The M.H. de Young Memorial Museum will close the doors to its earthquake-damaged building for the last time on December 31, 2000 to make way for a new museum that will open in 2005. A series of special events planned for the week of December 26 – 31 will allow the public to bid farewell to the old facility and celebrate the de Young and its role in the community. During the final week the admission fee to the de Young will be waived, and visitors will be allowed to take flash photographs. Programs will include photo opportunities for the public and family, children’s activities, a 24-hour “museum marathon,” a midnight tour, and closing ceremonies. Museum visitors will also be able to view the special exhibitions The de Young Museum: A Work in Progress, which uses historic photographs to chronicle the history of the de Young museum and its buildings, and A New de Young in Golden Gate Park: Concept Plan by Herzog and de Meuron, which show plans and renderings of the new de Young by architects Herzog & de Meuron and landscape designer Walter Hood.

Schedule of events

Farewell week at the old de Young museum

December 26 – 31, 2000

Farewell week features include:

• Open photography, no flash photo permits required
• Free admission to museum for all
• Special programming relating to historical periods
• Museum store sale
• Special related exhibitions (until December 31):
• A Work in Progress: The Evolution of the de Young Museum Buildings
• A New de Young in Golden Gate Park: Concept Plan by Herzog and de Meuron

Tuesday, December 26, 2000: “The de Young in the 1890s – 1910s”

• 10 am – 5 pm: museum open
• 10:30 am – noon: kids’ art activity: memory coloring books
• 2 – 4 pm: ragtime music by Marty Eggers and Virginia Tichenor
• 1 – 2 pm: Mary Sano and Her Isadora Duncan Dancers
• 1 pm: “History of the de Young” docent slide lecture, Gallery 20

Wednesday, December 27, 2000: “The de Young in the 1920s – 1930s”

• 10 am – 5 pm: museum open
• 10:30 am – noon: kids’ art activity: Trompe l’Oeil bulletin boards
• 1 – 2 pm: 20s and 30s music by the Red Garter Band
• 1 pm: “History of the de Young” docent slide lecture, Gallery 20

Thursday, December 28, 2000: “The de Young in the 1940s – 1950s”

• 10 am – 5 pm: museum open
• 10:30 am – noon: kids’ art activity: memory coloring books
• 1 pm: “History of the de Young” docent slide lecture, Gallery 20
• 2 – 4 pm: 40s and 50s music by the David Hardiman Sextet

Friday, December 29, 2000: “The de Young in the 1960s – 1970s”

• 10 am – 5 pm: museum open
• 10:30 am – noon: kids’ art activity: Trompe l’Oeil bulletin boards
• 1 pm: “History of the de Young” docent slide lecture, Gallery 20
• 2 – 4 pm: 60s and 70s music by the David Hardiman Sextet

Saturday, December 30, 2000: “The de Young in the 1980s – today”

• 10 am: museum marathon; de Young open continuously through Sunday, December 31.
• 10:30 am – noon: kids’ art activity: memory coloring books
• 1 – 2 pm: slide lecture, Trustees Auditorium, “History of the de Young,” Robert Judson Clark, professor emeritus, department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University
• 2 – 4 pm: world music by John Santos and Friends
• 6 – 9 pm: cash bar
• 6 – 8 pm: swing music by Once Over Lightly
• 11 pm – 2 am: West African Orisha ceremony, African Galleries
• 12 am: midnight docent tour

Sunday, December 31, 2000: Farewell Day, “The de Young in the Future”

• 12 am – 11 am: multidenominational “Rites of Passage;” various cultures will be represented, including, but not limited to:
• Aztec dancers
• Guatemalan Mayan
• West African
• Pacific Islander
• California Native American
• Religious Society of Friends (Quaker)
• 11 am – noon: Japanese bell-ringing ceremony (Asian Art Museum)
• 1:15 pm: photo opportunity for public in Hearst Court
• 2 – 4 pm: formal farewell ceremony; themes: For the Children and Future Generations; New Beginnings, Metamorphosis, Celebration of the Past, Marching into the Future
• Participants include:
• John Handy Band with young guest artists
• Kyo Won Han, baritone, San Francisco Opera Center, with the San Francisco Boys Chorus
• Jennifer Wey (10-year-old virtuoso violinist, San Francisco Conservatory of Music)
• Ryan Houston (14-year-old singing sensation, Branson School)
• MacTarnahan’s Prince Charles Pipe Band, Junior Corps
• St. Mary’s Chinese Girls Drum and Bell Corps
• Leigh Marshall, (10-year-old artist), lead artist for Arte di Gesso, sidewalk chalk drawing by young people (co-sponsored with the North Beach Chamber of Commerce)
• Whitney Spencer (13-year old poet, San Francisco Arts Commission Writers’ Corps)
• Special tributes by directors of sister institutions, including the Asian Art Museum, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the San Francisco Zoo, and the San Francisco Opera
• 4 pm: John Handy Band
• 5 pm: museum closes to the public until 2005

The Asian Art Museum will resume normal admission fees on January 1, 2001. It will remain open to the public until October 7, 2001. The Asian Art Museum will relocate from its current site to a new facility in San Francisco’s Civic Center in Fall, 2002.