The summer skies over the Berkeley Marina will be filled with hundreds of kites this weekend. The marina’s Cesar Chavez Park is the setting for the 2010 Berkeley Kite Festival, a fun and free activity for all ages.

Kites bigger than a house and longer than a train will take to the breezes. Giant creature kites and the world’s largest octopus kite will be featured.  Competitive kite teams will demonstrate the speed, excitement and artistry of multiple kites in choreographed routines and kite battles.

Hands-on activities include free kite making, kite flying lessons and candy drops. Adding to the festivities will be Taiko Drummers, arts and crafts, food and music.

Berkeley’s waterfront location contributes to a fairly reliable constant breeze—an essential element for a kite festival. We are fortunate that the Bay Area has the geography and climate that lend themselves to this kind of event.

Again, admission is free, but there is a $10 charge for parking.  Well-behaved on-leash dogs are welcome.

What’s your preference?  Brush or aerosol?  There’ll be plenty of both this Saturday afternoon when the paint flies at San Francisco’s Precita Park. Precita Eyes Muralists, a San Francisco community based arts organization, hosts its 14th Annual Urban Youth Arts Festival from 1 until 6 p.m.

Let’s pause and consider the function of public art. It encourages artistic self-expression and community dialogue, provides education and enjoyment, and enhances the physical environment. This event is perfectly aligned with all of the above.

More than 2,000 square feet of portable wall space will be set up in the park. Artists, would-be artists or those who just want to get creative are invited to have at it with free paint, brushes and spray cans. The best sections of the wall are shown throughout the year at various galleries.

Some 200 to 300 people join in and enjoy art performances, musicians, poetry slammers, breakdancers—plus a barbecue. It’s public art at its functional best, courtesy of the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department.

Source:  Umbanhowar, Elizabeth, “Public Art:  Linking Form, Function and Meaning”, Public Art and Ecological Process

The popular retailer Target is putting its money where the arts are this coming weekend. Right in keeping with its “Expect More. Pay Less” tagline, Target is funding free admission to arts and cultural events nationwide with its Target Arts & Wonder Family Events, July 16 – 18th.

As part of its Corporate Responsibility commitment, Target gives 5 percent—about $3 million a week—of its income to communities to make a positive impact. Thanks to this mindset of philanthropy, families in the Bay Area will be able to enjoy free admission to the following museums:

Friday, July 16th, 5 to 8:45 p.m.
deYoung Museum
Special activities include Andy Warhol art projects and a ballet performance celebrating Degas, whose works may be seen in the special exhibition. Admission to the museum is free, but there is a charge for the Birth of Impressionism exhibition.

Saturday, July 17th, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Asian Art Museum
Storytelling tours will highlight gods, goddesses, emperors and philosophers. Admission to the museum is free, but there is a charge for the Shanghai exhibit.

Sunday, July 18  11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
With the new Fisher Collection, this is truly an amazing art experience. Join in to create hands-on art projects and exploration.

Sunday, July 18, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Contemporary Jewish Museum
Activities include a special dance/theatre performance by Sweet Can Productions.

Sunday, July 18, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD)
Wander through African Continuum:  Sacred Ceremonies and Rituals, then unleash your creativity with a Haitian tooled metal sculpture project.

Sunday, July 18, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Zeum: San Francisco’s Children’s Museum
A special opportunity to sculpt and film your own clay animation is part of the day’s events.

Sunday, July 18, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Yerba Buena Gardens Festival
It’s a carnival afternoon—complete with conga line—so come in costume. Non-stop performances of festive music are scheduled.

Thanks, Target!

San Francisco is enjoying a double dose of Impressionist Paris this summer.  At the de Young Museum is Birth of Impressionism:  Masterpieces from the Musee D’Orsay, a fairly complete (and enjoyable) overview of the emergence and evolution of the genre. But its companion exhibition, Impressionist Paris: City of Light at the Legion of Honor, provides fascinating insight into the political, economic and social events that gave rise to the era.

During the 19th Century, Paris transformed from a medieval city to la ville lumiére, with its wide boulevards and flickering gas lamps that lit up the night. In ruins after the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71), the city reinvented itself in a few short decades into a radiant metropolis, highlighted by the Exposition Universelle of 1900. It’s a lesson in urban redevelopment on a grand and enduring scale.

Impressionist Paris chronicles this journey. Illustrated journalism and prints, photographs, charcoal and pencil sketches give us insight into the Impressionist experience. One can almost smell the musty fog and taste the absinthe. The finale is a gallery of turn-of-the-Century posters that capture the commercial and cultural vibrancy of the century ahead.

While The Birth of Impressionism is a look backward, Impressionist Paris is an immersion. Both are well worth a few summer hours.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art just opened an exhibition titled Calder to Warhol:  Introducing the Fisher Collection—the key word being “introducing.”  While the entire fourth and fifth floors and the sculpture garden of the museum are given over to the exhibit, the 160 works on display represent just 10 percent of the Fisher family’s collection.

“Our collaboration with the Fisher family will give visitors access to some of the finest modern and contemporary masterpieces, placing SFMOMA among the greatest museums for contemporary art and elevating the cultural profile of the city as a whole,” said SFMOMA Director Neal Benezra.

An observation: not only did the Fishers collect in great breadth, the exhibition demonstrates the depth of their collection. Large galleries are devoted to numerous works of important 20th Century artists, including Alexander Calder, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Because the Fishers often collected many works over the course of an artist’s career, their collection documents creative evolution over time.

Founders of The Gap retail stores, Doris and the late Donald Fisher first began collecting art to adorn the walls of their fledgling company. Over the course of 40 years, art collection became a passion for the Fishers, and their employees enjoyed a rotating display from one of the most important private collections of contemporary art in the world.

To accommodate the entire Fisher Collection (1,100 works by 185 artists!) the SFMOMA is currently reviewing the architectural finalists for the building of a dedicated new wing, slated for completion in 2016.

Until then, take advantage of this introduction. The first Tuesday of each month—and for July, that would be Tuesday, July 6th—is free. On Thursday evenings, the museum is open until 8:45 and admission is half price.

Photo Caption: Alexander Calder, Double Gong, 1953; metal and paint; 60 x 132 inches; The Doris and Donald Fisher Collection at SFMOMA; © 2010 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; photo: Ian Reeves

If you’re looking to spend a wild evening this Saturday, make tracks to the Oakland Zoo. This venerable East Bay institution hosts its annual fundraiser, Walk in the Wild, from 5 until 10:30 p.m. Bring your appetites and your thirst for adventure, but leave the kids with a sitter. It’s adults only (21+) for this special evening’s festivities.

It’s going to be quite a party.  More than 90 restaurants, food purveyors, bakeries, wineries and breweries will be serving up a vast assortment of epicurean treats. Participants will get to mix and mingle, stroll and sample. When appetites are sated, the Outback Express Adventure Train will tour guests through the Zoo’s brand new Australian Outback exhibit. Then, it’s back to the party with music, dancing and desserts under the stars. Throughout the evening, the air will be filled with sounds of Steel Jam and Masterpiece—and most likely a squawk or growl or two.

The Oakland Zoo has long enriched the Bay Area’s educational scene, and this event helps support its education, conservation and animal enrichment programs.  Tickets are available online. Go wild, party animals.

Photo:  Courtesy of the Oakland Zoo