FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dara Katrina Del Rosario
Communications & Partnerships Manager
415-863-1414 x103, [email protected]

SOMArts 2020-2021 Curatorial Residents inspire action beyond the gallery walls

Wednesday, June 24, San Francisco, CA–SOMArts Cultural Center is excited to announce the eleventh season of the Curatorial Residency program. Designed to offer emerging to established curators tools to further their curatorial practice and explore timely social issues, SOMArts’ Curatorial Residents have transformed our large scale exhibition space into a site of collaborative creation and innovation for over 10 years.

Awarded through an open submission process, this unique program is a year-long incubator for curatorial research, mentorship, planning, and realization. SOMArts Curatorial Residency recipients receive the following support: a month-long exhibition with accompanying public programming, a project grant, and 9-months of planning and technical support, outreach assistance and professional mentorship provided by SOMArts’ staff.

The Curatorial Residents create multi-faceted exhibitions focused on local, national, and global concerns in one of San Francisco’s most recognizable gallery spaces. Bay Area Deaf Arts launches the Residency season in January 2021 with curator Antoine Hunter honoring the cultural creative practices rooted in the Deaf community. Fátima Ramírez, Josué Rojas, & Mauricio Ramírez’s multidisciplinary exhibition CARAVANA: Mobilizing Central American Art (1984–Present) examine the issues and political actions that directly impact the Central American community. Mother’s Bosom curated by Duygu Gün and Bengu Gün closes out the 2020-2021 Curatorial Residency season, exploring how lullabies embed cultural memory, norms, and identity.

“In these uncertain times, the 2020–2021 Curatorial Residencies exemplify San Francisco’s creative radical legacy, inviting us to take what we learn within the gallery space to implement collective social action. It’s an honor to work alongside this year’s cohort and witness their curatorial proposals become reality to help us to understand the critical moment we are in,” shares Maria Jenson, SOMArts’ Creative & Executive Director.

The following residencies will each culminate in a month-long exhibition and are integral to SOMArts’ exhibition programming in 2020–2021:

Bay Area Deaf Arts
Curated by Antoine Hunter

Opening Reception: January 14, 2021, 6-9pm
Exhibition Run: January 14–February 21, 2021

Bay Area Deaf Arts celebrate and center the art forms and cultural expression historically rooted in the Deaf community, raising Deaf awareness in non-Deaf populations, and inviting collaboration between Hearing and Deaf artists. Curated by renowned performer and activist Antoine Hunter, this exhibition asks us: Where are the voices of Deaf and Deaf people of color? What truths are we willing to listen to?

CARAVANA: Mobilizing Central American Art (1984–Present)
Curated by Fátima Ramírez, Mauricio Ramírez, &
Josué Rojas
Opening Reception: March 11, 2021, 6–9pm

Exhibition Run: March 10–Tuesday, April 15, 2021

A multidisciplinary intergenerational exhibit, CARAVANA: Mobilizing Central American Art (1984–Present) invites Central American and other artists from across the country to explore the impact of mass migration, family separation, and San Francisco’s legacy of political action and solidarity with Central America.

Sounds like Home
Curated by Duygu Gün and Bengü Gün

Opening Reception: July 15, 2021
Exhibition run: July 16–Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Sounds like Home uncover how lullabies can be a source of comfort when longing for home and place, challenges it’s subliminal messaging that reproduces oppressive power structures, and affirms that culture is fluid.

###
ABOUT SOMARTS CULTURAL CENTER

SOMArts Cultural Center, founded in 1979, cultivates access to the arts within the Bay Area by collaborating with community-focused artists and organizations. Together, we engage the power of the arts to provoke just and fair inclusion, cultural respect and civic participation.

SOMArts plays a vital role in the arts ecosystem by helping activate the arts citywide. We do this by providing space and production support for non-profit events, as well as fairs and festivals throughout the Bay Area, and offering a robust program of art exhibitions, classes, events and performances that are affordable and accessible to all. SOMArts’ exhibition programs receive critical support from the San Francisco Arts Commission and San Francisco Foundation and are sponsored in part by a grant from Grants for the Arts.
SOMArts is located at 934 Brannan Street—between 8th and 9th—within 2 blocks of 101, I-80, Muni lines, and bike paths.

For public information call 415-863-1414 or visit somarts.org. Stay connected by following us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.