San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
@MissBigelow
Hearts in san Francisco gala breaks a record for mental health fund.
Nearly 1,200 hearts burst with joy the night before Valentine’s Day as a record-breaking $5.5 million-and-change was raised at Pier 48 during the Hearts in San Francisco gala. That lifeblood will enrich a new initiative, Transform Mental and Behavioral Health Fund, spearheaded by San Francisco General Hospital Foundation.
The evening was further goosed by a rousing keynote from former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, now a national mental health care advocate, and two major million-dollar donations from Bank of America and Kaiser Permanente.
That the hospital is a renowned Level 1 Trauma Center is well known. But Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital is also the only provider of 24/7 psychiatric emergency services in the city.
And as San Francitizens know, numerous societal ills stem from a scourge of untreated mental illness afflicting not only the homeless but also those teetering on the edge, unable to access assistance or fearful of the stigma associated with asking for help.
That’s a topic painfully close to the heart of foundation trustee Pam Baer, who lost her nephew, Noah, last year when the 28-year-old photographer took his own life following a struggle with mental health issues.
“I’ve always felt passionately about mental health care. Now I’m a person who lost a family member to suicide,” Baer said. “Too many people and families are touched by this tragedy.”
So Baer signed on again to co-host this fundraiser with foundation trustees Judy Guggenhime and Philo CEO Andrew McCollum. Together they reimagined this 15th fete: Instead of honoring health care innovators, they dreamed up this new hospital fund.
The fundraiser also returned to its origin as an evening soiree to auction heart-works by local artists — but with a revitalized energy.
With assists from Pam’s husband, Giants CEO Larry Baer, along with Giants Productions, Bon Appetit Catering and Aloe Events, the cavernous pier became cozy with funky lounge seating. Guests grooved to performances by Geographer and Glide Memorial choir as mural artists from Precita Eyes painted live works before their eyes.
Yet you could hear a pin drop when a video, “I Am Their People,” highlighted ZSFG caregivers who provide a social safety net to support those who’ve lost their own.
“My goal is to not look away and help destigmatize mental health disease,” said Pam Baer. “And I want to engage our community to join me on this journey. For those struggling with mental health disease, we all have to be their people.”
Munificent Monets: Even with stormy skies overhead, spring felt sprung in the de Young Museum, where Fine Arts Museums Director Thomas Campbell and board president Dede Wilsey thanked 150 major donors at a black-tie McCalls dinner celebrating the opening of “Monet: The Late Years” on Feb. 13.
From the gallery walls to glamorous floral-infused gowns, “Monet” sparks the vernal spirit.
The exhibition features some 50 major works focused on the famed water lilies and bountiful gardens lovingly tended to by Monet at his achingly romantic country home in Giverny, France.
“This exhibition is a valentine to San Francisco and a director’s dream,” Campbell said. “There are many Monet exhibitions. But this one does something different: It brings so many great late works together in a single exhibition.”
Curated by George Shackelford of the Kimbell Art Museum (in Fort Worth, Texas, where the exhibit travels next), the “Late Years” draws from private collections and such museums as the Musée Marmottan in Paris.
“This exhibition picks up as Monet is one of the world’s most famous painters. But at 73, he decides to change everything, creating works radically different from the previous 40 years,” explains Shackelford. “His canvas size quadruples; the subjects and colors are bolder, brasher and more experimental. The final painting in the show was created when Monet was 86, the last work of a great genius.” Shaken & stirred: Whether muddled, mixed or misty from dry ice, the Exploratorium recently transformed into a laboratory of libations during the ninth Science of Cocktails, a favorite late-evening fete that raised $230K for museum education and exhibition programs.
A sold-out crowd of 1,200 donned swinging sixties attire while toasting “Cheers to 50 Years” as the soiree also celebrated the 1969 founding of this beloved science museum by physicist Frank Oppenheimer.
Appointed in 2016 as executive director, Chris Flink ,a former IDEO partner and founding faculty member of Stanford University’s d.school, is honored to lead the museum’s helm during its golden jubilee that will be highlighted in exhibitions and events.
“I consider the Exploratorium one of the great, original creative cultures of San Francisco,” he said. “The Exploratorium was interdisciplinary before that was a buzzword. It’s always been a sort of design practice with scientists working with artists working with makers of all kinds to create these extraordinary learning experiences.”
It’s also one of the only museums that not only features a workshop developing and honing exhibitions, it also boasts a staff beer club named for the Exploratorium founder (with a sly nod to a key beer ingredient): hOppenheimer’s.
According to Ray Larsen, Brut IPA is really hot. But his club wondered what defines a brut. Using the same hops, they added enzymes to some batches and not others. While explaining his beer’s chemistry to a guest, she shared that she’d written a research paper on their enzymes and that one is currently being used in Alzheimer drugs.
Said Larsen: “Our club is about the spirit of experimentation. Even though I’m a graphic designer, I’m surrounded by scientists and the spirit of inquiry every day And tonight,” he continued, “I learn our beer experiment is, potentially, really helping people. So my advice is to drink as much Brut IPA and we’ll all live forever.”