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by Nina Beckwith FEATURED UCSF ARTIST | NINA'S ARTS NOTES 1st appeared 27 July 1998 After this week, your arts reporter takes a break to visit several other artsy places. In the meantime, you may want to check out the following places and events during the rest of the summer in beautiful cool San Francisco. Arrivederci a settembre The Mission Murals are world famous. Tourists know about these spontaneous, excitingly vivid and dramatic wall paintings but they are often overlooked or neglected by San Franciscans who live in other parts of the city and even perhaps by some who work at the UCSF Mission Center. An easy walk around the Mission, including the well-named Balmy Alley whose buildings are covered with paintings, reveals many of these treasures and may include a visit to Misión San Francisco de Asís, which gave the city its name, or as it is now commonly known, Mission Dolores. It was originally built of 36,000 sunbaked bricks and dedicated on June 29, l776, a few days before the Declaration of Independence. And by all means stop for great food at any of the hundreds of taquerias and restaurants in the area offering specialties of the different Latin American cuisines. The Precita Eyes Mural Arts Center, 348 Precita Avenue, conducts tours every Saturday at 1:30 led by muralists ($5) and also operates a bus from Mexico itself on a three-hour city-wide tour of over 100 murals ($30 includes refreshments). Call 285-2287. "Si Se Puede" by Susan Kelk Cervantes copyright 1995. Located at Cesar Chavez Elementary School, Folsom Street between 21st and 22nd Streets, this is a monumental mural celebrating the life of United Farm Workers activist Cesar Chavez. (Photograph by Rik Clingerman). * * * * * Another wonderful series of murals worth visiting and revisiting are those depicting many aspects of California life which were painted inside Coit Tower on top of Telegraph Hill in the l930s with funds from the WPA, the Works Progress Administration, established by FDR to give employment to many people, including artists of all kinds who had been hit by the Great Depression. The Tower was the gift of Lillie Hitchcock Coit in memory of her husband; she also gave the bronze statues of valiant volunteer firemen which stand in Washington Square near Columbus. The views from Coit Tower are fabulous but parking is tight, so take the #39 Muni bus from Union and Stockton. For refreshment, North Beach, too, has a large variety of cafes and eating places. Free walking tours of both the Mission Murals and Coit Tower, along with many other delightful and interesting places, are offered by City Guides of San Francisco, sponsored by the SF Public Library and other benefactors. Through September, Mission Mural tours are Saturdays at 11 a.m. and Coit Tower Mural tours at the same time, so you'll need two Saturdays. Tour brochures available at SF Library Branches or phone 557-4266. Schedules also from http://www.hooked.net/users/jhum * * * * * The Asian Art Museum is now open Tuesday through Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Filipino artists' exhibition we described recently is there until August 30. The world premiere of The Embodiment of Beauty, by pianist/composer Jon Jang, inspired by a recent visit to Beijing, for piano and erhu, a stringed instrument with a lovely lonely sound, will take place on Saturday, August 15 at 2 p.m. in the Trustees Auditorium of the Asian, co-sponsored with the Chinese Historical Society of America. Information 379-8800. * * * * * Christopher Plummer may be the only actor today who has the stature -- physical and theatrical -- the voice, and the sexy magnetism to reincarnate John Barrymore, considered the greatest actor of his time. The Barrymores, John and his sister Ethel and brother Lionel, were our reigning theatrical royalty for decades. By all accounts John was a memorable Hamlet in the '20s and acted on stage in a number of other classics and romantic dramas. Later he went to Hollywood, where they didn't know quite what to do with him, so he appeared in many less than memorable movies, diluting his talent with booze until he died at only 60 in l942. The Barrymore life and legends are fascinating and are being brought to San Francisco in a new play, Barrymore, starring Christopher Plummer, who won a best actor Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award during the play's New York run. This is first-rate "Best of Broadway" theatre and not to be missed. Performances will be at the Herbst Theatre in Civic Center from August 4 to September 6. Advance tickets available at the Orpheum Theatre box office and through BASS at 776-1999 and other BASS outlets. * * * * * Stern Grove Update: August 2: SF Ethnic Dance Festival featuring Diamano Coura, Lasya Academy of Dance, Murphy Irish Dancers, Te Mama O Te Ra, and Ballet Folclorico Ensambles de SF. August 9: SF Ballet. Our extraordinary company, the oldest classical ballet company in the US, in works by Balanchine, Mark Morris, Robbins, and Helgi Tomasson. August 16: Jazz With A Twist, the season grand finale, with tenor saxophone virtuoso Joe Henderson and the amazing Kronos Quartet. All concerts free, start at 2 p.m. but crowds come early to fill the lovely natural amphitheater surrounded by towering trees. * * * * * Last two concerts in the SF Symphony's Summer in the City series in Davies Hall feature singer Johnny Mathis, who needs no introduction, on July 31; on August 1, conductor and violinist Gidon Kremer with his orchestra, the Kremerata Baltica, in Vivaldi's Four Seasons and tangos by Astor Piazzolla. Phone charge 864-6000; fax 554-0108, www.sfsymphony.org. * * * * * Not too soon to plan for the SF Symphony's new season which starts on September 12 with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting a celebration of the Gershwin centenary and playing An American in Paris with more pizzazz than you've probably ever heard before. The l998-99 season looks inviting, with such soloists as soprano Sylvia McNair; the marvelous pianist Martha Argerich playing Prokoviev on the same program with Gordon Getty's new work, Annabel Lee for men's chorus; pianists Emanuel Ax, Barry Douglas, Radu Lupu, and Peter Serkin; Roberto Abbado conducting Bloch's Schelomo and the Rossini Stabat Mater, and Shostakovich's score for the famous Eisenstein film Battleship Potemkin conducted by Alasdair Neale to accompany the silent film classic --to name only a few of the scheduled performances. SF Symphony seasons sell out early so don't wait too long to call or fax above numbers. For half-price subscriptions for university students, number is the same, 864-6000. Also check with UCSF Arts & Performances. * * * * * If you missed the terrific Merola Opera Program performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute at Stern Grove -- or even if you didn't --there's another chance to hear these brilliant young artists, an especially outstanding group this year. Culminating their ten weeks of training and performances here, the Merolini put on an afternoon of opera arias and ensembles with the SF Opera Orchestra, conducted by Ian Robertson, who is also the Opera's gifted chorus master. Merola Grand Finale is Sunday afternoon, August 16, at 2 p.m. in Davies Symphony Hall. Single tickets are $20-$30. Some free tickets may be available. Call the SF Symphony box office at 864-6000. * * * * * Speaking of opera, it's time now to do more than think about the 76th SF Opera season. In the splendid War Memorial Opera House, the season opens on September 11 with Puccini's Turandot in the magical David Hockney production, followed on the 12th by Strauss's exquisite Arabella. On Sunday, September 13, comes the traditional free Opera in the Park concert in Golden Gate Park's Sharon Meadow, and on the l9th the much-anticipated world premiere of André Previn's new opera A Streetcar Named Desire, based on the Tennessee Williams play. SF Opera box office phone 864-3300; fax 626-1729, online www.sfopera.com. * * * * * At Fort Mason's Cowell Theater, right on the Bay, the SF Butoh Festival l998, the only Butoh Festival in the US, explores the global influence of the Japanese dance in two programs, August 20-23. Program 1 : Thurs. & Sat. 8 p.m.: Katsura-Kan (Thailand), Abe "M" Ria (Japan), and Yan-Shu (Japan). Program 2: Fri. & Sun. 7 p.m.: Masahide Ohmori (Japan) and Gustavo Collini (Sartor/Butoh Danza Argentina). Each of these artists exemplifies uniquely individual interpretation of Butoh dance. Programs are part of a month-long celebration of Butoh presented by d-net dance network with the Asian Art Museum, Ft. Mason and Yerba Buena Centers. Tickets $20-$15; student/senior/group discounts, 441-3687. * * * * * And at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, summer art exhibits include Commotion: Martin Kersels, sculptures that incorporate movement, sound, film, and video; Whipper Snapper Nerd: Work From Creativity, images and interviews with students at Creativity Explored, a multimedia visual art center for developmentally disabled adults in the Mission District and Nightfall, an installation by Bay Area artists Margaret Crane, Dale MacDonald, Scott Minneman, and Jon Winet. This is a series of dramatic tableaux which plays off the open-ended narratives of TV soap operas, allowing the viewer to wander in a moodscape among 20 characters whose interpersonal relations constantly change: a new kind of storytelling for electronic media. These and other shows run through August 23 at Yerba Buena, 701 Mission at Third Street, Tues.-Sun. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (to 8 p.m. first Thurs.), $5 adults, $3 students/seniors, youth 16 and under free. Call 978-2787 or online www.YerbaBuenaArts.org. * * * * * Hop down to the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park to see the 35 oils and ten drawings by John Steuart Curry (1897-1946). The show is called Inventing the Middle West as Curry was known as a regionalist painter, along with his contemporaries Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. Curry's subjects range from religious fanaticism to environmental destruction and war. His portrait of John Brown, of Harper's Ferry fame, his hair and beard blown wildly by the wind of his fervor, is perhaps Curry's best known work. Curry exhibition on view through August 30 only. Tues.-Sun. 9:30 - 5 p.m., to 8:45 first Wed of month when admission is free. 863-3330. Happy Landings! |
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