The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco is welcoming submissions from creatives across all nine Bay Area counties for its upcoming exhibit, The de Young Open, with chosen pieces being included as part of the de Young Museum’s 125th-anniversary showcase later this year.

Times of the global crisis have a tendency to usher in periods of creative unfurling. Art is as much a conscious response to the world around us as it is a soothing salve for our communal wellbeing, particularly amid chapters of international distress — like right now. It's only befitting then that SF's de Young Museum would request works from Bay Area creatives to present in its 125th-anniversary display as a "celebratory sign of [the Bay Area] community’s strength and resilience.”

“As the de Young celebrates its distinguished 125-year history in 2020, we are proud to announce The de Young Open, creating a platform for the visionary artists who enrich the Bay Area’s cultural landscape,” states Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco — which includes the de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor— in a press release. “Amid these uncertain times, this new initiative expands the Fine Arts Museums’ ongoing commitment to the Bay Area community and serves as a celebratory sign of our community’s strength and resilience. From local artists to art lovers, we look forward to welcoming our visitors back to the de Young museum this summer with this epochal exhibition.”

The largest cultural hub of its kind in Northern California, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s “On the Edge” theme for the community-lead exhibit also exists in support of a new benefit event. Artists from all nine Bay Area counties will have the chance to have their work publicly presented and offer their pieces for sale — and retain 100 percent of the final sale, which is basically unheard of.

Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root Curator in Charge of American Art, will head the curatorial jury that will decide which submissions are taken. It also includes the following individuals, per the release: Claudia Schmuckli, Curator of Contemporary Art and Programming, and Karin Breuer, Curator in Charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

“The Museums want to support our local art communities, particularly at a time when they are experiencing the negative impacts of the COVID-19 crisis,” added Burgard in the announcement. “This innovative exhibition will provide a unique opportunity for our visitors to view the extraordinary breadth and depth of art created in the Bay Area.”

The juried community art exhibition will be on view in the de Young museum’s Herbst Exhibition Galleries sometime this year. Visual artists with diverse backgrounds are especially encouraged to apply by the June 14 deadline; those whose work (or works) are chosen for the exhibit will be revealed and notified in July.

For more information on the showcase, as well as how one can submit their work for consideration, visit deyoung.famsf.org/exhibitions/de-young-open.

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Image: Unsplash via Claudia Lorusso