Art Gallery
Some beautiful things come out of fire. Just ask George Krevsky of the George Krevsky Gallery in San Francisco, which won for favorite art gallery in the Bay Area.
Krevsky decided to open the gallery in downtown San Francisco after the Oakland Hills fire of 1978, because he realized he “had a point of view that was not being expressed” in the area. The gallery specializes in narrative art and social realism, inspired by New Deal-era federal arts projects. Art in the gallery ranges from pieces made in 1929 to those created just this year.
This month the gallery is showing the work of Ruth Gikow, a Jewish WPA painter. In September, Krevsky plans to display the work of Israeli painter Michael Kovner.
FIRST PLACE
Bay Area
George Krevsky
Gallery
San Francisco
(415) 397-9748
www.georgekrevskygallery.com
Live Theater
We in the Bay Area have a flair for the dramatic, and so it is no small honor we impart on these favorite live theater winners: Berkeley Repertory Theatre in the East Bay, Marin Theatre Company in Marin/Sonoma, American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and TheatreWorks in the South Bay/Peninsula.
Berkeley Rep, the largest local theatrical organization, is about to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Associate Artistic Director Les Waters says that the theater chooses “plays that we hope embrace and challenge the community we live in.” In the upcoming season look for George Bernard Shaw’s “Heartbreak House” and a one-woman piece performed by Carrie Fisher (aka Princess Leia).
San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater just celebrated its own 40th anniversary. One of the first regional theater companies to win a Tony, ACT’s productions, says marketing and public relations director Janette Gallegos, “absolutely take you to a different place,” with a core group of actors whom the audience enjoys seeing in very different roles. Coming up this season is a production of “Sweeney Todd,” some David Mamet, Sam Sheppard and Gogol.
Mill Valley’s Marin Theatre Company is always looking to shake things up, says Managing Director Gabriella Calicchio. They have a new artistic director and are working hard, through a number of awards, to help playwrights produce new works. The awards allow established artists to work on fresh material, and unproduced artists to get creative.
TheatreWorks in Mountain View has two theaters and focuses on musicals and new works. Artistic Director Robert Kelley say. TheatreWorks productions are always “high energy” — sometimes new pieces, and sometimes “the great plays of the past” reinterpreted. Look out especially for William Gibson’s “Golda” and Tony Kushner’s “Caroline, or Change.”
Second-place winners were 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Marin/Sonoma, the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in the East Bay and Traveling Jewish Theatre in San Francisco.
FIRST PLACE
San Francisco
American
Conservatory Theater
(415) 749-2ACT
www.act-sfbay.org
East Bay
Berkeley Repertory
Theatre
(510) 647-2949
www.berkeleyrep.org
South Bay/Peninsula
TheatreWorks
Mountain View
(650) 463-1960
www.theatreworks.org
Marin/Sonoma
Marin Theatre
Company
Mill Valley
(415) 388-5208
www.marintheatre.org
SECOND PLACE
San Francisco
Traveling Jewish
Theatre
(415) 522-0786
www.atjt.com
East Bay
Dean Lesher Regional
Center for the Arts
Walnut Creek
(925) 943-SHOW
www.dlrca.org
Marin/Sonoma
142 Throckmorton
Theatre
Mill Valley
(415) 383-9600
www.142throckmortontheatre.com
Live Music Venue
Sometimes j. readers just need to relax to the sound of music. Their favorite locations to do so are CenterStage at the Osher Marin JCC, Freight and Salvage in the East Bay, Fox Theater in the South Bay/Peninsula and Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.
Linda Bolt, managing director at the Osher Marin JCC’s CenterStage in San Rafael, says the programming is “very eclectic.” Not only is there world music, chamber music and opera at the three different venues, literary artists perform as well.
Going to Freight & Salvage in Berkeley is “like having a house concert,” says Lisa Manning, who does marketing for the venue. It seats only 200, which contributes to a special dynamic between performer and audience, Manning says. Freight & Salvage is known best for its folk and world music, and welcomes all ages.
Every band that comes into owner John Anagnostou’s Fox Theatre in Redwood City loves it as much as its audience. Anagnostou built the adjoining Little Fox in the fall of 2002, and it’s become a favorite, too. Dave Brubeck will soon come to the big theater, which has made Redwood City into quite a happening place.
The San Francisco Symphony finds a great home in Davies Symphony Hall. Davies Hall hosts 230 symphony performances every year, with almost 600,000 people attending. SFS Director of Communications Gary Ginstling says that “it is gratifying to see Bay Area audiences so enthusiastic about live orchestral music.”
Second-place winners were the Fillmore in San Francisco, Yoshi’s in the East Bay, Shoreline Amphitheatre in the South Bay/Peninsula, and Larkspur Café Theater in Marin/Sonoma.
FIRST PLACE
San Francisco
Davies Symphony Hall
(415) 552-8000
www.sfsymphony.org
East Bay
Freight & Salvage
Berkeley
(510) 548-1761
www.thefreight.org
South Bay/Peninsula
Fox Theatre
Redwood City
(650) 369-4119
www.foxdream.com
Marin/Sonoma
CenterStage
Osher Marin Jewish
Community Center
San Rafael
(415) 444-8000
www.marinjcc.org/performing_arts.html
SECOND PLACE
San Francisco
The Fillmore
(415) 346-6000
East Bay
Yoshi’s
Oakland
(510) 238-9200
www.yoshis.com/jazzclub
South Bay/Peninsula
Shoreline
Amphitheatre
Mountain View
(650) 967-3000
Marin/Sonoma
Larkspur Café Theatre
Larkspur
(415) 924-6107
Museum
In From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,” Claudia decides to run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. j. readers are sure she would have run to these top Bay Area museums just as quickly.
The Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, winner for Marin/Sonoma, is the only museum where kids can dig for treasure, help construct a miniature Golden Gate Bridge and learn about a black cowboy who “did not look like John Wayne.” Best of all, says marketing and public relations manager Jennifer Caleshu, there is nothing at the museum “where a parent has to say ‘no, don’t do that!’”
The scene at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford is calmer, but always changing. This winner in the South Bay/Peninsula opens an exhibit called “Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World” from Aug. 16 to Sept. 1 when it will head to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. You can see it for free, like everything else at this museum.
In the East Bay, the Oakland Museum of California celebrates our statehood with exhibits on art, history and natural sciences. Gail Bernstein, the museum’s marketing coordinator, calls it “a very family-friendly museum.” One Friday a month, the museum is open late, transforming itself into a home for live music, yoga, open exhibits and other delights.
In San Francisco, the Museum of Modern Art, says public relations manager Libby Garrison, aims to bring “the contemporary art world” to those who live in the Bay Area. The MOMA is bringing the “tunnels and mirrors and water” of Olafur Eliasson to our area for an upcoming exhibit, and right now you can see Matisse works on display through mid-September.
The de Young Museum won second place in San Francisco, and the Judah L. Magnes Museum ranked No. 2 in the East Bay.
FIRST PLACE
San Francisco
Museum of
Modern Art
(415) 357-4000
www.sfmoma.org
East Bay
Oakland Museum
of California
Oakland
(510) 238-2200
www.museumca.org
South Bay/Peninsula
Cantor Arts Center
Stanford
(650) 723-4177
www.museum.stanford.edu
Marin/Sonoma
Bay Area
Discovery Museum
Sausalito
(415) 339-3900
www.baykidsmuseum.org
SECOND PLACE
San Francisco
de Young Museum
(415) 750-3600
www.thinker.org/deyoung
East Bay
Judah L.
Magnes Museum
Berkeley
(510) 549-6950
www.magnes.org
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California