2014 SFUSD Arts Festival: 2D Art

For the second year in a row, the San Francisco Unified School District is holding a nine-day arts festival at the Asian Art Museum, with drawings, sculpture, and musical performances scattered throughout the building. The first floor is where the 2D art has been installed, including Horse in a Forest, made with tempera above by Elena Berenstein, Grade 6, studying with teacher Anna Pevzner at Kruzhok Visual Arts.



The bulk of the paintings and drawings are in the "education room" off the main lobby, and though Gertrude Stein and The Louvre liked to cram art onto their walls all the way to the ceiling, the arrangement here is not doing the young artists any favors.



Thankfully, a selection of works has been installed more gracefully in the lobby near the Yoga special exhibit, and some of the pieces are precociously amazing, such as the Hockney Style Landscape, an acrylic by Aidan Dowling, Grade 4, studying with Gloria Carillo at Claire Lilienthal School.



10th grader Brittny Farmer-Burkett used moveable cut paper to create Temptrests of Hearts at Mission High School with teacher Shannon Larson.



Molly Garrett, Grade 7 at Buena Vista/Horace Mann under teacher Megan McMahon created the exquisite chalk pastel above of Ramon the Pelican.



There were a number of remarkable self-portraits, including 12th grader Ada Chen above from the Asawa School of the Arts under Pyllis Ciment.



Charles Alston painted the Self Portrait above in oil as an 11th grader at Asawa School of the Arts with teacher Tom Mogensen.



A startlingly perfect watercolor, Trees at Dark, was created by 3rd grader Vitesse Disney from Argonne Elementary with Ms. Cox as the teacher.



Be sure not to miss the Book Arts display case at the north end of the lobby where Lowell High 12th grader Qing Qing Su has created a brilliantly political piece called Whitewash under teacher Patricia Copeland.



Admission is free at the museum all this week, with musical performances every morning in the large Samsung Hall on the second floor. There is also an awards party involving a number of performances this evening (Thusday) starting at 4:45 PM to 8:30. Check it out.