. “I always have something to look forward to.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.