SOMA PILIPINAS Celebrates Dekada A Decade of Community Arts, Activism, and Cultural Impact
A Model for California: Paving the Way for the State’s Growing Cultural District Movement
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, April 24, 2026 — SOMA Pilipinas, the City and State recognized Filipino Cultural Heritage District, marks a landmark ten years of community building, cultural preservation, and placemaking in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood. Under the banner of Dekada: Continuing a Decade of Community Arts, Activism, and Cultural Impact—SOMA Pilipinas reflects on ten years of hard-won victories while sounding the alarm on deepening threats of displacement and defunding that put the district’s future at risk.
Since receiving official recognition from the City of San Francisco in 2016, SOMA Pilipinas has grown from a designated district into a living, breathing cultural ecosystem—one shaped by generations of Filipino families, artists, activists, and workers who refused to be erased from the neighborhood they built. SOMA Pilipinas’ ten-year impact could not have been possible without the sustained partnership of legacy Filipino arts and community organizations whose roots in the South of Market run deep. Over the past decade, SOMA Pilipinas has collaborated with artists, small businesses, cultural institutions, and community organizations, including Bayanihan Equity Center, Bill Sorro Housing Program, Bindlestiff Studio, Filipino Mental Health Initiative, Galing Bata, Kularts, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, SOMCAN (South of Market Community Action Network), and many more.
“We’re so proud to be able to advance many of the community-based CHHESS strategies for community stabilization and language access.” says Angelica Cabande, Executive Director of SOMCAN who led the effort for formal recognition of the SOMA Pilipinas as the City’s Filipino Cultural Heritage District. “Working closely with SOMA Pilipinas, we landmarked the Mint Mall which continues to be home to hundreds of Filipinos, and preserve a number of rent-controlled multi-general housing. Together, we also partnered with San Francisco City College to establish the first Filipino interpretation and translation courses.”
A Model for California: Paving the Way for the State’s Growing Cultural District Movement
As one of California’s original state-designated Cultural Districts, SOMA Pilipinas stands as a blueprint for what cultural placemaking can achieve when it is rooted in community power, lived history, and sustained advocacy. The California Cultural Districts program, administered by the California Arts Council and originating with the adoption of Assembly Bill 189 in 2015, now encompasses more than two dozen districts. Ten new districts recently joined the program, reflecting a growing statewide recognition that authentic arts and cultural communities are essential infrastructure.
“SOMA Pilipinas has been a leader not only among state-recognized cultural districts, but also across the cultural arts ecosystem in San Francisco,” says Maria Jenson, Executive Director of SOMArts and Chair of the San Francisco Arts Alliance. “Their collaborative approach has produced so many new murals and have transformed the South of Market into an outdoor art gallery, and their fierce advocacy and organizing for equity for community-based artists and institutions have strengthened solidarity across communities.”
Key milestones SOMA Pilipinas has accomplished over the past ten years include:
Public Art Transformation: More than 40 public artworks, murals, crosswalks, light installations, and cultural landmarks, now define SOMA Pilipinas as one of San Francisco’s most vibrant open-air galleries. In the past year alone, ten new Filipino murals and public art pieces were completed including the district-led restoration of “Ang Lipi ni Lapulapu,” the first mural depicting the history of Filipino immigration to the Americas, originally painted 40 years ago.
Small Business Sustainability: Sustained advocacy to protect Filipino residents, seniors, and small businesses from displacement in one of the most expensive cities in the world, including securing a $2 million APEC small business mitigation fund that benefited 200 businesses and cultural institutions.
Visibility through Landmarking: Successful campaigns to landmark historically significant sites, including the recent recognition of Mint Mall and Hall as a city landmark honoring Filipino American history, cementing the community’s irreplaceable role in San Francisco’s cultural fabric.
Community Stabilization and Site Acquisition: SOMA Pilipinas advocacy for the historic API Equity Fund supported 5 Filipino legacy organizations in SOMA to purchase and develop their own buildings stabilizing community services and cultural institutions for future generations. SOMA Pilipinas will also open its own cultural center in 2027 as part of ongoing efforts to secure permanent, community-stewarded spaces for Filipino arts and culture.
Supporting Filipinx Artists: Most recently the MAKIBAKA: A Living Legacy art exhibit in partnership with YBCA was a first of its kind exhibition featuring over 20 contemporary Filipinx artists alongside historical objects, archival materials, and community-held memories, reclaims the South of Market Filipino community’s history of resistance and self-determination as not mere artifact, but living legacy.
The Stakes Are High: Displacement and Defunding Threaten a Decade of Progress
Despite these accomplishments, the district is still challenged by funding and displacement pressures. The same forces, institutional racism, skyrocketing real estate costs, and divestment in communities of color, that have been resisted for over a century, continue to threaten the community. Currently, SOMA Pilipinas, and all ten SF cultural districts face $100,000 of cuts to their baseline funding from the City.
“To ensure that we are able to build momentum despite ongoing threats of defunding and displacement amidst a new tech boom, SOMA Pilipinas is launching Dekada: Power the Next Decade giving campaign - a $100,000 fundraising drive for the survival and future of the Filipino community and culture in San Francisco.” announces Raquel Redondiez, Director, SOMA Pilipinas. “We are looking for 100 community friends and allies to help us sustain our community stabilization, public art, cultural programming, and advocacy at a time when many of the city’s cultural centers, museums and arts spaces are being forced to close their doors.”
SOMA Pilipinas invites organizations, corporations, and individuals to join Dekada: Power the Next Decade campaign and help reach the $100,000 goal by September 24, 2026, culminating in a dance party at SOMArts Cultural Center. Join the Dekada Campaign here.
SOMA Pilipinas 2026 Calendar Of Events:
April 23: Gunitaan ng Pagtutuwid sa Kasaysayan” Shaping Legacy Public Art Performance
May 22: The 28th Annual Flores de Mayo Celebration with Canon Kip
May 29: The Certificate of Preference Community Forum
June 24: SOMA Pilipinas Gateway / Russ Street Presentations with Gateway Artist, Franceska Gamez
August 2: Valkyries Filipino Heritage Night with SOMA Pilipinas
September 4: Sun Dome installation (Public Artwork in Yerba Buena Gardens)
September 24: SOMA Pilipinas Dekada Dance Party at SOMArts Cultural Center
October (Filipino American History Month): Victoria Manalo Draves Park 20th Anniversary (date TBA)
December 12: 24th Annual Parol Lantern Festival
About SOMA Pilipinas – Filipino Cultural Heritage District
SOMA Pilipinas is dedicated to preserving and promoting Filipino culture and history, supporting community artists and cultural workers, and fostering economic development through cultural arts and community partnerships.
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Press Contact:
Paloma@papalodown.com