Latest news with #ArtBash
San Francisco Chronicle
08-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘No notice': Union slams SFMOMA's surprise layoffs as museum cites financial strain
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art laid off 29 employees, sparking sharp backlash from workers and their representatives. The layoffs, announced Wednesday, May 7, constitute about 7.5% of SFMOMA's workforce and include more than two dozen union members. 'SFMOMA is laying off 26 union members today with no notice,' the union said. It called on staff to wear black and protest at a scheduled all-staff meeting scheduled for Thursday, May 8, urging the museum to 'CUT FROM THE TOP' instead of front-line workers. SFMOMA Director Christopher Bedford acknowledged the job cuts in a letter to the community, describing the decision as 'difficult' but necessary. 'We continue to grapple with some hard realities,' Bedford wrote, citing persistent declines in attendance and broader financial challenges. He said the museum is adapting to a 'new normal' of roughly 600,000 annual visitors, down from pre-pandemic levels (SFMOMA counted 892,000 visitors in 2019), and must scale back accordingly. The reduction in staff affected union and non-union employees, and included 20 full-time and nine part-time roles. Thirteen vacant or soon-to-be-vacant positions were also eliminated. The museum noted that 'enhanced' severance packages were offered to union employees. In November 2023, SFMOMA cut 20 positions, citing a 35% drop in attendance since 2019. Despite popular recent exhibitions, including shows by Yayoi Kusama and Ruth Asawa, and its annual Art Bash fundraiser generating more than $2 million in April, Bedford emphasized that tourism and foot traffic downtown remain sluggish. He said that museum leaders are exploring new revenue streams and hoping to grow philanthropic support. 'As these efforts take root, we must continue to be vigilant about our budget and make critical decisions to reduce costs and scale the institution in alignment with our current context,' Bedford said. 'Those reductions, unfortunately, include expenses both unrelated and related to our staff.' The union's bargaining team met Wednesday afternoon to demand answers, saying it will 'begin our fight back on these unjustified layoffs.'
San Francisco Chronicle
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
‘Fashion as art': Ayesha Curry stuns in custom GapStudio dress at SFMOMA Art Bash
The hottest couple at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's Art Bash fundraiser brought a golden lustre to the evening. Restaurant and lifestyle entrepreneur Ayesha Curry attended the institution's annual fundraiser gala on Wednesday, April 23, wearing a custom gold Zac Posen for GapStudio dress on the arm of the designer. Posen is Gap Inc.'s vice president and creative director as well as a new board member at the museum, which has a long association with Gap's founding Fisher family. (Robert J. Fisher is chairman of the board and SFMOMA has a long term loan of the family's storied art collection.) Curry's husband, Golden State Warrior point guard Stephen Curry, was in Houston playing the Rockets (the team lost 109-94) while Posen's fiance, dancer and choreographer Harrison Ball, was on the East Coast for the premiere of his latest ballet 'New Ancient Strings"at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. 'It's gold denim for our golden girl, and who doesn't love a 'Flashdance' cut?' Posen joked of the off-the shoulder dress, which was cinched with a gold-coated denim corset. 'It's coming (to GapStudio) in T-shirt dresses in a few months.' The new GapStudio collection made its debut online and in stores in April with elevated versions of brand signatures like denim and belted trench coats. Celebrities like actors Anne Hathaway and Timothee Chalamet have also debuted looks from the new line, further adding to the star power Gap has been amassing since Posen joined the brand in February 2024. Curry revealed that it was her first time visiting SFMOMA, but said that seeing the museum had long been on her 'bucket list.' 'I was speaking to my sister and my husband around the kitchen table and brought that up, then a couple weeks later I got invited to this and said, 'It's a sign! '' Curry told the Chronicle. 'I'm really happy to be here. It's my first time, but it won't be my last.' Curry completed the look with a pair of western-inspired boots and noted that she appreciated the versatility of Posen's design. 'You can dress it up and wear it to an event like this, you can elevate it, or you can dress it down,' said Curry. 'That's truly San Francisco style.' For Posen, whose father Stephen Arnold Posen is an artist in New York, joining the museum board feels like a full circle moment. 'Early in my career there was an exhibition on glamour here that I had a piece in, made of hay and straw from my 'Sargasso' collection,' said Posen, recalling 2004's 'Glamour Fashion, Industrial Design, Architecture' at SFMOMA. 'I was an intern for many years as a teenager at the Met Museum Costume Institute. That intersection between art and fashion can be a real crowd draw, but it can also build amazing storytelling,' he went on. 'I grew up in museums, they changed my life.' The designer teased that he's currently working on 'a top secret project' with SFMOMA. Could it be the museum's first full fashion exhibition in 42 years? SFMOMA Director Christopher Bedford noted that the Issey Miyake celebration 'Bodyworks' in 1983 was the last time fashion was given a starring role at the museum but that a few pieces had shown up in recent exhibitions like 'Get in the Game: Sports, Art and Culture' in 2024. 'I'm really interested in the idea of fashion as art,' Bedford told the Chronicle.
San Francisco Chronicle
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
SFMOMA Art Bash 2025 featured Zack Fox, a ballroom battle and more
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art welcomed thousands of guests into its galleries on Wednesday, April 23, for its after hours Art Bash. The institution's biggest fundraiser kicked-off with a patron's dinner on the museum's seventh floor with an immersive event designed by New York artist Firelei Báez. It was followed by an auction, led by Sotheby's auctioneer Phyllis Kao, featuring works by Charles Gaines, Christina Quarles, Nicolas Party, Amy Sherald and Ruth Asawa. That latter's 'Ruth Asawa: Retrospective' is the latest exhibition to debut and will be on view at the museum through Sept. 2. Among the pop-up events, Berkeley artist Masako Miki created a one-night only art experience in the museum's White Box theater, while San Francisco artist Jeffrey Sincich took over the Steps coffee shop space for his project. Performances in the museum's main lobby included a headlining DJ set by comedian and rapper Zack Fox. San Francisco's own DJ Shortkut, who recently began performing again after recovering from a massive stroke, and DJ Lady Ryan also took to the turntables as part of Art Bash's musical lineup presented in part by the Stern Grove Festival. On the fifth floor at Cafe 5, Bay Area LGBTQ ballroom host Legendary Ryan "Christopher" Milan and commentator Icon Enyce Gorgeous Gucci paid tribute to the local queer ballroom scene with a recreation of a ballroom runway battle. Art Bash raises over $2 million annually for SFMOMA, with proceeds going toward its education and family programs and community engagement events that museum officials report benefit more than 150,000 people every year.
