Matthew Goudeau, current chief development officer for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, will soon become San Francisco’s first executive director of arts and culture. The new top arts job, created by Mayor Daniel Lurie, will oversee three of the city’s arts agencies: the San Francisco Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts and the Film Commission.
Goudeau has a lengthy history in the city’s arts and political circles. He started out in 1999 as an intern in the Mayor’s Office of Protocol under then-Mayor Willie Brown. Over the past 26 years, Goudeau has worked in various city agencies and at arts nonprofits, including Grants for the Arts, 500 Capp Street and the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. Before starting at YBCA in June 2025, Goudeau was Lurie’s deputy chief of staff.
The search for an executive director of arts and culture was announced in late January, against a backdrop of devastating closures in the city’s arts sector, including the beloved Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts and California College of the Arts, the region’s last remaining nonprofit art school. Members of the arts community called for the city to step up during what many saw as a “state of emergency.”
Goudeau was selected after a three-month search process, during which the city received 259 applications. According to today’s announcement, community input pushed the search towards an arts leader with local roots.
“Matthew is a truly excellent choice for this new arts leadership position,” Rachelle Axel, executive director of Artists for a Better Bay Area, said in today’s announcement. “Our arts community has been holding a lot of anxiety because of many uncertainties in the sector, largely centered on the city’s role in the arts ecosystem. This hire was among the top concerns, and now we can cross it off our list.”
