Opening Preview Party benefiting the San Francisco Art Institute

Thursday, May 20, 2010, 7-9pm
$65 online / $75 per person at the door - buy online tickets now
business casual/cocktail attire

Your invitation to San Francisco’s Art Buying Party of 2010

Join us for what promises to be a memorable “mini-Art Basel on the Bay”

Get first dibs. Be the first to witness the dazzling array and widest selection of important modern and contemporary artworks offered in SF in nearly a decade. Choose from over 6,000 significant artworks. .Be among the first to view, reserve and buy, just before the general public pours in on Friday. For the ardent collector, it is just” going shopping in an art museum”.

Enjoy delectable culinary treats and sample the finest spirits in America as you roam through 3 asisles each longer than a football field. Explore stunning displays in the dramatic and cavernous 50,000 sqaure foot art fair.

Whether you are casually admiring art, decorating your home, passionately enthusiastic, financially supporting, seriously collecting, or just “catching the cool art scene” this is a “must-attend” 3 hours for you. Network, mingle and mix with the West Coast’s elite and most notable collectors, art influencers, cultural sophisticates and trend-setters. Meet the most influential members of the national art press. It’s one of the premier events in 2010 to “see and be seen”.

About SFAI

The San Francisco Art Institute provides its students with a rigorous education in the fine arts and a preparation for a life in the arts through an innovative, intensive studio environment, a vital liberal arts experience, and engagement with the world at large. The institute also strives to be a leader in promoting awareness of the relevance of the arts in contemporary culture. Founded in 1871 by artists, writers and community leaders who possessed a cultural vision for the West, the Art Institute became a locus for artists and thinkers. The school has been the center for many of this country's most notable art movements, including West Coast Abstract Expressionism. Influential artists associated with SFAI included Maynard Dixon (responsible for the red lead color of the Golden Gate Bridge), Diego Rivera (painter in 1930 of the Institute’s gallery mural), and Clyfford Still, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, David Park, Elmer Bischoff, and Nathan Oliveira, all of whom taught at SFAI. The Photography Department, founded in 1946 by Ansel Adams, was the first fine art photography department in the US and included Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, and Dorothea Lange among its instructors.

SFAI’s commitment to quality as well as concern for contemporary issues in the visual arts continues to keep the Art Institute at the core of artistic activity, which now includes performance and digital art. The curriculum emphasizes personal exploration and growth, and recognizes that conceptual development is as necessary as artistic technique. The Art Institute's academic features include an unparalleled faculty, 24-hour access to studios, and an emphasis on total immersion in one's work. Combined with the cultural and natural treasures of the Bay Area, the Institute provides an exceptional educational experience.

Overlapping with our fair at the neighboring Herbst Pavilion next door is SFAI’s 2010 MFA Graduate Exhibition, featuring the work of almost 100 graduating MFA students. . The result of an intense period of collaboration, investigation, and artistic development, the work on display will represent a range of interests, media, and approaches—providing patrons with an overview of some of the most challenging and exciting directions and strategies in contemporary art today. The 2010 MFA Graduate Exhibition is an opportunity for students to present their work to the larger world. This valuable experience of participating in a large, public exhibition is the culmination of a challenging program of study and creation. In addition, the 2010 MFA Graduate Exhibition introduces to the wider Bay Area community some of its most provocative and thought-provoking new talent.