|
News from SFAC, April 2008
Neighborhood Arts Program Celebrates 40 Years
Bayview Opera House Restoration
Public Art Happenings
New Grants Programs for Arts
New Commissioners join SFAC
SFAC Gallery Buzz
 Neighborhood Arts Festival: Celebrating 40 Years of Community-Based Art Making
Join community artists and cultural leaders as the Arts Commission celebrates four decades of the Neighborhood Arts Program from April 21-May 3. Two weeks of events spotlight some of the best community arts projects that embody the spirit of art and social change. Expect musical performances; a reading with San Francisco literati, including poet laureates past and present; lively panel discussions; and even a speed dating session matching up artists with community organizations. “Nurturing arts for and by the people where they live and work” was the NAP’s tagline, and it helped establish the cultural iconography of arts organizations as diverse as Galería de la Raza, the San Francisco Blues Festival, the Black Writer’s Workshop, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, among many others. For more info and the full calendar of events go here or call 415-252-2598.
Public Art Happenings
Our Public Art Program staff prepares for a busy spring with multiple projects that include a temporary installation of Manolo Valdés’s austere sculptures in the Civic Center Plaza behind City Hall. Born in Valencia, Spain, Manolo Valdés is one of the world’s greatest living artists, having equally mastered drawing, painting, sculpture and printmaking. Eight bronze sculptures will be displayed for four to five months. The works include a series of four large female heads (approximately 13’ x 8’ x 10’) and another series of female figures (approximately 8’ x 6.5’ x 4’). The sculptures will be installed April 27th & 28th, with the unveiling on the 29th. Stay tuned for more information and go here to get project updates.
The Public Art Program will also be commissioning permanent artworks for Laguna Honda Hospital, the new Central Subway platforms, the San Francisco Airport (Terminal 2), among many other public projects. Also, check out the latest series of Market Street posters entitled, “Wish You Were Here: Postcards from Our Awesome Future". These whimsical artworks offer postmodern and somewhat fictional perspectives on urban life tomorrow.
Awards and New Grant Programs
The San Francisco Arts Commission supports the arts and culture community through seven grant programs (Cultural Equity Grants Initiatives, Programs in the Communities or PIC grants and Fairs and Festivals grants). Since July 2007, $2,651,415 in awards were made to 158 arts organizations, individuals and non-profits partnering with artists.
A special one-time grants program “Native American Arts & Culture Traditions” will be announcing awards in June to support projects guided by strong and capable Native American artistic leadership. Grants will support the wide spectrum of rich cultural traditions and contemporary artistic expressions that exist and resonate within today’s Native communities.
Also new to SFAC, the “Arts & Communities: Innovative Partnerships Initiative” grants is funding projects that will seed and make more visible fresh, dynamic and meaningful ways that arts and non-arts sectors can work together to invigorate San Francisco’s rich and diverse neighborhoods and communities. At the heart of the initiative is the belief that our communities benefit from a more active role for the arts in shaping our urban environments and experiences. Additionally, the SFAC aspires to share the knowledge and resources we will gain from the process within and beyond our own arts community. For a list of recent grantees and more information, go here.
Welcome New Commissioners
The Arts Commission welcomes Topher Delaney, landscape architect and Principal at TDelaney – Seam Studios; Nínive Clements Calegari, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of 826 National, a youth writing program first launched in San Francisco; and René Bihan, Managing Principal at SWA Group, a national landscape architecture firm.
|
|
Bayview Opera House
Renovation and Restoration Project |
The San Francisco Arts Commission has launched a $6 million capital campaign to fully renovate and restore the interior and exterior of the Bayview Opera House, an 1888 historic landmark and the cultural epicenter of the Bayview Hunters Point community. This amounts to the most significant restoration effort for this late Victorian structure. This effort is a true City collaboration, with multiple departments committed to the revitalization of this building and the plaza it occupies.
Once the physical condition of the Bayview Opera House is elevated to a standard befitting a San Francisco cultural institution, it will pave the way for:
- Significantly expanded educational and cultural programs serving Bayview youth and families
- Increased performances at the venue’s indoor and outdoor stages
- Additional community-based services administered at the facility
- Improved partnerships with sister agencies in Bayview
- Increased depth of community engagement in arts and culture activities
- Long-term financial stability for the organization
- Increased business for local merchants.
This capital campaign coupled with dynamic program expansions will cement the Bayview Opera House as the cultural jewel of the southeast corner of the City. As part of the Neighborhood Arts Festival (see above) please join us on April 26th at the Bayview Opera House at 1 pm (4705 Third @ Newcomb) for a press event unveiling the newly refurbished exterior.
For more information on the event or the Bayview Opera House, please call 415.252.2596 or e-mail Judy.Nemzoff@sfgov.org.
If you are interested in donating to the capital campaign efforts, please contact Rachelle Axel at 415.252.2564 or rachelle.axel@sfgov.org.
SFAC Gallery
The Arts Commission currently presents exhibitions at its three venues. At the main gallery at 401 Van Ness, “Make You Notice” features video, photography and ephemera by women artists who use their bodies in performance-based work. Photographic banners from “Lonnie Graham: A Conversation with the World” are gracing the North Light Court in City Hall in this three-part project. At the Grove Street window (155 Grove) you can interact with the artwork by Kunsole whose visual and sound installation invites passersby to get their daily fix of art. And opening April 16th in the lower level of City Hall, “After the Revolution: Contemporary Iranian Photography from California and Tehran” an exhibition featuring Iranian artists from California and Tehran. For more info, go to: www.sfacgallery.org
|
|
