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Flo Allen, “Honey I AM the Art Institute” is one of the many wonderful features in the current exhibition, SFAI 150: A Spirit of Disruption. Allen, a legend in the Bay Area Art world for 7 decades, was an artists’ model in the 1930s at the Golden Gate International Exhibition on Treasure Island. She organized the Models’ Guild, sang in the Studio 13 Jass Band, was a hostess at the legendary Old Spaghetti Factory on Grant Avenue in North Beach and wrote a column, “Flo Sez” for the SF African-American newspaper, The Sun Reporter.
SFAI 150: A Spirit of Disruption is peppered with a broad range of SFAI artists and fellow travelers, from Henry Kiyama to David Johnson, Steven Arnold to Angela Davis, Mildred Howard to Fred Hayes, Leo Valledor to Alice Shaw, Lex Calip to Zulfi Bhutto, Kezia Harrell to Jenny Odell, Dewey Crumpler to Brett Reichman. & MORE! “Book An Appointment” to see SFAI 150: A Spirit of Disruption
Check out episode two of the podcast Are You Listening?, created to accompany the exhibition, to hear curators Margaret Tedesco & Leila Weefur discuss Flo’s long history at SFAI and the indelible mark she’s left on the San Francisco Bay Area art community.
(Celebrating #sfai150)
With permission, SFAA is re-posting the emails Jeff Gunderson Librarian/Archivist Anne Bremer Memorial Library has been sending out since March 2020. Please enjoy this magnificent archive.