If you’re going to San
Francisco - or if you’re lucky enough to live there - the Haight
Street Art Center (HSAC), a first-of-its-kind poster print shop and
gallery that supports a collective of poster artists, is a must visit.
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| Dennis Larkins' incredible "Eyeconic" flies high above a wall of rock posters. |
With 7,000 square feet of gallery
exhibition space, HSAC is one of the largest galleries devoted to
poster art in the United States. In addition to the print shop, the Center features
community engagement facilities, including a classroom for teaching poster art
techniques, a special events space, and a large gallery. Permanent and
temporary exhibitions will be free of charge to the public, and the Center and
its artists will sell silkscreen and offset prints.
Founded on a cooperative
operational model, the HSAC features a state-of-the-art print shop to be
managed by and for artists. The Center’s business model offers artists low
overhead costs to improve the economics for creating and selling poster art.
Exercising public art’s proven power to attract, inspire and
connect, HSAC will serve not only the Lower Haight, but the city at large
with educational programming for the San Francisco
community: from students to seniors, apprentices to master artists, and the
local residents to visitors.
The Art of Consciousness
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| Mariusz Knorowski, Chief Curator at Poster Museum at Wilanów, Warsaw, Poland. |
The inaugural exhibition, “The Art of
Consciousness,” features more than 90 seminal works from 1965 to 1967. On display will be never-before-seen Family Dog original art
from the “Big Five” of San Francisco rock poster art – Rick Griffin, Alton
Kelley, Victor Moscoso, Stanley Mouse,
and Wes Wilson – whose vision inspired
thousands of young people in San Francisco and provided the visual vocabulary
for the vibrant community that formed in the Haight-Ashbury.
“It covers the evolution of poster art before the Summer of
Love, from the Seed and Are We Next in 1965 through the psychedelic Avalon and
Fillmore posters of the spring of 1967,” said Moonalice guitarist and poster
philanthropist, Roger McNamee. “Check it out!”
The Art of Consciousness” runs through September. Entrance
is free. Regular hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Sunday. 215 Haight
St., San Francisco: https://haightstreetart.org
About Haight Street Art Center
The Haight Street Art Center (HSAC) is a 501(c)3 non-profit
San Francisco arts collective established to promote poster art production and
education. The Center’s community outreach relates to poster art history and
cultural impact along with a deep commitment to extending San Francisco’s proud
heritage of publicly accessible artwork—artwork created to celebrate, advocate,
and connect people.
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| Left to Right: Roger McNamee, Jeremy Fish and Peter McQuaid at the Grand Opening of the HSAC. |
