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In only two short weeks you can have the chance to join the Museum of Craft and Design and the San Francisco Fashion and Merchants’ Alliance at Project San Francisco, a one-night event featuring the fashion works of six young designers. Taking place in our new, as yet to be announced space, the event promises to showcase the vibrancy of San Francisco fashion and the passion the Museum of Craft and Design has for wonderful partnerships.

Tickets are limited, and are still available at the eventbrite website:

http://projectsanfrancisco02252012-eventful.eventbrite.com/r/eventful

Here is an image of a wonderful couture work by designer Jennifer Ly who will be one of the six designers featured in Project San Francisco 2012.

Recognizing a need for beautiful shirts for all our patrons, we will be announcing a new women’s t-shirt shortly! Watch the MCD Store site for details!

The Museum of Craft and Design is partnering with the San Francisco Fashion and Merchants’ Alliance to present Project SF, a fashion runway event featuring the collections of young San Francisco designers. Tickets can be found below. Members of the Museum of Craft and Design receive discounted admission!

http://projectsanfrancisco02252012.eventbrite.co.uk/?ref=ecal&ebtv=C

Last night I had the pleasure of accompanying independent Los Angeles based curator Ronald Lopez to a lecture by Spanish designer Nacho Carbonell and a reception for the BRAVOS Spanish design exhibition.

Carbonell’s candor and humor can only be described as completely refreshing.  Taking the approach that openness is value, Carbonell spoke of the challenges and opportunities, successes and ‘failures’, that he had experienced in his professional practice.  Whether through his unique approaches to product and object development – he explained that sometimes an idea comes to him so quickly that he feels that he has to go back and do the sketches later! – to his accessibility for students and interns, Carbonell represents that embodiment of an international, respected designer who has remained grounded.

The exhibition, which runs through mid-February at Fort Mason, showcases a range of unique design objects, all created by Spanish designers.  It is accompanied by an incredible publication.

What was even more fantastic was the broad level of support the exhibition was receiving, from curators to retailers to designers and related practitioners.

In fact, I believe that what the audience indicated last night is that in San Francisco there is a strong interest in, and love for, contemporary design.  And this is one of the focus areas that is the core focus for the Museum of Craft and Design.  Quite simply, I see my role as the Curator to explore projects that make both craft and design even more accessible, with the understanding that – and I have said this before – there is no friction between the ideas of “excellence” and “community”.  What we understand as museum professionals is that interested audiences will engage with us at all levels.

What BRAVOS highlighted was the passion the arts and design communities have for supporting those practices that are integral to what they do.  As we announce our new location, and our opening program, remember that I see the Museum of Craft and Design as a physical space for focusing on precisely the innovations that I had the pleasure of viewing last night.

Information on the BRAVOS exhibition can be found here:

http://www.spainculture.us/calendar/397/

The exhibition runs through January 17^th.  Don’t miss it.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of a guided tour of the exhibition “Get Lucky:  The Culture of Chance,” courtesy of my colleague Justin Hoover.  Justin is the Gallery Director and Curator of SOMArts, the South of Market Arts Center.

Get Lucky is an extremely intelligent exhibition.  This doesn’t mean that its difficult, or overly cerebral.  It simply means that it brings together a range of artists working around a single idea – the influences of chance in the works of John Cage – to create pieces that further explore this idea.

The formal reception for the exhibition is Friday, January 6^th, but I would encourage you to go at any time to see the show.

What is so fascinating about the project is that it highlights first how artists work within, around, and between media.  Some artists used cast bronze, others handmade paper, or felt.  In many instances we would regard these media as precisely the types that we would also critically consider here at the MCD.  But whereas for SOMArts the medium is part of the message, for the MCD, by our very name, the medium should be the message.  So an exhibition like Get Lucky can help us to start a dialogue around how we consider, contextualize, and curate objects that are crafts based, but not indicative of what we think of traditionally as crafts, or design based but not necessarily wholly grounded in standard definitions of design.

One other great aspect of my meeting was the chance to learn more about the local organizational infrastructures for arts spaces with a similar staff size and exhibition space as we have at the MCD.  Justin generously shared the mission of SOMArts, and highlighted how their programming directly engages with that mission.  I regard this approack as key to how we do business as well.  We have identified our focus. Through innovative exhibitions, programming, projects and outreach, both in the past and for the future, we have and will continue to deliver the best exhibitions that explore the history and critically consider the contemporary complexity of craft and design today.

Please take the time, if you can, to see Get Lucky:  The Culture of Chance.  I believe that the interplay between the arts, craft and design only leads to a better understanding of them all.  I also believe that through sharing our audiences we only serve to increase them all.  Take a chance, and get lucky.

Hello everyone.  By way of introduction, I am Brett Levine, the new Curator of the Museum of Craft and Design.  I commenced here a month ago, and in that time I have had the opportunity to work towards securing a new long-term space (details shortly!) and to begin a process of scheduling our forthcoming exhibitions, as well as curating new exhibitions and programming for the future.

One of the great experiences of a new city is having the opportunity to see new spaces, and to meet professionals whose objectives are to bring the best of craft and design, as well as other forms of the visual, creative and performing arts, to the cities they live in.

San Francisco is very well served by its cultural organizations.  Since I have been here, I have had the pleasure of attending “Nightlife” at the Academy of Sciences, “100 Performances for the Hole” at SOMArts, and an opening reception at the Workshop Residence in Dogpatch.  Each of these events highlights the breadth of opportunities we have for experiencing and supporting creativity in our city.

One of my main goals since arriving has been to strengthen existing partnerships, and to build new ones.  Without giving too much away, I have been excited by how welcomed I have been, and by how excited project partners are about working with the Museum of Craft and Design.   I know that our new space will simply bring us to new heights, and will create a framework in which we can continue to grow and develop.

The Museum of Craft and Design is not just about exhibitions.  We have exciting programs that focus on outreach and education, and we are planning a series of new events that will reach out to diverse audiences young and old.  You can support the Museum of Craft and Design in many ways.  You can attend our events; become a member; give a gift membership; make a pledge, endowment or donation; create a legacy gift; purchase from our store.  Or, you can simply tell everyone how excited you have been by our amazing pop-up programming, and how thrilled you are for our future.

We look forward to sharing details about our new location with you in the near future, and I look forward to working with craftspeople, designers, artists, architects and other creative professionals to build new audiences and experiences.  But most importantly, I look forward to meeting everyone who supports us, and shares our vision, as we contribute to making San Francisco, and its surrounding communities, the best places to live, learn and experience craft and design that they possibly can be.