Presenters Matt Edmondson and Mollie King were quizzed by a man named Jonathan as part of the Have You Been Paying Attention Quiz on Sunday.

It sees the pair asked about things which have happened during the week by a listener – with the first question of the segment being about Peaky Blinders.

And it led to a gaffe with the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley, the answer to the question, being labeled as in Birmingham despite the museum’s obvious name.

Jonathan asked: “Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has said the story could potentially return to television with a new creative team. What museum is the series filmed in, in Birmingham?”

Matt said he “didn’t know it was filmed inside a museum” which was backed up by fellow presenter Molly. The male presenter added the show was something he “tried to watch” but he never warmed to it – despite joking he was jealous of the suits and flat caps, but would look like a “little chimney sweep” if he replicated it.

Matt added: “It’s got to be like a museum of old Britain, hasn’t it? When is it set, like around the war isn’t it? The museum of the 20s or 30s. Hang on, in Birmingham there’s a chocolate factory. No, is there a museum of chocolate? No, they wouldn’t film it there, that would make no sense.”

The two presenters asked to be put out of their misery – with Jonathan revealing the answer, although he got the name wrong – saying “It’s the Black Country Living History Museum” to which Matt responded: “of course, the BCLHM that one.”

And the presenter added: “I think there are people who worked on Peaky Blinders who are going ‘I don’t know the answer to that question’.

The post Radio 1 quiz host says Black Nation Dwelling Museum is in Birmingham appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

When Nicole Meldahl and her group Western Neighborhoods Project raised money to buy up and save historic artifacts from the recently-closed Cliff House restaurant in March 2021, she had no idea at the time what venue she’d be able to display them in.

It certainly never dawned on her that the group might one day get the chance to display them in the same venue they’d come from.

“Never imagining one day the National Park Service would give us the keys to the Cliff House,” Meldahl said.

As the NPS searches for a new restaurant operator to take over San Francisco’s venerable Cliff House, it has indeed allowed Western Neighborhoods Project to turn the empty restaurant into a temporary museum, with its sweeping views and historic artifacts as the centerpiece.

In the Cliff House in an exhibit called Naiad Cove — the name of the adjacent cove where the ruins of Sutro Baths rest — the group paid tribute to the neighborhood known as Lands End and its once-iconic roadside destinations like the old Sutro Baths and Playland at the Beach.

Inside the restaurant, there’s a tribute to the old Sutro Baths, which includes vintage bathing suits and a locker believed to have been saved from the old building. There are original posters and photos of the famous baths, flanked by the actual Sutro Baths ruins just outside the window.

“I think this is what makes this exhibition so wonderful and so powerful, is that you’re really experiencing this history in the place that created it,” Meldahl said.

The former restaurant booths inside the Cliff House pay tribute to the restaurant that served generations before closing during the pandemic.

One room holds signs from the long-gone Playland at the Beach, with the sounds of an old amusement park lending an air of authenticity. A tall wooden cowboy that once stood in the nearby amusement park looms over the room.

The darkened, empty kitchens now display historic projections by artist Ben Wood, who has been projecting period photos and videos from Cliff House history out of the gift shop windows for months. The rooms are washed with a sound installation by Andrew Roth.

The restaurant even holds a tribute to the restaurant itself with a series of place settings from different eras of the Cliff House along with the menus displaying period prices.

“We’ve staged six vignettes at the bar to represent six different experiences patrons would’ve had coming here,” Meldahl explained.

When the Cliff House restaurant permanently closed under the weight of the pandemic, Western Neighborhoods Project rallied to save its collection of historic memorabilia from the auction block. The group raised $180,000 in an effort to prevent the collection from getting spread to the wind.

A crew hoists one of a pair of porcelain muses for an exhibit inside the Cliff House.

Among the objects it saved were a pair of porcelain “muses” figures that had lived in the old Cliff House for ages. On a recent day, Meldahl watched as an arts preservation team helped stage the two large figures.

Alexandra Mitchell, whose company ACT Art Conservation LLC is caring for the artifacts said it was important for the public to view the Cliff House objects back in their original home.

“People can visualize it themselves while they’re here looking at the pieces that were here,” Mitchell said. “You’re seeing the same view, you’re seeing the same ocean waves that have crashed on the shore the whole time.”

Aside from the artifacts, the exhibit is a rare opportunity for the public to visit one of San Francisco’s iconic destinations and view it outside its normal state as a bustling restaurant.

There are windows where generations of visitors have sipped cocktails while watching the day’s last rays glancing across seal rock. There is the long counter where visitors bellied up for the restaurant’s signature poppers, or Bloody Mary’s.

“There’s all these people,” said Great Highway Gallery owner John Lindsey, who is curating the exhibit. “Not only do they have a lot of memories of what’s around us, they have a lot of memories of what’s inside this building.”

As far as the Cliff House’s future goes, the National Park Service put out bids for a new restauranteur to take over the space and is now reviewing those bids. In the meantime, the special exhibit is scheduled to run until Aug. 21, although Meldahl hopes it might be extended. The exhibit is free, but visitors must register in advance.

“People who said they never came here because it was too expensive now find themselves able to take in this incredible view, doing the same thing San Franciscans and visitors have been doing since 1863,” Meldahl said.

The post San Francisco’s Cliff Home Now a Non permanent Museum – NBC Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

When Nicole Meldahl and her group Western Neighborhoods Project raised money to buy up and save historic artifacts from the recently-closed Cliff House restaurant in March 2021, she had no idea at the time what venue she’d be able to display them in.

It certainly never dawned on her that the group might one day get the chance to display them in the same venue they’d come from.

“Never imagining one day the National Park Service would give us the keys to the Cliff House,” Meldahl said.

As the NPS searches for a new restaurant operator to take over San Francisco’s venerable Cliff House, it has indeed allowed Western Neighborhoods Project to turn the empty restaurant into a temporary museum, with its sweeping views and historic artifacts as the centerpiece.

In the Cliff House in an exhibit called Naiad Cove — the name of the adjacent cove where the ruins of Sutro Baths rest — the group paid tribute to the neighborhood known as Lands End and its once-iconic roadside destinations like the old Sutro Baths and Playland at the Beach.

Inside the restaurant, there’s a tribute to the old Sutro Baths, which includes vintage bathing suits and a locker believed to have been saved from the old building. There are original posters and photos of the famous baths, flanked by the actual Sutro Baths ruins just outside the window.

“I think this is what makes this exhibition so wonderful and so powerful, is that you’re really experiencing this history in the place that created it,” Meldahl said.

The former restaurant booths inside the Cliff House pay tribute to the restaurant that served generations before closing during the pandemic.

One room holds signs from the long-gone Playland at the Beach, with the sounds of an old amusement park lending an air of authenticity. A tall wooden cowboy that once stood in the nearby amusement park looms over the room.

The darkened, empty kitchens now display historic projections by artist Ben Wood, who has been projecting period photos and videos from Cliff House history out of the gift shop windows for months. The rooms are washed with a sound installation by Andrew Roth.

The restaurant even holds a tribute to the restaurant itself with a series of place settings from different eras of the Cliff House along with the menus displaying period prices.

“We’ve staged six vignettes at the bar to represent six different experiences patrons would’ve had coming here,” Meldahl explained.

When the Cliff House restaurant permanently closed under the weight of the pandemic, Western Neighborhoods Project rallied to save its collection of historic memorabilia from the auction block. The group raised $180,000 in an effort to prevent the collection from getting spread to the wind.

A crew hoists one of a pair of porcelain muses for an exhibit inside the Cliff House.

Among the objects it saved were a pair of porcelain “muses” figures that had lived in the old Cliff House for ages. On a recent day, Meldahl watched as an arts preservation team helped stage the two large figures.

Alexandra Mitchell, whose company ACT Art Conservation LLC is caring for the artifacts said it was important for the public to view the Cliff House objects back in their original home.

“People can visualize it themselves while they’re here looking at the pieces that were here,” Mitchell said. “You’re seeing the same view, you’re seeing the same ocean waves that have crashed on the shore the whole time.”

Aside from the artifacts, the exhibit is a rare opportunity for the public to visit one of San Francisco’s iconic destinations and view it outside its normal state as a bustling restaurant.

There are windows where generations of visitors have sipped cocktails while watching the day’s last rays glancing across seal rock. There is the long counter where visitors bellied up for the restaurant’s signature poppers, or Bloody Mary’s.

“There’s all these people,” said Great Highway Gallery owner John Lindsey, who is curating the exhibit. “Not only do they have a lot of memories of what’s around us, they have a lot of memories of what’s inside this building.”

As far as the Cliff House’s future goes, the National Park Service put out bids for a new restauranteur to take over the space and is now reviewing those bids. In the meantime, the special exhibit is scheduled to run until Aug. 21, although Meldahl hopes it might be extended. The exhibit is free, but visitors must register in advance.

“People who said they never came here because it was too expensive now find themselves able to take in this incredible view, doing the same thing San Franciscans and visitors have been doing since 1863,” Meldahl said.

The post San Francisco’s Cliff Home Now a Non permanent Museum – NBC Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

When Nicole Meldahl and her group Western Neighborhoods Project raised money to buy up and save historic artifacts from the recently-closed Cliff House restaurant in March 2021, she had no idea at the time what venue she’d be able to display them in.

It certainly never dawned on her that the group might one day get the chance to display them in the same venue they’d come from.

“Never imagining one day the National Park Service would give us the keys to the Cliff House,” Meldahl said.

As the NPS searches for a new restaurant operator to take over San Francisco’s venerable Cliff House, it has indeed allowed Western Neighborhoods Project to turn the empty restaurant into a temporary museum, with its sweeping views and historic artifacts as the centerpiece.

In the Cliff House in an exhibit called Naiad Cove — the name of the adjacent cove where the ruins of Sutro Baths rest — the group paid tribute to the neighborhood known as Lands End and its once-iconic roadside destinations like the old Sutro Baths and Playland at the Beach.

Inside the restaurant, there’s a tribute to the old Sutro Baths, which includes vintage bathing suits and a locker believed to have been saved from the old building. There are original posters and photos of the famous baths, flanked by the actual Sutro Baths ruins just outside the window.

“I think this is what makes this exhibition so wonderful and so powerful, is that you’re really experiencing this history in the place that created it,” Meldahl said.

The former restaurant booths inside the Cliff House pay tribute to the restaurant that served generations before closing during the pandemic.

One room holds signs from the long-gone Playland at the Beach, with the sounds of an old amusement park lending an air of authenticity. A tall wooden cowboy that once stood in the nearby amusement park looms over the room.

The darkened, empty kitchens now display historic projections by artist Ben Wood, who has been projecting period photos and videos from Cliff House history out of the gift shop windows for months. The rooms are washed with a sound installation by Andrew Roth.

The restaurant even holds a tribute to the restaurant itself with a series of place settings from different eras of the Cliff House along with the menus displaying period prices.

“We’ve staged six vignettes at the bar to represent six different experiences patrons would’ve had coming here,” Meldahl explained.

When the Cliff House restaurant permanently closed under the weight of the pandemic, Western Neighborhoods Project rallied to save its collection of historic memorabilia from the auction block. The group raised $180,000 in an effort to prevent the collection from getting spread to the wind.

A crew hoists one of a pair of porcelain muses for an exhibit inside the Cliff House.

Among the objects it saved were a pair of porcelain “muses” figures that had lived in the old Cliff House for ages. On a recent day, Meldahl watched as an arts preservation team helped stage the two large figures.

Alexandra Mitchell, whose company ACT Art Conservation LLC is caring for the artifacts said it was important for the public to view the Cliff House objects back in their original home.

“People can visualize it themselves while they’re here looking at the pieces that were here,” Mitchell said. “You’re seeing the same view, you’re seeing the same ocean waves that have crashed on the shore the whole time.”

Aside from the artifacts, the exhibit is a rare opportunity for the public to visit one of San Francisco’s iconic destinations and view it outside its normal state as a bustling restaurant.

There are windows where generations of visitors have sipped cocktails while watching the day’s last rays glancing across seal rock. There is the long counter where visitors bellied up for the restaurant’s signature poppers, or Bloody Mary’s.

“There’s all these people,” said Great Highway Gallery owner John Lindsey, who is curating the exhibit. “Not only do they have a lot of memories of what’s around us, they have a lot of memories of what’s inside this building.”

As far as the Cliff House’s future goes, the National Park Service put out bids for a new restauranteur to take over the space and is now reviewing those bids. In the meantime, the special exhibit is scheduled to run until Aug. 21, although Meldahl hopes it might be extended. The exhibit is free, but visitors must register in advance.

“People who said they never came here because it was too expensive now find themselves able to take in this incredible view, doing the same thing San Franciscans and visitors have been doing since 1863,” Meldahl said.

The post San Francisco’s Cliff Home Now a Short-term Museum – NBC Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Comedian John Oliver picked a San Francisco cartoon museum as the host of his unusual art collection in a nationwide grant contest Petaluma’s mayor also entered on behalf of her city.

The contest, announced in October 2020 on Oliver’s HBO show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” was to find a temporary home for his art collection, as well as for two $10,000 donations to a museum and a food bank in the same area.

Oliver’s goal was to support museums and food banks that were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Petaluma Mayor Teresa Barrett, a big Oliver fan, entered the Petaluma Historical Library & Museum and Redwood Empire Food Bank into the contest.

“I just thought, why not,” Barrett told the Petaluma Argus-Courier in November 2020. “I wrote a letter and sent it off.” In the letter, she noted the museum had taken a revenue hit during the pandemic and that the Santa Rosa food bank has provided thousands of meals to wildfire survivors.

The “John Oliver has your Rat Erotica” grant was inspired by Oliver’s collection of three bizarre paintings, including one of two rats in an erotic embrace, one of talk show host Wendy Williams eating a pork chop and a painting of Fox Business Network host Larry Kudlow’s ties (painted by Kudlow’s wife).

The Cartoon Art Museum is hosting those pieces in its gallery from Jan. 4 to 25. Advance ticket purchase is not required to see the pieces — visit cartoonart.org for more information.

The San Francisco museum was awarded a $10,000 donation and the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank will receive a $10,000 matching donation.

“We’re honored to be chosen as the West Coast venue for the exhibition’s tour and look forward to showcasing its quirky and offbeat works,” said Ron Evans, chairman of the museum’s Board of Trustees, on the museum’s website. “I think we can all do with a little added levity these days.”

The post John Oliver chooses San Francisco museum over Petaluma to show uncommon artwork assortment appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

“For more than 55 years, The North Face has enabled exploration and helped people strive for greatness by providing the best gear to get them there,” said Mike Ferris, VP of Global Brands at The North Face. “Our customers, the feats they have achieved, and the memories they have created are such a big part of our brand’s rich DNA. With this archive, alongside SFMOMA, we are memorializing the people, products and stories that continue to inspire our community and move the world forward.”

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with the Bay Area-born The North Face to bring our community a wide range of unique and inspiring public programs” said Neal Benezra, Helen and Charles Schwab Director of SFMOMA. “This partnership champions exploration, creative expression, and innovation that are critical to both of our organizations.”

To launch It’s More Than A Jacket, The North Face is joining with cultural icons and artists RZA and HAIM alongside The North Face athlete team members Conrad Anker other Ingrid Backstrom to be the first explorers to submit to the archive this fall, drawing on connections from their past to write their stories of adventure into the brand’s history.

“As an artist, style has always been an expression of identity and a way to mark a moment in time,” said RZA. “In the 90s, not only was The North Face the rugged, stylish gear we needed on New York City’s streets, it was more than a jacket because it was a witness. It was a witness to the brotherhood that we were inspiring, and that inspired us. By entering this jacket into the archive, I get the chance to relive and preserve the memories lived in it forever.”

“For as long as we can remember, we’ve had a curiosity for the unknown and a love for the world around us,” said HAIM. “From experimenting with different rhythms and instrumentation to discovering a new style or city, exploration is a part of everything we do. Through these adventures, our jackets from The North Face have been with us along the way and have become more than a source of function; they’ve comforted us when we’re away from home and remind us of everywhere we’ve been.”

The campaign will come to life throughout the fall as The North Face introduces six new collections that all pay homage to the brand’s DNA, drawing inspiration from The North Face rich past to inspire and enable exploration in the future. Each collection speaks to The North Face mission to continue to inspire exploration and shows how every adventure can live on through gear: from bringing back the gear that outfitted the first-ever non-mechanized crossing of Antarctica in 1990 that drew global attention to the need for preservation of the continent to introduce the brand’s most iconic insulation piece – the Nuptse – now offered in a version made with 100% recycled fabrics.

It’s More Than A Jacket will launch with a feature anthem film that brings to life the idea that stories from the past are woven into every jacket. The brand will also debut three extended films throughout the fall featuring adaptive athlete Vasu Sojitrafreestyle skis Jossi Wells and leader of the 1990 International Trans-Antarctica Expedition, Will Stegar.

To contribute to the official archive and potentially appear in the SFMOMA experience, The North Face is calling on explorers everywhere to post to social media using the hashtag #MoreThanAJacket. Additional information and official terms around how It’s More Than A Jacket will come to life and the partnership with SFMOMA will be available throughout the fall and into 2022.

Follow @thenorthface on Instagram and Twitter to learn more about It’s More Than a Jacket.

About The North Face® 
The North Face, a division of VF Outdoor, LLC, was founded in 1966 with the goal of preparing outdoor athletes for the rigors of their next adventure. Today we are the world’s leading outdoor brand, creating athlete-tested, expedition-proven products that help people explore and test the limits of human potential. We protect our outdoor playgrounds and minimize our impact on the planet through programs that encourage sustainability. The North Face products are available at premium and specialty retail sporting goods stores globally and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. For more information, please visit www.thenorthface.com.

About San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the United States and a thriving cultural center for the Bay Area. Its remarkable collection of painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, design and media arts is housed in an LEED Gold-certified building designed by the global architects Snøhetta and Mario Botta. In addition to seven gallery floors, SFMOMA offers 45,000 square feet of free, art-filled public space open to all.

Visit sfmoma.org or call 415.357.4000 for more information.

Follow us on Twitter for updates and announcements: @SFMOMA_Press

SOURCE The North Face

related links

https://www.thenorthface.co.uk

The post The North Face Companions with San Francisco Museum of Trendy Artwork to Launch the Model’s First-Ever Digital Archive Celebrating Extra Than 55 Years of Enabling Exploration appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The North Baltimore museum’s board of trustees was notified Wednesday that Bedford’s last day will be June 3. Trustees are expected to name an interim director and will conduct a “rigorous and expansive search” for Bedford’s successor, the board’s chairwoman, Clair Zamoiski Segal, wrote in a letter to the trustees, staff members and supporters.

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In the six years that Bedford has guided Maryland’s largest museum, he has shaken it up from its basement to its eaves as he sought to transform the BMA into an institution that better reflects the majority population of the city in which it is located.

“The BMA, our city and the entire art world owe Chris Bedford a debt of gratitude for his groundbreaking work to advance diversity, equity and community engagement,” the Rev. Kobi Little, president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, wrote in an e-mail. “It is our hope that the BMA leadership stays the course and builds on his work by honoring his contributions and hiring a like-minded successor.”

Many of Bedford’s initiatives made national headlines.

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Some, such as the decision to buy only artworks created by female painters and sculptors during 2020, the Year of the Woman, were widely acclaimed. Others, such as an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to sell three modern masterworks to raise $55 million for diversity initiatives, caused a deep rift within Baltimore and brought an avalanche of negative publicity.

“I believe that the work that the board and staff of the Baltimore Museum of Art and I have done over the last six years has fundamentally changed the DNA of this institution,” Bedford said. “I have immense pride in what we have accomplished and a sadness that come June, I won’t be part of that anymore.”

While Bedford’s supporters viewed him as a warrior for social justice, his take-no-prisoners management style sometimes annoyed people on the opposite side of an issue.

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Laurence Eisenstein is the Washington lawyer who spearheaded the opposition to the sale of the three artworks, a process known in museum circles as “deaccessioning.” Eisenstein once publicly called for Bedford to be ousted. On Wednesday, his tone was conciliatory.

“I wish Chris well and hope he is very successful in his new position at SFMOMA,” Eisenstein said. “I look forward to the BMA finding a new director who will move the institution forward and heal the divisions that remain from the deaccessioning process.”

Bedford was born in Scotland and has lived in England and South Africa. From the beginning, he said he didn’t expect to spend the rest of his career in Baltimore. When he was appointed, Bedford promised trustees that he would give the BMA at least five years; he departs after six.

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Perhaps because Bedford knew his time in Baltimore was limited, the former Oberlin College football nose tackle pursued his plans to transform the BMA with a single-minded determination and embarked upon what in museum terms was a blistering pace of change.

Less than three months into his new job, Bedford catapulted the BMA onto an international stage when it was selected to create the American pavilion in the 2017 Venice Biennale, often described as “the art world Olympics.” It was the first time since 1960 that the BMA had been chosen for that honor.

Other high-profile programs include a satellite museum at Lexington Market that combines galleries and an art-making space, and a partnership with the Greenmount West Community Center that teaches silk-screening skills for kids living in challenging circumstances and raises money for the neighborhood organization , which is less than two miles from the BMA.

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Kisha L. Webster, the community center’s founder, said that the BMA is one of the rare institutions that didn’t cut back on its commitment once the headlines went away.

For nearly three years, she said, Segal and the international art world superstar Mark Bradford have served on Greenmount West’s board of directors. Silk-screened clothing continues to be sold in a pop-up shop inside the BMA, and the two organizations frequently collaborate.

“I have grown because of this partnership and our center has grown,” Webster said. “I hope it will continue.”

And in March, the BMA will open an exhibit that’s already generating media buzz: “Guarding the Art,” a show curated by the museum’s security guards — a project designed by trustee Amy Elias and chief BMA curator Asma Naeem. Bedford also championed local artists of color, boosting the careers of promising painters such as Jerrell Gibbs and the mixed-media artist Stephen Towns.

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“Chris brought a more diverse environment to the BMA,” said Towns, 42. “He brought Baltimore artists of color into the museum and helped launch careers. He definitely did that for me.”

After Bedford arranged for Towns to have his first museum show at the BMA in 2018, he exhibited his work in Los Angeles and obtained representation from a New York gallery. His work is in the permanent collection of the BMA and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and has been sold to collectors in the United States and abroad.

“None of that would have happened without the BMA,” Towns said.

In San Francisco, Bedford will lead a museum with its own share of well-publicized struggles with diversity. A senior curator resigned in 2020 after his comments created a public uproar; he had stated that a museum policy of avoiding collecting artworks by White men amounts to “reverse discrimination.”

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Bedford declined to comment on what plans, if any, he has for SFMOMA. But he said his new museum “holds dear two principles that are enormously important to me: a commitment to equity and excellence in its broadest definition. SFMOMA wants to continue to be known for leading the field in those areas, and that aspiration attracted me tremendously.”

In a statement, the San Francisco museum’s search committee described Bedford as “a brave, empathic, inclusive and passionate leader,” adding, “He is at a point in his career that combines impressive achievements with an open mindset and the ability to listen, learn and evolve with and for our community.”

Segal, whose seven years as the BMA board chairwoman ended in June, praised Bedford’s “courageous and inspired leadership” in her letter to museum supporters.

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“It is through his leadership that we reinvigorated our mission in 2018 to transform the BMA into a museum that places diversity and equity alongside artistic excellence at its core and better reflects the community that it serves,” Segal wrote. She will be succeeded by James D. Thornton, who will become the BMA’s first Black board chairman.

Although many of Bedford’s boldest projects have come to fruition, others remain works in progress.

After the sale of three artworks by Andy Warhol, Clyfford Still and Brice Marden was called off two hours before they were scheduled to go under the gavel at Sotheby’s Auction House in New York in fall 2020, Bedford vowed to raise the $55 million the sale had been expected to generate and to use the money for diversity and access programs, an initiative dubbed the endowment for the future.

Bedford said fundraising for this endowment is continuing, but he declined to say how much money has been pledged. Nonetheless, he said the museum “has made substantive progress” in most categories for which those funds were to have been earmarked: The pay for security guards was bumped up from $13.50 an hour in the middle of the pandemic to $16 now. Bedford acknowledged the figure falls short of his original target of $20 an hour, but he said, “In the next five years, $20 an hour is achievable.”

The BMA will begin opening on Thursday nights in March to accommodate visitors who work during the day, and it is tentatively planning to stop charging for special exhibitions in the fall of 2026, 20 years after eliminating its general admission fee.

“It isn’t enough to just hang paintings by artists of color in our galleries,” Bedford said. “We have to create the world depicted in those paintings. We have to embody those values ​​of equity, access and inclusion inside the museum’s walls.”

Bedford said he’s not worried that a new director will have different priorities and that the plans he set in motion will be abandoned once he leaves town.

“I do not believe the pendulum is going to swing in the opposite direction,” he said. “Initially, the work the BMA was doing reflected my vision. That is emphatically no longer the case. In the past six years, the staff and board to a person have come together around a very deeply shared set of principles. The museum doesn’t need me to do that good work.”

Segal said in her letter that she doesn’t expect the BMA to change course.

Trustees remain “committed to the equity goals that we have set forth, and this commitment does not change with Christopher’s departure,” her letter says.

Bedford knows that hiring a new director is the prerogative of the BMA’s board.

“I would hope they would consult me,” he said. “I do have some candidate ideas I would like to share.”

Are candidates of color on his list? Should the BMA’s next director be Black?

“The short answer,” Bedford said, “is emphatically yes.”

The post Director of the Baltimore Museum of Artwork resigning to take put up in San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Diego Rivera, The marriage of the artistic expression of the north and the south … [+] Continent (Pan American Unity), 1940.

© Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museums Trust, Mexico DF / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy City College of San Francisco.

Before Diego Rivera was Mr. Frida Khalo, Frida Khalo was Mrs. Diego Rivera. During their tumultuous relationship, Rivera was one of the most famous artists in the world. It would be nearly half a century after her death in 1954 for Khalo to be similarly exalted, and her fame now far surpassed his.

A breathtaking memento of Rivera’s talent can be seen at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in the summer of 2023. The marriage of northern and southern artistic expression on the continent, better known as the Pan American Unity Mural, is on loan from the City College of San Francisco while its permanent home at the CCSF is being renovated.

Created for the 1940 Golden Gate International Exposition, the mural is a living, 10-part “portable” fresco depicting a past, present, and future that the artist believed shared across North America. Completed with the assistance of local artists and assistants, using scenes from the Bay Area as a backdrop, the mural celebrates the creative spirit through portraits of artists – including Kahlo – craftsmen, architects, and inventors who use art and technology as tools to shape society.

As amazing as the mural is – 22 feet high by 74 feet wide and made up of ten frescoed panels – the move of the artwork from CCSF to SFMOMA was almost as impressive.

abstract

Atthowe Fine Art Services workers remove Pan American Unity’s central lower panel from the wall … [+] at the Diego Rivera Theater of the City College of San Francisco.

Image: Katherine Du Tiel / SFMOMA.

This exhibition is the culmination of four years of extensive research, research and preparation that brought the two institutions together as well as scientists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), an international team of restorers, Diego Rivera fellows and Atthowe Fine Art Services, a local Expert in art removals and rigging. These teams examined the technical, conservation and scientific requirements to move such a monumental and fragile work of art.

“Removing the first large board from the CCSF cinema wall was the most frightening thing for me,” Michelle Barger, SFMOMA’s director of conservation, told Forbes.com. “The fragile fresco, which measures just under 5 square feet and is only 1¼ inches thick, had to be cut from a 12-foot thick concrete wall and carefully removed from an impossibly tight fit with no room for error.”

The extraction of the first plaque by Atthowe Fine Art Services and Sheedy Drayage began in April 2021 and the first plaque arrived at the museum on May 2nd.

“All of this happened while the panel was suspended blindly from ropes threaded through the roof of the building and held outside by a huge crane,” added Barger.

Weighing in at over 60,000 pounds and covering nearly 1,800 square feet, the mural had been embedded in the Diego Rivera Theater at the CCSF since 1961. The masterpiece was stored 20 years earlier.

Truckin ‘

A large blackboard on Howard Street outside SFMOMA is waiting to be craned over the power cables … [+] and rolled into the museum.

Image: Katherine Du Tiel / SFMOMA.

One obstacle overcome – the safe removal of the plates from the CCSF – the next challenge was to get the huge plates to the SFMOMA, eleven kilometers away. Tractors with flatbed trailers were the answer.

Prior to shipment, two full-size replica panels were constructed and subjected to vibration and torque tests in a laboratory to create a database of stress effects on the mural. Using this data, the researchers created a system of sensors attached to the surface of the mural that enabled the UNAM team to monitor the panels in real time from the truck cab as it was being dismantled and moving through San Francisco make sure they were exposed to as little stress as possible.

The drives started at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday morning to minimize traffic.

“SFMOMA employees followed a route dictated by the city of San Francisco in their cars,” said Barger. “Due to the oversized height of the panels and the extremely low loading area – it was less than 30 cm above the ground – we had to avoid hills, MUNI bus routes and underpasses because we couldn’t clear them. Not an easy job in San Francisco! The drive usually takes less than 20 minutes by car, but it took up to two hours because we had to stay below five miles an hour to prevent vibrations from building up and causing damage. “

Tight pressure

Few buildings in the world are spacious enough to house the presentation of the works of art. The street level Roberts Family Gallery at SFMOMA, where the mural can be seen, was purposely designed to show large-format installations of contemporary art. Pan American Unity fits perfectly.

“It’s just tall and wide enough to safely install and display this massive work of art,” said Barger. “You have to have a few meters of free space for the portal system (hoist), and we only have centimeters free. Likewise, the largest wall panels simply fit into the posts (dividers) of a removed glass window. “

In the gallery, the wall panels are attached to a steel structure that offers both stability and a versatile fastening system so that Pan American Unity can be safely moved and displayed again in the future. This system is replicated when the mural is returned to the CCSF’s new Performing Arts Center.

Pan American unity

A large upper panel and a small lower panel await installation in the Roberts Family Gallery at … [+] SFMOMA.

Image: Katherine Du Tiel / SFMOMA.

“For years I have had the feeling that the true art of America must arise from the fusion of machinism and the new creative power of the north with the tradition rooted in the soil of the south, the Toltecs, Tarascans, Mayas, Incas, etc., and would like to choose that as the theme for my mural. ”Diego Rivera described his vision for the project in April 1940.

Pan American Unity offers an expansive panorama of the Bay Area that combines idealized scenes of cities before the conquest of the Valley of Mexico City (left) with depictions of the development of Northern California (right). Rivera’s imagery ranges from ancient civilizations to Bay Area architectural icons, including the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

At the center of the mural is a towering figure that combines a sculpture of the Aztec earth goddess Coatlicue with modern machines. Around him he depicts many notable contemporary and historical figures from all over the continent: inventors and their inventions (the ruler of Texcoco Nezahualcoyotl from the 15th, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler), artists, architects and actors.

Producing this amazing level of detail in this format remains an enormous achievement.

“With fresco painting, the clock resets itself every day and you have to finish your composition while the plaster is still wet,” explains Barger. “The ambitious scale of this mural and the limited timeframe of the summer exhibition meant Rivera had to work fast and cover large areas every day, often over four feet wide. I am overwhelmed by the complexity of his multi-layered narratives and his masterful brushwork, all of which were achieved under these very restrictive conditions. “

Rivera also included current events in the composition.

In a lower panel, he refers to scenes from Hollywood films such as The Great Dictator, Confessions of a Nazi Spy and All Quiet on the Western Front to draw attention to the growing threat posed by fascism and the United States to join World War II to encourage.

With so much eye candy, every guest is attracted to something different.

“I keep coming back to Rivera’s masterful portrayal of a woman diver soaring high above San Francisco Bay,” said Barger. “Subtle shades characterize the otherwise raw plaster of your white swimsuit.”

Pan American Unity can be visited for free at SFMOMA.

The post Diego Rivera’s Astonishing ‘Pan American Unity’ Mural At San Francisco Museum Of Fashionable Artwork appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

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On a cool autumn morning on board the Powell-Mason Cable Car in San Francisco, operator Tsombe Wolfe is taking a break. We stop at the edge of an intersection, to the nearest cent.

I ask him how long he drives the car. “Two minutes,” he jokes before revealing that he has been with it for 16 years.

Most public transit experiences feel impersonal at best, but on a cable car, tourists and commuters alike converse with conductors who are also unofficial ambassadors for the city. This won’t be news to most long-time San Francisco residents – the average pre-pandemic ride number was 40,000 a day – but as a newcomer who hadn’t ridden it, I knew next to nothing about the cable car system.

Then I went to one of the most pleasant free museums in town.

Giant motorized wheels inside the San Francisco Cable Car Museum pull the large cables that allow cars to move through the city streets.

Charles Russo / SFGATE

The first thing you notice upon entering the Cable Car Museum in Nob Hill is the loud hum of the giant spindle pulleys known as “sheaves” that twist the ropes that pull the cars up and down the hills. This is not just a museum, but a fully functional powerhouse that acts as a hub for the entire railway line. Of course, there are historical exhibits and a gift shop – where you can actually buy old cables! – but this is not just a historical curiosity for tourists, it is a crucial piece of the urban infrastructure.

“I’ve heard a lot of people say: ‘Oh God, they’re a tourist trap, they’re expensive,’” says Museum Director Michael Phipps from the cable cars. A ride costs $ 8. “But it’s such a unique experience. The great thing about it is that you are part of the landscape, you don’t just move through it … you experience something that is only available here. “

Michael Phipps, director of the San Francisco Cable Car Museum, pictured at the entrance to the museum.

Charles Russo / SFGATE

San Francisco is the last city in the world with a functioning cable car system. And legend has it, it would not have existed if it hadn’t been for a rainy day in around 1869 when inventor Andrew Smith Hallidie saw a group of horses dragged to their death across the slippery cobblestones of Jackson Street. Hallidie devised a solution, partly inspired by his sympathy for horses as a founding member of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but it could also have something to do with the wire rope factory he owned in North Point Street.

Four years later, San Francisco launched its cable car system. At its peak it was operated by eight companies and traveled as far west as Golden Gate Park and Inner Richmond and south to 28th St. in Mission. Since then, the system has shrunk significantly with just four lines, but don’t expect them to go away anytime soon. Thanks to the protection of city rights, they are an eternal part of the landscape.

A San Francisco cable car arrives at the top of the hill at the intersection of Powell and California on Thursday, December 9, 2021.

Charles Russo / SFGATE

“When you get in this car, you are not only traveling through space, but also through time,” says Phipps.

It also helps that they are still a relatively environmentally friendly way to get around the city.

“We won an award from NASA in the 1960s. We don’t use rubber, we don’t use gas. They are powered by electricity, so we don’t emit any pollutants into the atmosphere, ”explains Phipps, who later adds that the cars themselves are only powered by a small battery that powers the headlights.

Various exhibits in the San Francisco Cable Car Museum.

Charles Russo / SFGATE

The entrance to the left of the San Francisco Cable Car Museum and a trio of replica cable car models on display in the museum.

Charles Russo / SFGATE

Aside from curiosity to see an antique car from 1873, the real reason to visit the museum is for a glimpse into the heart of the city itself. Go down a few quick flights of stairs and through a series of glass windows and you can see the underground mechanisms that power the entire system, the spinning discs that look like giant clock gears that keep the cables running in and out of the power plant lead out. They slowly pull the cars up and down the streets of San Francisco, directing the traveling pieces of city history.

“We are one of the few national landmarks that are a moving landmark,” says Phipps.

It is an engineering achievement that can be viewed spectacularly on site and that also leaves a lasting impression in retrospect. The ornate cars that drive down California Street are one of the city’s most famous landmarks, but seeing what goes on under the tracks gives a much better sense of something that otherwise easily blends in with the busy cityscape.

“One of the foremen upstairs once said, ‘This cable is the heartbeat of the city,’” says Phipps. “People who don’t understand the cable cars simply don’t understand the city. They are inextricably linked. “

Two cable cars are idling in the cable car garage between Jackson and Washington in San Francisco.

Charles Russo / SFGATE

A selection of different cable cars that are installed for repair in the mechanic’s pit in the working cable car garage above the museum.

Charles Russo / SFGATE

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