The 80th anniversary of the opening of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was celebrated last year, and this year is the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Canessa Gallery, in collaboration with the Living New Deal, will host an exhibit “Building Bridges, Not Walls” during the months of July and August. This exhibit acknowledges the contributions of the multicultural population of the Bay Area and its role in creating world-renown infrastructure. It will include Bay Area artists, poets and photographers whose work celebrates these contributions. Three themes will be highlighted to celebrate the bridges, the people who built them and the impact on our lives today: Immigrants, Diversity and Internationalism. The exhibit opens July 7, 2017 and will include paintings, drawings, photos, prints, collage and short poems. A public opening event will be on July 14, 2017.
Bridge worker
Alfred Zampa,1987
A companion exhibit also during July and August at the History Center of San Francisco Main Library, 6th Floor, will display and interpret historic photos and objects from the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and other historic San Francisco bridges – the Golden Gate, Lefty O’Doul and Alvord Lake. Public programs are planned for both venues. These events celebrate the immigrant engineers who designed the bridges, the children of immigrants who built the older bridges, the woman and multiculturally diverse workers who built the new bridge, and the internationalism of the Golden Gate International Exposition and of the founding conference of the United Nations. This exhibit opens on July 15, 2017.
In conjunction with the exhibit, a screening of Bridging Urban America will be on July 26 (Wednesday) 6:00 – 7:45 PM (Free) SF Main Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin Street. This 2016 film by Basia Myszynski and Leonard Myszynski celebrates Ralph Modjeski, the chief consulting engineer for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Canessa Gallery, San Francisco
July 7-August 2017
Opening Reception Friday, July 14History Center, San Francisco Main Library
July 15-August 2017
Film screening July 26
Event details
Location:
Canessa Gallery Registration:
https://www.canessa.org/