Civic Art Collection

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contact: Susan Pontious, (415) 252-2587 or Susan.pontious@sfgov.org
Website: www.sfartscommission.org/pubartcollection
Photos available on request.

Robert Arneson, Jugs on Jugs, 1960; Bruce Beasley Vascone #1, 1966

Luis R. Cancel, Director of Cultural Affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission, is pleased to announce the opening of The Art of a City: The History of the San Francisco Arts Festival 1946-1986 at the San Francisco International Airport. The result of a partnership between the San Francisco Arts Commission and the San Francisco Airport Museums, the exhibit features selections from the Civic Art Collection representing four decades of acquisitions from the City’s annual Arts Festivals. Comprised of a variety of media including paintings, works on paper, jewelry and ceramics, the exhibit explores the overlapping history of the festival program and the regional artistic identities that it encouraged. The Art of a City runs from October 11, 2008 through April 10th, 2009 and is located pre-security in the San Francisco International Terminal Main Hall, Gallery G2. The exhibition is on view twenty-four hours a day and is free of charge.

History of the San Francisco Arts Festivals

In October 1946 the first municipally sponsored Arts Festival was held in the City’s Civic Center. The event, a collaborative effort between the San Francisco Arts Commission and a group of artists frustrated by the scarcity of local museums and galleries, drew hundreds of participants and firmly established the viability of a highly democratized alternative to the relative exclusivity of existing exhibition venues. As the festivals grew in popularity and attendance over the years they became a significant forum for the exchange of visual ideas and material technique. By mid-century this creative current was fully evident in the expressive mingling of fine art and craft traditions that shaped the Bay Area studio movement and informed the work of artists such as Merry Renk, Peter Macchiarini and Anthony Prieto.

From 1946 until the last years of the Arts Festivals in the mid-1980s, the Arts Commission used budgeted monies from the City’s general fund to purchase jury-selected work by contributing local artists. As a result, the Civic Art Collection contains a number of early works by influential artists, including Robert Arneson, Bruce Beasley and Viola Frey. In 1978 an exhibit of Arts Festival acquisitions was held at the Arts Commission’s gallery, followed in 1986 by a second showing in the lobby of the TransAmerica Building, after which many of the objects were incorporated into the Arts Commission’s interdepartmental loan program for display in City offices. For many of the artworks included in The Art of a City, this is the first time they have been publicly exhibited in over twenty years.

The San Francisco Arts Commission’s Civic Art Collection

The mission of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Civic Art Collection is to promote a diverse and stimulating cultural environment in order to enrich the lives of the city’s residents, visitors and employees, and to enhance the city’s image both nationally and internationally. The Arts Commission is committed to acquiring works of art for the Civic Art Collection that meet the highest aesthetic standards reflective of diverse social and cultural perspectives. Acquisition by the City and County of San Francisco implies a commitment to the preservation, protection and display of the artwork for the public benefit. The Civic Art Collection currently contains over 3,000 objects and consists of monuments and statuary in the parks, murals in public buildings, paintings, sculptures, installations and other media purchased or commissioned through the Arts Commission’s Public Art Program, acquired during annual Arts Festivals, and gifted to the city by artists and citizens.

The San Francisco Arts Commission

Established by charter in 1932, the San Francisco Arts Commission (“SFAC”) is the City agency that champions the arts in San Francisco. We believe that a creative cultural environment is essential to the City’s well-being. SFAC programs integrate the arts into all aspects of City life. Programs include: Civic Art Collection, Civic Design Review, Community Arts & Education, Cultural Equity Grants, Public Art, SFAC Gallery, Street Artists Licensing, Summer in the City Concert Series.