If you’re looking for this year’s flavor-of-the-month holiday gift item, then consider yourself referred to Tickle Me Elmo, a “quantum leap forward, another breakthrough in the preschool plush category.”

But if you’re still here, you must be jonesing for unique gifts for your loved ones. Well, then head on over to the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park for the 2008 Holiday Artisan Fair this Friday and Saturday, the 21st and 22nd of November, 2008.

See you there!

Clay(!) basket, Shuji Ikeda:

Square(!) ring, Satomi Studio:

Indigo a gogo, Tsurukichi/Matt Dick:

Simple stone, Aiko Designs:

•  
              Friday, November 21, Noon – 8:30 PM

                         Saturday, November 22, 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM 

San Francisco, August 22, 2008 – The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will present its second annual Holiday Artisan Fair November 21 and 22. This festive seasonal event offers distinctive pieces from tabletop to textiles that make for artful gifting. The Fair will feature the work of seventeen of the Bay Area’s finest artisans, as well as an expanded selection of unique gifts, books, objects and jewelry from noted designers and publishers featured in the Museum Store. The Fair will be held in the de Young’s Piazzoni Murals Room. Admission is free, and FAMSF members will receive a 10% discount on all purchases. 

Highlights will include: 

• Jewelryby Marna Clark (Berkeley, CA), Pam Wiston (Pacifica, CA), Denise Peacock (Santa Cruz, CA), Satomi Studios/Kristina Kada (Santa Cruz, CA) and Aiko Design/Christine Aiko Beck (San Francisco, CA).
• Decorative Arts, including pottery and tabletop accessories, by Grant Irish (Oakland, CA), Still Life (Corte Madera, CA), Mediums to Masses (Oakland, CA), Modern Twist (San Francisco, CA), Nu Approach/Tribal Home (San Francisco, CA), Joanna Mendicino (San Francisco, CA), Jane Woodside Pottery (Fairfax, CA) and Shuji Ikeda Pottery (Berkeley, CA).
• Textilesby Hiroko Kurihara (Oakland, CA) and Tsurukichi/Matt Dick (San Francisco, CA).  
• Books and Stationery from Chronicle Books and Pomegranate Communications.

Every purchase helps to support the collections and exhibitions of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Well it’s just been announced that the Presidio Trust Board of Directors Meeting skedded for November 13th has been postponed to December 9th, 2008. So plans to put in a museum with a (”b”-as-in-boy) billion dollars worth of art, a museum proposal that has refined art critics such as Kenneth Baker doing cartwheels, will once again get delayed.

See what the Presidio Trust is proposing here.

Check out the last meeting way back in July. Read a transcript here. (C’mon, it’s only 176 pages long.) And get up to speed on the Presidio here.

This is what it looked like the last go around. Click to expand.

It’s easy to get to the meeting.

See you there, you White NIMBYs!

The new exhibit Asian | American | Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970 is here at the de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

Some of this stuff will freak you out. You like art? Well then this is art. What’s that? You don’t like art all that much and you get dragged to museums all the time anyway? Well, you’ll like a lot of it, despite yourself.

And, since the de Young is firing on all 16 cylinders right now anyway, you should check out Shifting Currents as soon as you can.  

Click to expand:

Dong Kingman, Urban Fantasy, 1954

Chiura Obata (1885–1975) Setting Sun: Sacramento Valley, ca. 1925. Hanging scroll: mineral pigments (distemper) and gold on silk, 107 1/2 x 69 in. Courtesy of Gyo Obata

See you there! Read all about it:

Comes now the de Young, which presents the work of artists of Asian ancestry who lived and worked in the United States. This exhibition represents the first comprehensive survey of these artists, and seeks to advance awareness of this under-represented group in American art history. Their art reflects the currents of identity and style that shift between aesthetics of diverse international geographies. This exhibition is rich in variety and demonstrates the wealth of Asian American art using masterpieces spanning seventy years. Nearly 100 works by 60 artists, many of whom had their work exhibited at the de Young or Legion of Honor in earlier decades, are included.

Asian | American | Modern Art is organized by FAMSF in association with Stanford University and is accompanied by a catalogue.  The exhibition co-curators are Daniell Cornell, former curator of American art at FAMSF and current deputy director of the Palm Springs Museum of Art, and Mark Johnson, a professor of art at San Francisco State University.

Other Venues
Asian | American | Modern Artwill travel to The Noguchi Museum and be on view
February 18 to August 23, 2009.

Asian | American | Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900–1970is organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Asian American Art Project at Stanford University in collaboration with San Francisco State University, and is supported by the Ednah Root Foundation, the Phyllis C. Wattis Fund for Traveling Exhibitions, the National Endowment for the Arts, Delta Dental of California, and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

Presented by Wachovia.

Cue music.

No really, it doesn’t work unless you cue some music by opening a new window and then coming back here. 

Now, click to expand:

See?

The whole exhibit is all set up and ready to go this weekend. Take a sneak peek here, courtesy of Damion Mathews of SFLuxe.

This thing is going to be huge.

Well it’s on over at the Asian Art Museum. The fantastic new show is Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul.

Now it’s got its fair share of bling, more than enough to hold you until King Tut hits town in 2009, but all these golden treasures come with a story. Read all about it over at the National Geographic and look at some high resolution photos here. And see what San Francisco Art Examiner Marisa Nakasone thinks about it here.

Click to expand:

Pair of pendants depicting the “Dragon Master” (Tillya Tepe, Tomb II). 100 BCE–100 CE (or 100 BC-100 AD, if you swing that way). Gold, turquoise, garnet, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and pearl, National Museum of Afghanistan, ©Thierry Ollivier / Musée Guimet

There’s a whole series of related programs and events, including An Evening of Poetry and Music tomorrow and a showing of The Kite Runner movie in November.

And don’t forget about Target First Free Sundays at the Asian. It could be a good way for you to spend a rainy day weekend?

See you there!

It looks beter in person. Check it out.

The whole thing runs through January 25,  2009. 

$12 for adults, $8 for seniors, $7 for youth 13–17, and free for children under 12. Thursday evenings after 5 pm admission is just $5 for all visitors except those under 12 and members, always free.

The museum is in the Civic Center area: 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

It’s open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, with extended hours until 9:00 pm every Thursday.

Comes now the famous Maya Lin, who asks the question:

“What would happen if you took a hill inside?”

It might look something like what she’s standing on, which is called 2 x 4 Landscape. You can check out this installation and the rest of Maya Lin: Systematic Landscapes at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park until January 18th, 2009. 

Official photos are here.

This wire grid depicts an underwater “landscape” we can’t otherwise see:

The affable Ms. Lin with Presenting Curator Karin Breuer and Fiona Chan:

Maya gave a short talk under the shimmering perforated copper walls of the new de Young: 

This is yet another big show from Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Director John Buchanan and Board President Diane B. “Dede” Wilsey. Brace yourselves, more blockbusters are on the way:

Travis Kiyota, PG&E’s government and public affairs director for the Bay Area, said a few words about his employer being the presenting sponsor for this exhibit:

And wouldn’t you like a limited edition Maya Lin to put up your wall as a talking piece? There’s special pricing until December 1, 2008 - $12,500 for non-museum members:

“This new limited-edition sculpture by Maya Lin, created on the occasion of her exhibition at the de Young continues the artist’s exploration of the contours of natural forms. Its thin, sinuous shape traces the path of the Tuolumne River through the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Cast from the reclaimed silver of photo etchings, the work is mounted with pins that fix to the wall. The edition is presented in an elegant, hot-stamped portfolio box.”

Now according to 7×7 Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle, this representation is meant to show the Tuolomne River before the Hetch Hetchy dam, but it sure looks like you can see both the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and the New San Pedro Reservoir in there. It’s certainly possible to think that Maya meant to depict the dammed river as it appears these days. 

More details after the jump. See you there!

(more…)

The Mother of All Museum Exhibitions is coming to Golden Gate Park’s de Young Museum in June 2009. It’s Tutankhamun! It’s on! That’s right, the King of Bling is coming back to San Francisco for the first time in 30 years.

Well, maybe not King Tut himself:

“Tutankhamun’s mummy and the inner sarcophagus are still located in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The outer sarcophagi and shrines are at the Cairo Museum. Neither the mummy nor any of the sarcophagi have ever traveled.”

But this show, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, is going to be way better than The Treasures of Tutankhamun, which is what what people were able to see the last go around three decades ago.

Check out this gorgeous gorget. Wouldn’t you like to hang it on your chest?  Bling bling, baby. Click to expand:

Pectoral with Solar/Lunar Emblem and Scarab. Dynasty 18, reign of Tutankhamun (1332-1322 BC). Gold, silver, electrum, semiprecious stones. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Carter 267d. Photo: Kenneth Garrett © 2008/National Geographic.

O.K., people, now brace yourselves. Tut is going to cost you some coin. Yes, even if you’re already a member. But this show might be what it takes for you to join the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (800 777-9996) As they say, membership has its privileges and you might appreciate that when all the madding crowds surround you.  

Here’s what you need to know now. The exhibition opens on June 27, 2009 and runs through March 28, 2010. And the ‘zeum will be open until 9:00 PM every day for months just to accomodate all the expected people. So, you’re going to need to get your tickets early for best results. They’ll be available sometime near the begining of 2009.  

If you want to know the moment tickets go on sale, then sign up for the e-newsletter why don’t you?

More details here at the mainstream media’s SFGate, where they (remarkably) cite Wikipedia as a source of information.

See you there in 2009!

Full details after the jump.

(more…)

Well, it was huge. Most of all those people eventually made it into our fabulous new California Academy of Sciences museum-type thing over the weekend.

This is what it looked like.

The mise-en-scene, as seen from the de Young Museum. Click to expand:

Saturday’s opening was a crowning achievement for Executive Director Dr. Greg Farrington.

Released monarch butterflies briefly filled the skies above Golden Gate Park:

And then they went to the roof of the CAS to warm up and make more butterflies:

Mayor Gavin Newsom was there to promote the CAS. He didn’t get “roundly booed”, unlike the time he showed up to promote the Contemporary Art Museum of the Presidio a few months back:

Speaking of politicians, there were lots there, including Eric Mar, Melanie Nutter and Aaron Peskin:

San Francisco Chief of Protocol Charlotte Schultz under the rainforest:

And of course, you could let your kid play with snakes while waiting to get in:

That’s all for now. Congratulations, CAS!

Oh my. Today’s gala opening of our fabulous new California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park attracted an enormous number of people.

On and on the line stretched. From Concourse Drive to JFK to Middle Drive East to South Drive to Ninth Avenue to Lincoln Way - that’s almost 1.5 miles (the long way) to the start of one of the Penguin Trails at Ninth Avenue and Irving in the Inner Sunset.

Click to expand:

Happily, they’re not making you wait in line all day. It’s all alphabetized based upon how early you showed up. Some got there at 5:30 AM. What’s your Entry Group name?

Dinosaur? Gorilla? Iguana? Yawn. What’s wrong with Darwin, Gaia, or Intelligent Design?

But what does the New York Times have to say about all of this?

The academy building is the last in a series of ambitious projects to be conceived in and around the park’s Music Concourse since the devastating 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Herzog & de Meuron’s mesmerizing de Young Museum, enclosed in perforated copper, opened three years ago. Scaffolding is to come down at the concourse’s neo-Classical band shell this week after a loving restoration.

You see? It’s all coming together.

This special day will go on until 9:00 PM tonight. See you there!

Here’s the thing. Our fabulous new California Academy of Sciences is finally ready - the Opening Weekend Celebration starts tomorrow, Saturday, the 27th of September, 2008. Admission is going to be free for the whole day from 9:30 AM to 9:00 PM, after an 8:30 AM Opening Ceremony that will feature:

Executive Director Greg Farrington, Board Chair Bill Patterson, Architect Renzo Piano, Mayor Gavin Newsom,  a Native American blessing, a butterfly release, and more.

So fine, get up early, follow the Penguin Trail from the N-Judah or the 5-Fulton bus and check out the spectacle tomorrow morning.

The already-famous living roof, a science experiment in itself. What flora and fauna will appear over the months and years?  The similarity to Teletubbyland could attract Tinky Winky and his friends. An artist’s conception, click to expand:

But you’re not going to be able to see the CAS the way it’s meant to be seen. What you’re going to see is a whole bunch of other people, just like yourself. And that’s fine, there’ll be a lot of stuff to see outside of the CAS. (Plus there’s the nearby de young Museum to check out, but it will be busy too.)

Plan on coming back another day if you want a chance to see and explore the CAS itself in a more relaxed environment. Is admission (they’re going to start charging people starting this Sunday) worth the $25? Heck yeah. Take my word on that.

What’s that? You got a family and all these tickets add up to big bucks? Well then get a membership for a year. Try it out. Even the $99 Individual Membership seems like a good deal since you can always bring a friend along for free.  

If that’s too much money anyway, then there’s always the Free Days. The third Wednesday of the month will generally be reserved for free Wachovia Wednesdays. And there will be Free Days customised just for your zip code.

The people at the California Academy of Sciences have bent over backwards to provide you with opportunities to check things out for free. That’s all they can do.

See you there!