COVID Reopenings: San Francisco's DeYoung Museum Chooses Unique 125th Birthday Exhibit To Honor 2020
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Most San Francisco Bay Area residents will agree that 2020 has been one of the most challenging and impactful years in decades.
Among the communities weathering the storm is the Bay Area vibrant art community. So what better way to honor local artists than a showing of their works in an exhibit marking the DeYoung Museum's 125 birthday.
"We thought we might get a few hundreds submissions (for the exhibit)," said Tom Champbell, director of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "We had more than 11,500. From that we selected 877 works by 762 artists. It's an incredible celebration of the artistic talent in the Bay Area."
The exhibit opened this weekend and in these times of COVID-19 you will need to book a reservation to see it. The exhibit can also be seen online/
Once inside, the socially distanced will be treated to packed walls of local artworks in a showing appropriately named "The de Young Open" and representing the cutting edge, leading and edgy culture of the Bay Area.
The DeYoung has taken over 10 different galleries with all the available wall space covered in works done is a wide range of artistic styles.
They are grouped according to the themes of the day -- Black Lives Matter, Living with COVID other political and social movements in the city.
"I think it was a great stroke of intelligence on the part of the museum to open it up in a sort of, at least for this time, a democratic opening for artists from across the spectrum," said local artist Steve Somerstein.