SUPER CELEBRATIONS
Cultural arts are typically not a top consideration when the National Football League plans its annual Super Bowl bacchanalia. But, thankfully, the city of San Francisco knows how to express athletics and artfulness in one decorous huddle.
Super Bowl 50 CEO Keith Bruce, Chairman Daniel Lurie and SB50 marketing guru Pat Gallagher; along with Mayor Ed Lee, San Francisco Travel CEO Joe D’Allessandro and a host of civic leaders, ensured the arts were not lost.
Culture even co-starred in this furious football week, packed with some 281 parties, that officially kicked off Jan. 30 at Waterbar restaurant. There, 1,000 VIP revelers toasted the city-wide celebration as they eagerly awaited a switch-flip to reignite “The Bay Lights” adorning the western span of the Bay Bridge.
Created by artist Leo Villareal, this public art project launched in 2013 as a temporary two-year installation. But those 25,000 flickering, computer-programmed LED lights achieved instant acclaim and a beloved status.
In 2015, a $4 million campaign to reinstall new lights on bridge cables as a permanent feature was led by Illuminate the Arts CEO Ben Davis, with expert assists from Caltrans and lead sponsors such as Lisa and John Pritzker; Dianne and Tad Taube; Matt Mullenweg; Lisa and Doug Goldman; JP Conte; Sako and Bill Fisher; and Illuminate board members including ad man Rich Silverstein, Burning Man’s Harley Dubois and Exploratorium Director Dennis Bartels.
“The outpouring of love and support has been overwhelming,” said Villareal. “The Bay Lights are all about accessibility to a universal experience, something anyone can see and have a response to. We’ve estimated 50 million people saw the ‘Lights’ in their first two years.
“It’s pretty special to create public art like that,” he continued. “Knowing Bay Lights will continue as sort of a beacon, inspiring people is pretty exciting. And the community and individuals who supported the project are incredible. What a beautiful place.”
Even before the lights were relit, Villareal, based in Manhattan, and his wife, the stylish Yvonne Force, were all over our fair city, including the opening of Villareal’s first S.F. exhibition, Spacetime, on display at Yves Béhar’s Fused Space gallery.
Geometric-shaped LED light sculptures, rendered in domestic scale, are stripped down to their essence of pixels and binary-code zeros. Thankfully, viewers need not be engineers to appreciate their glowing, kinetic beauty.
“The Bay Lights are experienced from afar,” noted show curator and gallerist Jessica Silverman. “But Spacetime is an up-close examination allowing viewers to understand the amazing physicality, internal structure and 3-D aspect in Leo’s use of light and color.”
Trumpet fanfare: Did you know that NFL Films maintains an in-house symphony? That’s what gridiron great Ronnie Lott recently revealed at the San Francisco Symphony’s “Concert of Champions” Feb. 3 accompanied by famous football film clips. Lott and his wife, Karen Lott, joined Marcia Goldman and her husband, former S.F. Symphony President John Goldman, to host a pre-concert dinner in the Symphony’s SoundBox space that Blueprint Studios tricked out in “tailgate chic.”
Staffers donned black-and-white umpire stripes as the crack McCalls Catering crew passed around fan favorites like pigs in a blanket and hot wings. Each table was crowned with a bona fide NFL superstar. Handsome Marcus Allen Hall of Famer served as program emcee with guest conductor, the New York Philharmonic’s Joshua Gersen.
Goldman, also an SB50 host committee member and 49er faithful (since 1956 when he attended his first games at Kezar Stadium), welcomed 300 guests whose ducats benefitted the Symphony’s free arts education programs.
When Goldman served as Symphony president, he wanted the organization to be a point of pride for Bay Area. As an example, he cited a galvanizing force that uplifted San Francisco following the tragedy of Jonestown and murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.
“That force was the San Francisco 49ers, which, 34 years ago, turned this region around when they won their first of five Super Bowl championships,” toasted Goldman. “And the centerpiece of that first championship team was a man regarded as the toughest and best defensive player of his time, Ronnie Lott.”
Goldman also paid tribute to Lott’s terrific philanthropic footwork.
While Lott is not a Series-A Symphony subscriber, he’s attended a number of gala nights and counts himself a fan of maestro Michael Tilson Thomas and considers the Symphony a spectacular community partner.
“But football is actually full of classical music. If you watch any NFL video, there’s a symphony playing in the background,” he revealed. “So a lot of the great clips we all know are accompanied by the NFL orchestra.”