Hi! It’s Andrea Wang and Joanna Garcia from the digital marketing team here—we’re the writers of the Museums from Home newsletter.

For our last issue of 2020, we surface your favorite pieces of content from this year and reflect on what it was like to put these emails together.

Before we get started: would you share your feedback with us? Your responses to this 10-question survey will help us make the Museums from Home newsletter better and more tailored to you. You’ll be entered to win a $50 Visa gift card as a small token of our appreciation.

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Museums from Home Newsletter: Year in Review

Favorite feature article: Arnold Genthe’s photos of the 1906 earthquake
Black and white image of ruins in San Francisco by Arnold Genthe
In the first months of the pandemic, our curators set out to uncover stories of artists creating in times of crisis. Our most read article featured this series of photographs documenting the resilience of San Franciscans in the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake. At least fifty of Genthe’s film negatives, regarded as one of the best photographic records of the event, are housed at the Legion of Honor’s Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts.

Most Art Project submissions: Color in Rococo

Citrus sketch

Each Art Project prompt was designed by our education team to bring the newsletter to life beyond the computer screen. Whether it helped you pass the time, consider the familiar from a different perspective, or connect with others by creating, the Art Project series was our antidote to the effects of shelter in place. We received 53 submissions for Color in Rococo, which asked subscribers to find inspiration in their fruits and vegetables. See the original prompt and user-submitted artworks here.

Most viewed curator talk: Bouquets to Art Floral Exhibitors’ Collection Favorites

Image still of virtual Bouquets to Art video

With the Museums’ temporary closure, our special-events team reimagined our most beloved annual tradition and fundraiser, Bouquets to Art, for the digital sphere. You all loved this live conversation with curator Karin Breuer about the artwork selection process and five of the most popular permanent-collection pieces selected by our floral exhibitors.

The newsletter issue you kept coming back to: [Issue #2: Calm]
Image of visitor at the Legion of Honor

Issue #2: Calm was our most revisited Museums from Home newsletter installment. In it, our colleagues share artworks from the permanent collection that bring them a sense of calm and why. We really enjoyed exploring the expansive holdings at the de Young and Legion of Honor using this theme

Most popular video: Frida Kahlo Exhibition Tour
Video still of Frida Kahlo galleries.

In March, our exhibitions team had just completed installing Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving when the de Young and Legion of Honor had to temporarily close for the first time. We feel grateful to have been able to expand access to this special presentation of Kahlo’s personal belongings and paintings through this virtual exhibition tour, directed by award-winning filmmaker Benjamin Michel. Since the video was published, it has been viewed in 49 different countries.

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Closing Thoughts

“2020 compelled us to defy convention. It demanded radical honesty and a lot of heart. We tried to approach this newsletter with all these things, and for me, producing each issue became an unexpectedly restorative salve. I feel closer to art, my colleagues, and the museum community.” —Andrea
“I enjoyed working on this newsletter every week. Amid a pandemic and an uncertain future, I found solace in reading about all things art, from artist interviews to obscure internet archives. I cannot wait to share more art stories next year.”
—Joanna
If you haven’t filled out our survey yet, consider giving us your feedback! Thank you for sticking with us through 21 issues. We can’t wait to pick this back up in the new year.

Warmly,

Andrea and Joanna

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de Young museum: Golden Gate Park \ 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118 \ 415-750-3600 \ deyoungmuseum.org 
Legion of Honor museum: Lincoln Park \ 100 34th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94121 \ 415-750-3600 \ legionofhonor.org 
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Image credits: Arnold Genthe, Untitled (St. Dunstan Hotel, Van Ness Avenue and Sutter Street, San Francisco), 1906. Cellulose nitrate negative, 3 3/8 x 5 1/2 in. (8.6 x 14 cm). Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Museum purchase, James D. Phelan Bequest Fund, 1943.407.1

Photographs by Gary Sexton.