In the June fog, public-art visionary Cheryl
Haines, in zippery black leather and with blue hair, stands out as the
only San Franciscan among a boatload of tourists riding the 3:55 ferry
to Alcatraz.
The boat docks and she blows right by the mandatory orientation, leaning into the wind as she marches up the road to an off-tour building marked "Penitentiary Laundry & Industries, 1941-1963." The door opens to a hauntingly quiet and empty room of paned glass and concrete, longer than a football field.
She stops to recall the time she saw an exhibition of 100 million ceramic sunflower seeds on the floor of a London gallery by the Chinese artist and political activist Ai Weiwei and is suddenly reminded why it has been worth six trips to China, a bureaucracy beyond belief; a $3 million funding push; and having her hair dyed blue to give her courage and keep her calm enough to bring the art of Ai to Alcatraz.
"This is my form of public service," says Haines, who has parlayed an influential 30-year career as an art dealer into a position as the city's impresario of site-specific art. Her latest, "@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz," which opens Sept. 27, will also be her most complex. The installation will feature seven large-scale works that will probably amount to the most extraordinary use of the old federal penitentiary since the Indian occupation of 1969.
The show is expected to launch Haines into the international realm and push her For-Site Foundation - whose credo is to create art and bring it to the people in places where they will trip over it - into the forefront of a major cultural shift.
"Art has been confined to museums and galleries, but she understands that the city itself is another form of the museum venue," says Richard Koshalek, retired director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. "What she is helping to do is establish a new kind of creative ecosystem for San Francisco. She is going to be a major player going forward in encouraging this frontline participation that goes beyond museums and art galleries."
On Monday, Haines, 58, returns from her sixth 12-hour flight to Beijing within the past year to visit Ai, who is under house arrest for tax evasion and has never seen Alcatraz in person. So Haines has hand delivered books, videos, photographs and architectural drawings of Alcatraz to his studio. She has also made the ferry ride to Alcatraz so many times that her hair now matches both the bay water and the paint in the prison psych ward.
It was two summers ago, right after Ai was released from jail. Haines had shown his work in her gallery and been part of demonstrations outside the Chinese Consulate here to protest his arrest. So she made the flight to Beijing just to ask Ai whether there was anything she could do to help lift his gloom.
"What if I brought you a prison," was her offer. "Yes. I would like that," was his response.
She had no idea whether she could ever deliver on her promise, but she'd delivered before. During the Summer of Love 1967 she'd driven cross-country with her parents, Roger and Sandra Haines, and her younger brother, David, in the family Oldsmobile to see the hippies in the Haight. A side trip brought them to the crooked block of Lombard Street and standing at its top, Haines said she would live here someday.
The boat docks and she blows right by the mandatory orientation, leaning into the wind as she marches up the road to an off-tour building marked "Penitentiary Laundry & Industries, 1941-1963." The door opens to a hauntingly quiet and empty room of paned glass and concrete, longer than a football field.
She stops to recall the time she saw an exhibition of 100 million ceramic sunflower seeds on the floor of a London gallery by the Chinese artist and political activist Ai Weiwei and is suddenly reminded why it has been worth six trips to China, a bureaucracy beyond belief; a $3 million funding push; and having her hair dyed blue to give her courage and keep her calm enough to bring the art of Ai to Alcatraz.
"This is my form of public service," says Haines, who has parlayed an influential 30-year career as an art dealer into a position as the city's impresario of site-specific art. Her latest, "@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz," which opens Sept. 27, will also be her most complex. The installation will feature seven large-scale works that will probably amount to the most extraordinary use of the old federal penitentiary since the Indian occupation of 1969.
Hot ticket
The Complex Art & Design online magazine called it "arguably the most anticipated show of the year." The Art Newspaper, printed in five countries, called it "the hottest ticket of the summer."The show is expected to launch Haines into the international realm and push her For-Site Foundation - whose credo is to create art and bring it to the people in places where they will trip over it - into the forefront of a major cultural shift.
"Art has been confined to museums and galleries, but she understands that the city itself is another form of the museum venue," says Richard Koshalek, retired director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. "What she is helping to do is establish a new kind of creative ecosystem for San Francisco. She is going to be a major player going forward in encouraging this frontline participation that goes beyond museums and art galleries."
On Monday, Haines, 58, returns from her sixth 12-hour flight to Beijing within the past year to visit Ai, who is under house arrest for tax evasion and has never seen Alcatraz in person. So Haines has hand delivered books, videos, photographs and architectural drawings of Alcatraz to his studio. She has also made the ferry ride to Alcatraz so many times that her hair now matches both the bay water and the paint in the prison psych ward.
9 months
"This is a major museum blockbuster-scale exhibition that would take two to three years to plan, and we are doing it in nine months" because the State Department delayed final approval, says Haines, who knows precisely when and where she got into this tangle.It was two summers ago, right after Ai was released from jail. Haines had shown his work in her gallery and been part of demonstrations outside the Chinese Consulate here to protest his arrest. So she made the flight to Beijing just to ask Ai whether there was anything she could do to help lift his gloom.
"What if I brought you a prison," was her offer. "Yes. I would like that," was his response.
She had no idea whether she could ever deliver on her promise, but she'd delivered before. During the Summer of Love 1967 she'd driven cross-country with her parents, Roger and Sandra Haines, and her younger brother, David, in the family Oldsmobile to see the hippies in the Haight. A side trip brought them to the crooked block of Lombard Street and standing at its top, Haines said she would live here someday.
At the time, she expected to make her move west as a dancer with the San Francisco Ballet.
She'd been a serious dance student since she was 5 growing up in rural
Binghamton, N.Y. Every summer, she attended the camp run by the New York City Ballet
and was on her way - right until the moment she was walking down the
street after dance class and felt a pop in her right knee.
She'd come with a boyfriend. That didn't last, but Haines did, working for an art dealer until she was able to open her own gallery on Folsom Street in 1987. The building was red tagged after the earthquake in 1989, so she advanced across Market Street to the top floor of 49 Geary, probably the most prominent gallery address in the city.
All gallery owners look for unknown talent to sign, but Haines has a knack for artists who are both unknown and unsellable to the home decorating market.
Her major find came in 1992, when she was browsing through the bookstore at SFMOMA and came upon the work of environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy.
"I was immediately smitten and knew this was an artist I had to work with," says Haines, who tracked the artist to his home in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and invited him to San Francisco, arranging lodging for his family with three art patrons. That led to his West Coast debut, an exhibition of earthen sculpture at Haines Gallery in 1992.
"Cheryl is one of the few dealers to care more about the artist than making a buck," says Randi Fisher, wife of SFMOMA board President Bob Fisher and a cultural and philanthropic powerhouse in her own right. She came to Haines Gallery to see the first Goldsworthy show and walked out with both a ball made of Manzanita twigs and a lasting friendship with Haines.
"She's so enthusiastic and passionate about her work that you can't say no to her," says Fisher, who tried and failed to decline Haines' offer to co-chair the $5,000-a-ticket opening-night party for "@Large." "I love the fact that she is always pushing the limits."
One example would be her elopement to Cambodia with Dan McCoy, a transportation engineer. Their wedding was performed by monks at a 12th century monastery in Angkor Wat. The guests were a mix of villagers and students from the San Francisco Art Institute, who happened to be there when the bride and groom emerged from the jungle in the dawn mist, riding elephants.
The newlyweds soon bought 50 acres without power, water or access 5 miles from the Gold Rush town of Nevada City. They cleared the land and put up a yurt, then a small dwelling and an artist's studio. They took a good look around, and that was the beginning of the For-Site Foundation.
"I decided the place was too special to keep as a private residence," Haines says. "I decided it would be a wonderful retreat area for artists."
The first For-Site foray was "Spire," a 100-foot pencil point by Goldsworthy in San Francisco's Presidio in 2008. Two years later, an elaborate group show called "Presidio Habitats" followed. Among the artists selected was Ai, who created eight delicate blue-and-white porcelain screech owl nests installed high in Cypress trees outside the general's residence at Fort Scott. One of those vases came down from the tree and now sits at the entryway of Haines' split-level condo in Noe Valley.
It is just Haines and her art there now. She and McCoy separated a few years ago, and Haines is warily re-entering the dating scene. She threw her Christmas party at a dive bar on Haight Street, drawing the usual mishmash of art collectors, museum curators and administrators with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the National Parks Service, who seemed amused by the setting but not amused enough to join the blue-haired and spike-heeled Haines on the dance floor, as she cavorted with the lead singer during the heavy metal cover ballads.
Her parents now live on the retreat in Nevada City, where Haines spends long weekends planning her next art in action.
"What I respect about her is her experimental instinct, which is needed more now than ever as a leadership characteristic in the art world," says Koshalek, who was also the founding director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and began following the work of Haines long before he met her. "She's not only a creative problem solver, but she's also an opportunity seeker. What she will do as this continues is she will make San Francisco an even more original place to live."
"Presidio Habitats" was followed in 2012 by "International Orange" at Fort Point to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge directly above the old brick fort.
"International Orange" was a tour de gale force, and Haines figured if she could withstand the wind in the courtyard, she could stand the stronger wind on the roof. It was there, looking out at the beacon of Alcatraz, that she knew the location for her next project.
She just didn't know who or what, until she saw Ai in Beijing and uttered those words that she now can repeat as a mantra.
"What if I brought you a prison?"
Getting there: The exhibition is free, but first you have to get to the island, and that takes a $30 Alcatraz ferry and tour ticket, which can be purchased no more than three months in advance and often sell out. Starting Friday, tickets can be reserved at www.alcatrazcruises.com, (415) 981-7625. Special tours are available at www.parksconservancy.org, (415) 561-3021.
Online: To watch a short video, go to: www.sfgate.com/news/item/Cheryl-Haines-For-Site-foundation-30050.php
Article and Photos Sourced From: http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/Ai-Weiwei-Alcatraz-exhibition-a-major-move-for-5571353.php#photo-6493877
Opening own gallery
The ligaments were torn, ending her dance dreams. But after graduating from Binghamton University in 1978, she delivered on her promise to live in San Francisco by renting an apartment three doors from where she'd stood and made her vow.She'd come with a boyfriend. That didn't last, but Haines did, working for an art dealer until she was able to open her own gallery on Folsom Street in 1987. The building was red tagged after the earthquake in 1989, so she advanced across Market Street to the top floor of 49 Geary, probably the most prominent gallery address in the city.
All gallery owners look for unknown talent to sign, but Haines has a knack for artists who are both unknown and unsellable to the home decorating market.
Her major find came in 1992, when she was browsing through the bookstore at SFMOMA and came upon the work of environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy.
"I was immediately smitten and knew this was an artist I had to work with," says Haines, who tracked the artist to his home in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and invited him to San Francisco, arranging lodging for his family with three art patrons. That led to his West Coast debut, an exhibition of earthen sculpture at Haines Gallery in 1992.
'Pushing the limits'
Two years later, Goldsworthy returned to build a mud wall that still stands in her gallery. Now dried with age, the wall has cracks that offer proof of how far back she goes with the artist who was made famous by the 2001 documentary "Rivers and Tides.""Cheryl is one of the few dealers to care more about the artist than making a buck," says Randi Fisher, wife of SFMOMA board President Bob Fisher and a cultural and philanthropic powerhouse in her own right. She came to Haines Gallery to see the first Goldsworthy show and walked out with both a ball made of Manzanita twigs and a lasting friendship with Haines.
"She's so enthusiastic and passionate about her work that you can't say no to her," says Fisher, who tried and failed to decline Haines' offer to co-chair the $5,000-a-ticket opening-night party for "@Large." "I love the fact that she is always pushing the limits."
One example would be her elopement to Cambodia with Dan McCoy, a transportation engineer. Their wedding was performed by monks at a 12th century monastery in Angkor Wat. The guests were a mix of villagers and students from the San Francisco Art Institute, who happened to be there when the bride and groom emerged from the jungle in the dawn mist, riding elephants.
The newlyweds soon bought 50 acres without power, water or access 5 miles from the Gold Rush town of Nevada City. They cleared the land and put up a yurt, then a small dwelling and an artist's studio. They took a good look around, and that was the beginning of the For-Site Foundation.
"I decided the place was too special to keep as a private residence," Haines says. "I decided it would be a wonderful retreat area for artists."
The first For-Site foray was "Spire," a 100-foot pencil point by Goldsworthy in San Francisco's Presidio in 2008. Two years later, an elaborate group show called "Presidio Habitats" followed. Among the artists selected was Ai, who created eight delicate blue-and-white porcelain screech owl nests installed high in Cypress trees outside the general's residence at Fort Scott. One of those vases came down from the tree and now sits at the entryway of Haines' split-level condo in Noe Valley.
It is just Haines and her art there now. She and McCoy separated a few years ago, and Haines is warily re-entering the dating scene. She threw her Christmas party at a dive bar on Haight Street, drawing the usual mishmash of art collectors, museum curators and administrators with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the National Parks Service, who seemed amused by the setting but not amused enough to join the blue-haired and spike-heeled Haines on the dance floor, as she cavorted with the lead singer during the heavy metal cover ballads.
Entertaining at home
She also entertains at home, throwing dinner parties that show off her artistic Asian cooking and flower arranging in a top-floor dining room with a deck that looks out across the Mission District.Her parents now live on the retreat in Nevada City, where Haines spends long weekends planning her next art in action.
"What I respect about her is her experimental instinct, which is needed more now than ever as a leadership characteristic in the art world," says Koshalek, who was also the founding director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and began following the work of Haines long before he met her. "She's not only a creative problem solver, but she's also an opportunity seeker. What she will do as this continues is she will make San Francisco an even more original place to live."
"Presidio Habitats" was followed in 2012 by "International Orange" at Fort Point to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge directly above the old brick fort.
Paper dress
Fifteen artists were commissioned to address the bridge through their own medium. One of these artists, Anandamayi Arnold of Berkeley, made dresses out of crepe paper, and Haines promised to wear one of these for the gala opening. When the day came, so did the western wind. It was strong enough to push the wine out of the glasses of the guests as Haines stood on the stage to make her remarks, waiting for that dress to fly off her like a paper kite."International Orange" was a tour de gale force, and Haines figured if she could withstand the wind in the courtyard, she could stand the stronger wind on the roof. It was there, looking out at the beacon of Alcatraz, that she knew the location for her next project.
She just didn't know who or what, until she saw Ai in Beijing and uttered those words that she now can repeat as a mantra.
"What if I brought you a prison?"
@Large
The exhibition: "@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz" runs Sept. 27 through April 26, 2015.Getting there: The exhibition is free, but first you have to get to the island, and that takes a $30 Alcatraz ferry and tour ticket, which can be purchased no more than three months in advance and often sell out. Starting Friday, tickets can be reserved at www.alcatrazcruises.com, (415) 981-7625. Special tours are available at www.parksconservancy.org, (415) 561-3021.
Online: To watch a short video, go to: www.sfgate.com/news/item/Cheryl-Haines-For-Site-foundation-30050.php
Article and Photos Sourced From: http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/Ai-Weiwei-Alcatraz-exhibition-a-major-move-for-5571353.php#photo-6493877
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