Open Space, the blog of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, is a lively forum for critical and personal writings and media about art, visual culture, and issues specific to the Bay Area. Our aim is to provide a platform for, and a window on to, the life and vitality of the art-engaged communities of this dynamic region, and beyond.
Every few months Open Space invites a new group of writers and artists to contribute here, in an editorial free zone—our external writers do not write on assignment from SFMOMA and you can expect the occasional changing of the guard to give a changing shape to the content, as well. We also commission single pieces of writing on a variety of subjects by contributors from all over the world, and SFMOMA curators and staff post regularly.
Open Space takes its name, and spirit, from a small but influential Bay Area poetry magazine that appeared in 1964. Edited by Stan Persky and presided over by legendary poet of the San Francisco Renaissance, Jack Spicer, and with the strict dictum that no copies be circulated outside the Bay Area, Persky’s Open Space included only local writers, whose works-in-progress were to be published as submitted, without censorship or constraint. This community-based, Bay Area-centric magazine also printed the work of many local artists of the time.
Our drop-down link lists in the sidebar are designed to give visitors from anywhere in the world a sense of the range and diversity of venues for art, offline and on, around Northern California. If we’re missing your favorite spot, let us know.
Suggestions, complaints, praise, inquiry? Always welcome! Send email to suzanne at sfmoma dot org.
A word on commentary here at Open Space: We leave our comment stream unmoderated at all times, and welcome a variety of insights and perspectives. If you say it, we publish it. However, we do reserve the right (but not the obligation) to remove comments we feel are inappropriate or abusive. Such content might include anything threatening, defamatory, or obscene, or harmful to minors; content that is false or misleading; advertisements, spam, or other forms of solicitation; or comments we otherwise find inappropriate. Keep the comment box clean(ish!), and do unto others, and all that. Thanks!
