San Francisco Museum of Craft
+ Design Opens in October
n October 23, the city of San Francisco will become home to a new crafts museum, the San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design (SFMC+D). The museum will be located in the space previously occupied by Tercera Gallery at 550 Sutter Street in San Francisco. Oakland-based architect and craftsman Alan Ohashi has redesigned aspects of the existing setting, incorporating its architecturally significant qualities to create 3,000 square-feet of museum space. To celebrate the grand opening, the new museum will be open to the public free of charge through the end of the year.
JoAnn Edwards, co-founder and executive director of the museum, recently told TCR that one of the primary roles of the new museum will be to insure the longevity of craft. “Our goal is to educate the public about the ‘present’ of craft by celebrating and promoting the artists and culture of contemporary craft and design.” Edwards adds that one of the ways the museum hopes to achieve this is through “innovative” exhibitions that focus on important craft media such as clay, wood, glass and fiber. “Coupled with that will be an educational component comprised of a monthly speaker series, weekly docent tours and video documentation,” adds Edwards.
For more information
Call (415) 773-0303, e-mail info@sfmcd.org
or visit www.sfmcd.org.The executive director also told us that despite the decision by the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, formerly the American Craft Museum, to drop the word “craft” from its title, the SFMC+D chose to “embrace” the word and couple it with design. “We felt this was the most powerful way to educate the public and promote the future of fine, handmade objects,” says Edwards.
The SFMC+D will include both indoor and outdoor exhibition spaces and will feature exhibitions that provide the public an opportunity to see and experience the entire process from the design of an object, through its creation and finally, to its completion. The inaugural exhibition features the life-long collection of art, craft and design from studio furniture maker Garry Knox Bennett and his wife, Sylvia. The exhibition, “Dovetailing Art & Life: The Bennett Collection,” will be on view through Jan. 31, 2005, and will feature many pieces never before seen in a public venue.
The exhibition includes five of Bennett’s own handcrafted pieces as well as a selection of paintings, sculpture and objects d’art that presents the visual harmony between art and craft.
Forty-five objects of all types of media from 36 renowned artists make up the inaugural exhibition.
The New San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design.
