Institutional Video

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (the Museums), which encompass the de Young and the Legion of Honor, premiered the benefit On the Edge this past Friday, November 5, 2021. This new annual marquee fundraising event honored pioneering feminist artist Judy Chicago, whose exhibition Judy Chicago: A Retrospective is on view at the de Young museum, and Oakland-based artist and landscape designer Walter Hood, whose Hood Design Studio created the gardens for the de Young’s new building in 2005, for their extraordinary achievements and commitment to the arts community.

On the Edge honored the de Young’s 125th anniversary in 2020 and celebrated the next centenary at the Museums. After an 18-month postponement, this inaugural event gathered more than 300 luminaries from the Bay Area’s art, design, tech, fashion, and philanthropic communities, raising $1.8 million to support the Museums’ innovative programming, with a special focus on developing community-centric activities and strong exhibitions that amplify diverse perspectives.

Event co-chairs included Kate Harbin Clammer and Adam Clammer, Kathryn and Bo Lasater, Amy and Drew McKnight, Jessica and Jason Moment, and Allison Speer as well as honorary chair Diane B. Wilsey.

“Upon arriving in San Francisco in 2018, I was immediately struck by the chemistry of art, design, activism, and innovation that is specifically unique to the Bay Area,” stated Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “On the Edge gives us an opportunity to honor this legacy and to toast to a future where the fusing of these sectors is ever more significant.”

The event welcomed artists and guests such as:

Artists, art world, musicians, and writers: Judy Chicago (artist), Kevin Kwan (author), Wangechi Mutu (artist), Rashaad Newsome (artist), Enrique Chagoya (artist), Sterling Ruby (artist), Ranu Mukherjee (artist), Sarah Thornton (art-world luminary), Xavier F. Salomon (deputy director, the Frick Collection), Thomas P. Campbell and Phoebe Campbell, and Max Hollein.

Tech: Mike (cofounder, Instagram) and Kaitlyn Krieger, Sir Nicholas Clegg (vice president of global affairs, Meta), Parker Harris (cofounder, Salesforce), Bakari and Safiya Adams (Microsoft, co-founder Tech, Now What?), Omid Kordestani (member of the board of directors, Twitter), and Lorraine Twohill (CMO, Google).

SF philanthropists: Alexis and Trevor Traina, Jessica and Jason Moment, Carolyn Chang, Kate Harbin Clammer and Adam Clammer, Lisa and Doug Goldman, Jason and Matthew Goldman, Mary Beth Shimmon, Juliet de Baubigny (angel investor), Daniel Lurie, Cynthia and John Gunn.

Fashion: Marco Bizzarri (president and CEO, Gucci), Susan Chokachi (CEO, Gucci Americas), Hamish Bowles (editor-at-large, Vogue), Sobia Shaikh, Gela Nash Taylor (fashion designer, Juicy Couture), and John Taylor (musician, Duran Duran).

The program kicked off with cocktails, exhibition viewings, and opening remarks from director and CEO Thomas P. Campbell, who highlighted the Museums’ offered programming to engage with the ideas of our time. London N. Breed, mayor of San Francisco, welcomed guests to the event and introduced honoree Walter Hood. Kevin Kwan, international bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians, introduced honoree Judy Chicago. Dinner was served by Taste Catering, and event design was executed by Bronson Van Wyck of Van Wyck & Van Wyck. Throughout the night, guests were enthralled with performances and music from San Francisco’s La Doña, as well as DJ Kiss and DJ Dre Ngozi.

About Judy Chicago
Judy Chicago is an artist, author, educator, and humanist whose work and life are models for an enlarged definition of art, an expanded role for the artist and women’s rights to freedom of expression. Born in Chicago, she attended the University of California, Los Angeles. Judy Chicago’s work is in numerous private and institutional collections, including the British Museum, London; Brooklyn Museum; the Hammer Museum, University of California, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; National Gallery, Washington, DC; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; and Tate, London. Chicago lives and works in Belen, New Mexico. Her exhibition Judy Chicago: A Retrospective is now on view at the de Young museum through January 9, 2022.

About Walter Hood
Walter Hood is a landscape and public artist creating urban spaces that resonate with and enrich the lives of current residents while also honoring communal histories. Hood’s firm, Hood Design Studio, is a cultural practice committed to creating environments in which people live, work, and play. The studio practice engages the urban landscape, where a collective density of inhabitants share physical, social, political, and economic resources. This multidimensional context is the setting for the development of powerful sculpted expressions that explore site-specific social and environmental processes. Landscapes and built elements emerge as improvised acts, familiar yet reshaped into something new. Hood Design Studio designed the gardens for the de Young’s Herzog & de Meuron building, opened in 2005, providing a visual extension of the surrounding park into the museum and two sculpture gardens, anchoring the museum on each side. Walter Hood received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2019 and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize ($250,000). Hood’s upcoming work includes the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, the Oakland Museum of California redesign of the garden terraces, and an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, titled Reconstructions.

About the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco oversee the de Young museum, located in Golden Gate Park, and the Legion of Honor, in Lincoln Park. It is the largest public arts institution in San Francisco, and one of the most visited arts institutions in the United States.

The de Young originated from the 1894 California Midwinter International Exposition in Golden Gate Park and was established as the Memorial Museum in 1895. It was later renamed in honor of Michael H. de Young, who spearheaded its creation. The present copper-clad landmark building, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, opened in October 2005. Reflecting an active conversation among cultures, perspectives, and time periods, the collections on view include American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts from the 17th to the 21st centuries; arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas; costume and textile arts; and international modern and contemporary art.

The Legion of Honor was modeled after the neoclassical Palais de la Légion d’Honneur, in Paris. The museum, designed by George Applegarth, opened in 1924 on a bluff in Lincoln Park overlooking the Golden Gate. It offers unique insight into the art historical, political, and social movements of the previous 4,000 years of human history, with holdings including ancient art from the Mediterranean basin; European painting, sculpture, and decorative arts; and the largest collection of works on paper in the American West.

Media Contact:
Press Office \ press@famsf.org