What is SALA?
Society of Art and Living Archives (SALA) is a California-based 501(c)(3) arts and education nonprofit organization, founded in 2020 by artist, curator, and independent art historian Alberto Cuadros.
SALA began with Society of Art Los Angeles, which built it’s reputation for placemaking by transforming vacant commercial and alternative spaces into museum-quality, site-specific exhibitions and experimental programming that engages artists, galleries, and wide public audiences.
Emerging out of this foundational work, SALA launched a second branch in San Francisco in 2025 under the name Society of Art and Living Archives, developing a distinct curatorial and research focus in the Bay Area.
With a point of inquiry centered on California art and cultural history dating back to the 1840s, SALA’s 2026 programming examines artists and artist groups active in San Francisco, the birthplace of some of the state’s earliest art movements. Living Archives: San Francisco is a fresh new series of exhibitions, talks, salons, workshops, and city wide tours that examine and interpret the iconic, intersectional, and overlooked Bay Area art histories, as well as the sites in which these histories occurred .
Despite launching in the midst of the pandemic, SALA quickly mobilized a highly esteemed network, actively collaborating with 194 renowned and emerging artists and 16 commercial galleries, presenting 20+ exhibitions internationally.
SALA’s list of collaborators and following continues to steadily and organically grow as a network of artists, curators, gallerists, museum directors, collectors, scholars, critics, writers, and cultural leaders that regularly attends SALA events. Now, anticipating the next chapter, this very rare and invaluable network reflects the trust and authority SALA could only have earned through genuinely thoughtful programming.
Through this expansion to include Northern California, along with continued programming in Los Angeles and Southern California, SALA advances its mission to activate overlooked histories, connect communities, and create more immersive, forward-thinking, site-specific experiences and discussion.
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