After nearly four decades, the founder and longtime director of San Francisco-based City Arts & Lectures is retiring.
Since founding the non-profit organization in 1980, Sydney Goldstein brought an array of A-list public figures to Bay Area audiences — initially at the College of Marin, then the Herbst Theatre, and in more recent times, the renovated Nourse Theater.
Roxane Gay, Whoopi Goldberg, Alec Baldwin, Tom Wolfe, Ta Nehisi-Coates and Edward Snowden are just a few names among the many to have appeared in San Francisco under the auspices of City Arts & Lectures over the years.
Goldstein also cultivated a roster of well-versed interviewers, including journalist Steven Winn and writer-publisher Dave Eggers.
![Steven Winn (journalist:author and frequent City Arts & Lecturers interviewer) and Sydney Goldstein confer before Winn interviews Tina Fey.](https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/07/Steven-Winn-journalistauthor-and-frequent-City-Arts-Lecturers-interviewer-Sydney-Goldstein-confer-before-Winn-interviews-Tina-Fey-Photo-by-Aubrie-Pick-e1499293784171-800x451.jpg)
One of Goldstein’s major achievements in recent years was the renovation of the 1,689-seat Nourse Theater in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood. With an annual operating budget of $1.5 million, the organization produces around 60 events at the venue a year.