PRESS RELEASE
Media Contact: Kate Eilertsen, Director
(415) 775-0991, ext. 104
email: kate@mocfa.org
MUSEUM OF CRAFT AND FOLK ART ANNOUNCES MOVE TO THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN SAN
FRANCISCO
Will be part of an “Arts Mecca”
April 22, 2005, San Francisco
The Museum of Craft and Folk Art announced today it will move to a central downtown San Francisco location (map) by the end of 2005. The new museum space will be strategically located within a few-block radius of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the new Museum of the African Diaspora, the future Contemporary Jewish Museum and the future Mexican Museum, creating a rich feast of diverse arts experiences.
Soon to be opened, “Yerba Buena Lane” will link Mission and Market Streets between 3rd and 4th Streets, and was selected as the ideal location for the Museum of Craft and Folk Art by the museum’s staff and Board of Directors. Millennium Partners and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency supported the successful relocation of the museum.
“We are thrilled about this move, not only because the new space will be in close proximity to the extraordinary collections of the other museums and should draw hundreds of thousands of additional art lovers every year, but because it will allow the museum to define clearly the link between folk art and contemporary craft,” said Kate Eilertsen, Director of the Museum of Craft and Folk Art. “Part of the new space will house a high quality contemporary craft gallery and part will feature exhibitions of folk art. Visitors will experience the essential relationship between folk art and contemporary craft, both physically and intellectually,” she said.
While critics and connoisseurs of contemporary art engage in debates
about the relative values of contemporary craft, folk art and fine
art, the particular challenge of the Museum of Craft and Folk Art is
to help the public see and understand the vital links between them. “One
of the most exciting elements of our new space is that we will have
an opportunity to demonstrate clearly how folk art, contemporary craft
and contemporary art are all parts of the same continuum,” said
Eilertsen.
For 23 years, the Museum of Craft and Folk Art has provided the Bay
Area with unique exhibitions and educational programs that reach
across lines to inspire a variety of ethnically diverse communities.
The new site is close to subway and bus stops and will be accessible to more people than ever before. Museum supporters are especially excited about the new location because it will enhance the opportunities for further arts audience development. A few hundred thousand guests from other museums, shops, businesses and around the world visiting this central location of San Francisco may now pass through the museum’s doors.
“We like to think of the area as a new and emerging contemporary art Mecca,” said Museum of Craft and Folk Art founder Gertrud Parker.