Featured events- 08/28/2013 - Free Outdoor Screening in the BAM/PFA Sculpture Garden
- 08/27/2013 - MARK EPSTEIN / The Trauma of Everyday Life
- 08/24/2013 - The goat Rodeo Sessions
- 08/03/2013 - Book Signing and Discussion with Dave Kehr, followed by The Lawless Breed
- 06/24/2013 - BERKELEY PRIDE 365! First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage…
Tag Archives: Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley this weekend
FINAL COUNTDOWN Classical music concerts often have some programmatic idea: works that influenced each other, or pieces that provide an interesting tonal contrast. But The Opus Project has a particularly audacious notion: its Saturday night concert features 21 Opus 5 pieces by composers ranging from Stravinsky to Cage to Britten (it’s the centennial of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring — an Opus 5!). The multi-media Opus 5 follows on, unsurprisingly, from Opera 1 through 4 (pedantic, moi?). The earliest work on Saturday will be a movement from Schoenberg’s Peleas und Melisande; the most recent Rabbits Frolicking Through the Meadow by 20-year old Anthony Ragus, composed this year. Opus 5 is at 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 25, at Berkeley Arts Festival, 2133 University Avenue. Tickets are from $10. … Continue reading »
On the cusp: Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive
“It’s been a long hard road. Standing here today I feel both relief and excitement,” Lawrence Rinder, Director of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive said, speaking on Tuesday in the shell of a building that will one day be a gleaming new cultural center in the heart of downtown Berkeley.
Building work has begun in earnest on converting the Art Moderne former UC Berkeley printing plant on Center St. into a strikingly contemporary museum designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Plant Construction, who have worked on many museums, including the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, were selected as lead contractors. The parking lot on Addison adjacent to the 1939 building has been largely demolished. Soon, major excavation work will begin, according to David Vogel, project director at EHDD Architecture, who are the appointed executing architects on the project. He spoke at a media preview held in the boarded up building on Tuesday morning this week. … Continue reading »
Before new Berkeley art museum can rise, a demolition
Major demolition is under way in downtown Berkeley on the site of the new location for the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
The UC Berkeley-owned parking lot at 2150 Addison Street, on the corner of Oxford Street, is being torn down, and several large trees have been removed, to clear the ground for construction.
The UC Berkeley-owned museum is creating a new home, designed by New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, from a 1930s former printing plant owned by the university. The new BMA/PFA is slated to open in the summer of 2016, bringing more bold contemporary architecture into the heart of Berkeley. … Continue reading »
The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley this weekend
MARCH MADNESS, BORP STYLE The annual Northern California Hoops Classic wheelchair basketball tournament runs all weekend at the James Kenney Recreation Center, 1720 8th Street. Hosted by the Bay Area Outreach & Recreation Program (BORP), Berkeley’s own BORP All-Stars — an adult team — and BORP Bay Cruisers — a youth team and the reigning West Coast Conference champions — are among the teams competing. Games run from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Mar. 23 (nine games) and from 9 a.m. to noon on Sunday, Mar. 24 (four games). Admission free.
MASH UP AT BAM How does this sound: “The lyrics of Bob Dylan set to the music of Prince? Or the lyrics of Prince set to the music of Bob Dylan?” That’s the promise of this week’s L@te event on Friday, Mar. 22 at BAM, Positively Alphabet Street. PC Munoz’s Singing Blood does the mash up of folk and funk. Also on offer is Schumann’s First String Quartet and a video piece from Christopher Ariza. Tickets are $7 and doors open at 5 p.m. for the 7:30 p.m. performance. … Continue reading »
The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley this weekend
ALL THAT JAZZ The second annual JazzGirls Day will be at Berkeley High on Saturday, Mar. 9. JazzGirls Day is for girls only, aged 10 and older, who play jazz or are thinking about trying it out. Participants are invited to join professional female jazz musicians and educators for the afternoon. Among those leading master classes and jam sessions are singer Pamela Rose (see photo), pianist Susan Muscarella, trumpeter Ellen Seeling, sax player Jeanne Feinberg, and trombonist Sarah Cline. JazzGirls Day is held in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and is co-sponsored by BUSD, Berkeley Jazz Parents’ Association, The Jazzschool and SF Jazz. JazzGirls Day is a free event. Rm. A201, Berkeley High, from 1-4 p.m. for the performance part, and 4-5:30 p.m. in The Little Theater for a free film screening on women and jazz (families welcome, and free popcorn promised).
MAKING VISIBLE Photographer Ken Schles documented life in his Lower East Side neighborhood in New York for a decade, publishing the results in Invisible City in 1988. To accompany an exhibition of Schles’ work, the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism is hosting a reception, talk by Schles and book signing on Friday, Mar. 8. As the exhibition curators put it, “His camera fixed the instances of his observations, and these moments become the foundation of his invisible city.” Reception from 6 p.m., talk and signing 7-8:30 p.m., North Gate, Rm. 105, Friday. Admission is free. … Continue reading »
Work starts on new Berkeley Art Museum, to open in 2016
Construction work has begun on the new Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive which, all things going well, is slated to open in the summer of 2016, bringing bold contemporary architecture into the heart of Berkeley.
The UC Berkeley-owned museum, which includes the Pacific Film Theater, has raised $95 million worth of pledges towards the $100 million goal it needed to create a new home on Center St. at Oxford, the site of a former printing plant owned by the university. The new BAM/PFA is to be designed by New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, architects of New York’s High Line and several museums, including the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C.
BAM/PFA has been planning to move since 1997 when it was determined that its current building on Bancroft Way — built in 1970 and designed by Mario Ciampi — did not meet present-day seismic standards. It cannot be upgraded without eliminating open exhibition spaces required for the galleries. … Continue reading »
Barry McGee’s urban art takes over Berkeley Art Museum
The savage, often red-hued work of San Francisco artist Barry McGee, presented in a mid-career survey exhibition by the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA), threatens to take over.
Not content with consuming four galleries of the museum’s parking structure-like interior space, the man known generically as a “graffiti artist”— and more intentionally recognized as a leader in urban-inspired art — is stopping passers-by with “SNITCH”, painted in 25-feet spray-can font on the museum’s Bancroft Street façade.
McGee, who bears the tag name “Twist”, developed his skills on the streets. Refining and expanding his visual command while training as a painter and printmaker at the San Francisco Art Institute, he has an elegant mind and the full potential of a master draughtsman.
His brain-boggling torrent of expression, seen in solo exhibits at places like Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center in 1998 and San Francisco’s Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Gardens in 1994, catapulted his trademark “come closer/stay away” message onto the national stage. … Continue reading »
Reminder: First free Summer Cinema movie is tonight
This year’s Summer Cinema on Center Street, a free outdoor movie series, kicks off tonight, Saturday August 4, at 7:30pm.
The films, which are being projected onto the wall of the future Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, are all in the classic B-movie “mad scientist” genre.
Tonight’s screening is The Atomic Brain, in which an aging spinster finances the brain transplant experiments of a deranged scientist in the hope that her brain can be transplanted into the body of a younger woman.
The Summer Movie series takes place over three weekends in August and is organized jointly by Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive and the Downtown Berkeley Association. The event was launched last year and proved immensely popular, drawing up to 400 people to the Bank of America parking lot for each screening. … Continue reading »
Brainy B-movies at free Summer Cinema series
Demented surgeons who know no bounds, crazed doctors keeping brains alive, abductions and decapitations – you can tell Steve Seid had an enormous amount of fun putting together the program for this year’s Summer Cinema on Center Street, a free outdoor movie series which kicks off on Saturday August 4.
“I wanted something different from common currency films. I wanted to pull out some of our more disgraceful examples,” he says, laughing.
Seid, Video Curator at Pacific Film Archive, delved into the museum’s 18,000-strong collection of films to come up with his selection of 16-mm prints for the series, which takes place over three weekends in August and is organized jointly by Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive and the Downtown Berkeley Association. The event was launched last year and proved immensely popular, drawing up to 400 people to the Bank of America parking lot for each screening.
The films, which will be shown on the wall of the future Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, are all in the classic B-movie “mad scientist” genre. … Continue reading »
Babette’s feast: Finding fine fare at Berkeley Art Museum
Oakland’s loss is Berkeley’s gain: local chefs Joan Ellis and Patrick Hooker were exploring opening a venture called Babette’s Table on Temescal’s hipster Telegraph Avenue, but, for a variety of reasons, the deal for the upscale restaurant-grocery-café space fell through.
So the partners in work and life started scouting around for places where they might serve up seasonal, rustic grub. Via the local food-folk grapevine they learned that the owner of Oakland’s Remedy Coffee, who, as well as a Telegraph spot had also set up shop in the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) café space, was looking to sell.
And so Babette at BAM was born. Seven months on, the café has garnered critical acclaim and a loyal following. The café serves breakfast (like bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches, steel-cut oatmeal with apricots, cranberries, and toasted pistachios, and baked goods such as fruit-filled pastries), lunch, and coffee and sweet treats into the early afternoon. … Continue reading »
The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley this weekend
LET WORDS INSPIRE For more than 10 years the WriterCoach Connection has brought one-on-one writing support to thousands of middle school and high school students in Berkeley and beyond. The organization is hosting its annual Read-and-Write-a-thon at King Middle School on Saturday to raise funds for operations and to expand to Richmond next year. For 10 hours, an ever-changing cast of teachers and students will read poetry, prose, drama and fiction. Go listen to their amazing work. If you can’t go, you can donate here.
HEAR THE DRUMS Taiko master Kenny Endo and jazz drummer Akira Tana are among the musicians performing this weekend at the 63rd annual Satsuki Bazaar and Arts Festival at the the Berkeley Buddhist Temple, 2121 Channing Way. The bazaar will feature a variety of Japanese, Hawaiian and Asian foods, including sushi, udon noodles, loco moco, kalua pork, curry rice, shave ice and American fare such as hot dogs, hamburgers and Portobello mushroom burgers. The festival runs from 3:00 to 9:00 pm on Saturday, May 19 and from noon to 7:00 pm on Sunday May 20. … Continue reading »
Berkeley Art Museum’s architect talks
By Preeti Talwai
“Our work started out of a museum wall,” said architect Elizabeth Diller on April 18, beginning the last lecture in the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design’s spring series. Addressing an audience that ran the gamut from students to experienced professionals in the field, she spoke that evening of her multifaceted work, including our very own new Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive.
Leapfrogging across the world with a variety of highly acclaimed projects, ranging from installations to museums, Diller – and her collaborators at their New York based firm, Diller Scofidio + Renfro – have now landed in our own backyard with their design for the new Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archives. The evening’s whirlwind survey of their multifaceted projects – which Diller summarized as “we just do a lot of different things” – shed light on and contextualized the project that is planned as a significant part of downtown Berkeley’s revival.
The BAM/PFA project is planned as a significant part of downtown Berkeley’s revival. The 82,000 sq ft space to be nestled between Center, Oxford, and Addison streets, is an example of the rejuvenation and occupation of existing sites that Diller states is “an important sustainable way to think.” Its $100 million design embraces the existing Art-Deco style printing plant, an “industrial shed”, and a new structure. … Continue reading »
Berkeley buildings are winners in architecture awards
The San Francisco chapter of the American Institute of Architects recently announced the winners of its 2012 Design Awards, and four Berkeley projects were awarded in the progam, from a total of 26 across the Bay Area.
Mark Cavagnero Associates won a Merit Award in the Interior Architecture category for their renovation of UC Berkeley’s Durant Hall. Leger Wanaselja Architecture received a Merit award in the Energy and Sustainability category for the partners’ own home, the McGee Salvage House on McGee Street in central Berkeley. In the same category, Noll & Tam Architects won a citation award for the YMCA-PG&E Teen Center in downtown Berkeley. And Diller Scofidio + Renfro/EHDD Architecture received a Merit award in the Unbuilt Design category for their designs for the forthcoming Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive.
John King, Urban Design Critic at the San Francisco Chronicle said Berkeley did particularly well this year. “This is a large number for Berkeley.” But he cautions that this doesn’t necessarily mean an affirmation of shifting Berkeley design trends. … Continue reading »
