SOMArts Cultural Center has been the central hub for San Francisco’s most radical and socially-conscious art and has been greatly shaped by the beloved late curator, artist, and mentor René Yañez. In 2022, SOMArts launched the René Yañez Legacy Fund, which supports two of his passions: nurturing emerging and mid-career artists, and caring for SOMArts’ garden he tended to as early as 2005.
Donations fund curator stipends for our large-scale exhibitions and artist stipends for SOMArts’ annual Día de Los Muertos exhibition, of which René is the founding curator. Proceeds for our garden will go toward new growth, ongoing maintenance, and landscaping.
Make a donation to the René Yañez Legacy Fund online or through mail:
In 2024, SOMArts had the driveway completely redone to meet ADA accessibility requirements, a city-mandated project for visitor safety. This major construction also required extensive changes to the garden.
Thanks to your donation–and digging deeply into our general operating funds–we were able to hire landscape designers and gardeners to revitalize the garden space that René cultivated with so much care.
There is still significant work to be done. By making a donation today, we can continue to restore more of the space that René made so beautiful!
The René Yañez Legacy Fund Committee
Maria Jenson, Executive and Artist Director, SOMArts
Trisha Lagaso Goldberg, SOMArts Board Chair
Dara Katrina Del Rosario, Communications Director, SOMArts
Rio Yañez, Curator, Dia de Los Muertos, SOMArts
Reneé Baldocchi, René Yañez Legacy Fund Committee Member
REMEMBERING RENÉ AND THE BRIDGES HE CREATED
René Yañez, the Latino artist, curator, producer, mentor, and community activist who established important bridges between radical politics and art, from the late 1960s to the present. He lived in the Mission District from 1970-2018 and in 1970, he co-founded Galería de la Raza, a non-profit organization and community-focused gallery that features Latino and Chicano artists and their allies. In the early 1970s, he was one of the first curators in the United States to introduce Mexico’s Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) as an important cultural celebration and with a contemporary focus. He was a huge admirer of Frida Kahlo and introduced her art through Galeria de la Raza and many other venues.
His curatorial efforts are hallmarked through leading San Francisco’s annual Dia de Los Muertos events since the early 1970’s, Cheech Marin’s well-received exhibition Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge, Chicano Now! American Expressions, and the well-known Great Tortilla Conspiracy whose legacy lives on through his son Rio Yañez, Jos Sances, and Art Hazelwood.
His relationship with other people of color art organizations is shown through his advocacy of the performance theater group Culture Clash, performance artist Guillermo Gomez Peña, and many other notable artists. He worked with local Latino and Chicano organizations such as ASCO, Royal Chicano Air Force (R.C.A.F.), and The Mexican Museum.
“Throughout his life, he provided artists with opportunities, resources, and mentorship to make art accessible in everyday life and we continue to embody his nurturing spirit with the legacy fund.”
Maria Jenson, SOMArts Creative & Executive Director
“Many of Rene’s friends want to make sure that René’s legacy continues and that he is remembered. Mexican culture holds the belief that our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them. That is the foundation of Dia de Los Muertos and that is the reason we are launching the René Yañez Legacy Fund.”
Renee Baldocchi, René Yañez Legacy Fund committee member