Food for farm workers
The Mission Food Hub’s food drive will end Saturday with a caravan to the Central Valley to carry food to farm workers.
The hub’s food drive, which launched at the end of March on Cesar Chavez’s birthday, has so far collected 92 pallets of food that it will deliver to nine small towns.
The hub is still looking for additional trucks and drivers for the caravan, and it is also welcoming volunteers at 701 Alabama St. to help with the following tasks:
- Thursday: Boxing food from 12 to 6 p.m.
- Friday: Boxing food from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Friday: Loading up the trucks from 5 to 8 p.m.
- Saturday: Loading up trucks from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.
The hub will continue to take food donations. For those interested in donating money, checks can be mailed to CANA-Farm Workers Caravan, 1333 Florida Street, San Francsico, CA 94110.
Exploratorium sets reopening date
The Exploratorium will reopen on July 1, with a members-only preview from June 24 to 27, capping off a 15-month closure.
Though most other city museums reopened in March, the Exploratorium stayed shuttered, concerned that its unique hands-on experience could pose a risk of infection.
All six of the museum’s galleries will reopen in July, with the exception of the tactile dome, where visitors guide their way through the exhibit in the dark using only their sense of touch. Staff have also added spaces where visitors can reflect on the social impacts of the pandemic area and an enhanced outdoor gallery.
The museum will reopen at 50 percent capacity, and social distancing and masks will be required for all visitors. Tickets run between $20 and $30 and can be reserved on the Exploratorium’s website: https://www.exploratorium.edu/.
“Dust and Bones” workshop this Friday
Calling all artists and art aficionados: The David Ireland House is hosting a skill-building workshop on Friday at noon to educate attendees about the language they can use when discussing problematic representation in art. The House’s dining room will be used as a case study.
Titled “Dust and Bones,” the workshop will be led by independent curator Shehab Awad, an artist from Cairo, Egypt, currently based in New York City. As part of the workshop, Awad will synthesize concepts from art criticism, their own life, and poetry in an effort to answer the questions “How can we develop clear language constructions around complex histories within the gazes of art and museology? Should we bury the bones of the skeletons in our closet or hang them up for everyone to see?
The event will be the House’s first entry in its Lunch Hour series, a program created to support staff in questioning their positions in the artistic field amid the evolving landscape of contemporary art.
The one-hour workshop will start with a 40-minute presentation followed by questions and discussion. Free spots can be reserved at this link.
The freshest party in a basket
Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA) will host a summer picnic on June 13 — advertised as “the city’s freshest party in a basket” — as a Covid-friendly replacement for its annual fundraising event, the Summer Bash.
In partnership with 30 Bay Area restaurants, bars and wineries, CUESA will create picnic baskets with bites and beverages from the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Each basket will include “7 impeccably crafted bites and 5 seasonable beverages,” and buyers can choose between three themes: berries, stone fruit or cucurbits.
Proceeds will go to CUESA’s farmers markets and education programs, as well as support the restaurant community.
Picnic baskets can be purchased on Eventbrite for $135, with discounts offered for purchasing multiple baskets. The baskets will be available for curbside pickup at the San Francisco Ferry Building or for home delivery throughout the Bay Area, for an additional fee.
Pandemic art exhibit launching in June
Root Division, located at 1131 Mission St., will present A Joy Unexpected in June, an exhibit exploring art made during the pandemic.
“The artists in A Joy Unexpected had to face the unthinkable over the last year and move forward,” the gallery wrote in a press release. “They did not recoil, but met the challenge with work, time in the studio, and an investigation into what their future might become while the world seemed to be changing around them.”
You can be the judge of that. The exhibition, curated by Tavarus Blackmon, will be on view in from June 9 to 26. Those interested in attending in person can email visit@rootdivision.org to schedule an appointment. Otherwise, you can view it online.
A virtual panel discussion about the exhibit will be held on June 17 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
The exhibition features installations, video work, sculpture and paintings, as well as pre-recorded artist interviews, performances and a panel discussion.