Lance Fung to open Wonderland in San Francisco

Oct. 7, 2009 - PRLog -- San Francisco – The exhibition Wonderland runs from October 17th - November 15th and features 16 ambitions, large-scale public works of art created by 78 participating artists. Artists from San Francisco and the rest of the country have worked in teams to create projects engaging the complexities of the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. The projects embrace all aspects of the Tenderloin, including its remarkable history, homelessness, youth and immigrant resident voices and the illegal sex trade to name a few concepts.

The exhibition opens on Saturday, October 17th at Boeddeker Park on the corner of Eddy & Jones Streets with events scheduled from 11 am to 5 pm. An artist symposium will be held Sunday, October 18th at 2pm at the Warfield Theater located at 982 Market Street. The symposium will be moderated by Jeannene Przyblyski, an author, historian and dean of academic affairs at San Francisco Art Institute.

In addition, nearly 300 artists, residents and business owners from the Tenderloin neighborhood partnered with the artist teams through poetry, storytelling, painting, and other creative activities to realize the 16 public artworks. In short, Wonderland is about community, collaboration and social exchange. Curator Fung would like to return in 2010 to continue the commitment of exploration and involvement with the Tenderloin neighborhood and residents.

From its modest beginnings in an MFA class, curator Lance Fung’s Wonderland exhibition has grown to a multi-sited, community-wide event embraced and created by the Tenderloin community. Though now a huge project, Wonderland is still a grassroots event based in volunteerism with minimal funds as neither the curator nor artists are paid for their participation. Event sponsorship by North of Market / Tenderloin Community Benefit District, willing partners and lots of sweat equity make the entire event possible with a strong sense of individual and local ownership. Many more organizations have helped make the exhibition a reality, including Boys and Girls Club Tenderloin Clubhouse, Youth With A Mission, Glide Memorial Church and The Luggage Store Annex.

Additional information on the exhibition can be found at www.wonderlandshow.org

Press Tours
Private press tours with curator Lance Fung are available on October 17th and will leave from Boeddeker Park at 10:30 am. There is limited space. RSVP to barry@fungcollaboratives.org

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The exhibition Wonderland is a large, multi-sited event born of, and responding to the rich diversities of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. The tenor of this project is truly unique, and will call upon the collaborative efforts of the neighborhood’s residents, city organizations like the North of Market Community Benefit District the exhibition’s sponsor, and a large number of cutting edge artist teams from the Bay Area and around the world. As in his previous internationally recognized projects, the exhibition’s curator, Lance Fung is dedicated to the ideas of collaboration, community and social engagement as a means of bringing the highest level of contemporary art to audiences from all walks of life.