There's something new to see and do every month this summer at Fort Mason Center For Arts & Culture (FMCAC) when FORT MASON ART programs invite everyone to explore art together again. With an eye to San Francisco’s traditions and innovations in public art, FMCAC presents campus-wide art interventions and performances, starting in June.
Choreographer, teacher, and healer Sara Shelton Mann takes up residence throughout the FMCAC campus in June and develops her 7 Excavations / at the edge of the shore and the edge of the world. Collaborating with an incredible company of artists, dancers, musicians, and filmmakers, Mann's multi-day activations includes free artist workshops, public Chi cultivation sessions, art installations, open rehearsals, and a culminating Summer Solstice performance on June 21.
For the second painting commission in what we’re calling the “Corridor Gallery” between Buildings B and C, we’ve invited artist, curator, gallerist, and cultural worker Christo Oropeza to reimagine a sequence of blank squares that had been U.S. Army loading docks. Drawing on FMCAC’s labor and military history, the artist will craft still-life paintings of key tools used onsite yesterday and today. Oropeza has been making behind-the-scenes portraits of workers and their instruments, bringing the hidden labor of art and life into view. He often celebrates the work of colleagues and also family, including his father, who (like many San Franciscans) moved to California from Mexico to build a new life. The installation of Oropeza’s outdoor paintings is on view from July 6, 2022, through January 2023.
The San Francisco Aerial Arts Festival 2022 returns to the FMCAC campus for three days of dynamic performances that push the boundaries of contemporary dance and aerial work. Expect dancers from Zaccho Dance Theatre – led by founder and Artistic Director Joanna Haigood – and some remarkable special guests. The Festival runs from Friday, August 19, through Sunday, August 21. Experience daring athleticism, aerial spectacle, and circus artistry.
Make this a summer to remember through art and dance, in a historic setting, on the beautiful San Francisco Bay.
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Image Credits. Photo of Sara Shelton Mann dance collaborators by Robbie Sweeney; "Break" painting by Christo Oropeza courtesy of Guerrero Gallery; Photo of aerial dancers by Austin Forbord.
