The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (ICA SF) opened as planned over the weekend in its new digs in The Cube building at 345 Montgomery Street.

It's a major move for the ICA SF, which was founded in 2022 and has spent two years in a more modest space in Dogpatch. The museum was started with seed funding from the couple behind the Minnesota Street Project, Andy and Deborah Rappaport, as well as Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and his wife Kaitlyn Trigger, who are underwriting the salary of museum director Ali Gass for the first three years.

We learned in late August that, in a deal with Vornado Realty Trust, the ICA SF was moving to this 73,000-square-foot building, and will get to stay there rent-free for the first two years.

Museum-goers looking at a piece by Kathleen Ryan. Photo via ICA SF/Instagram

Ethan Beard, the chairman of the ICA SF, said in an August statement that the move to the Financial District "is looking to take advantage of our nimbleness and size to quickly adapt to opportunities," and Beard added, "We are trying to build something that is a lasting institution and looking to find a more sustainable financial path."

The museum's mission is "to make contemporary art relevant and meaningful for all audiences," and it is a non-collecting museum that exhibits art from artists around the globe. As it was in its Dogpatch space, the new museum on Montgomery Street is free to enter, and each weekend from 11 am to 5 pm it will feature a Makers Studio, with crafting for all ages.

The opening exhibitions in the new space include The Poetics of Dimensions, a group show curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah that includes "the works of visual artists who have honed artistic practices utilizing quotidian materials such as durags, shoelaces, felt, leather, single-use plastic, and more."

Also on view is a collection of sculptures by New York-based artist Kathleen Ryan, which are larger-than-life depictions of rotting food made with encrusted stones and faux gemstones.

Telegraph Hill resident Lisa Kenney, who attended the museum's opening weekend, tells the Chronicle that she's happy to see the long-vacant, former Bank of America flagship branch building put to use.

"I’ve been looking at this building for ages, and it’s always been empty," Kenney says. "This is a big step to making this area more vital."

The ICA SF is open Wednesday to Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm, and in keeping with downtown SF art-world tradition, it will be open late on Thursdays, until 7 pm.

Previously: Institute of Contemporary Art Moving to Downtown SF's 'Cube' Building