The new, ultra hi-tech home of the San Francisco 49ers, Levi’s Stadium, has launched a new art collection with more than 200 works.
The collection – called the Art Collection at Levi’s® Stadium – is an innovative creative partnership between the team, sponsors, the local authority and Sports & The Arts (SATA).
Tracie Speca-Ventura of SATA, a woman-run, small Californian business, is curating the collection.
The initiative is part of the new stadium’s umbrella objective to ensure the building and its team are a benefit to the whole community and not just sports fans
So, when the 68,500-seat Levi’s Stadium opens to fans next season, football won’t be the only attraction.
The Art Collection at Levi’s Stadium aims to celebrate the 49ers legendary history, the organisation’s current success and the vibrant culture of the greater San Francisco Bay Area.
It spans more than 200 original artworks and another 500 photographs.
The pieces span mixed mediums such as acrylic, charcoal, enamel, oil, pastel, pen and ink, stencil, metals and sculptures.
23 original artists are being showcased in the stadium gallery space and 20 of them are local Californians.
Indeed, the galleries objective is to highlight diverse, local artists and include pieces that have personal ties to the 49ers organisation such as player portraits or key match moments, but also work that focuses on local non-football culture, places and people from literature to music and architecture to landscape.
The photographs in the collection are from the archives of the 49ers and are by the team’s photographers, plus by the San Francisco Chronicle and local libraries and historic centres.
‘A majority of the collection features artists that are local and this unique opportunity allows them to embrace what California means to them,’ said Speca-Ventura.
‘While celebrating football past and present, the walls also share the stage for series of art celebrating the Bay Area surf scene, agriculture, wineries, poets and writers and the psychedelic music of the 60’s and 70’s.’
Further details of the collection can be found online at www.levisstadium.com/art.
Comment
First sponsors and rights owners blended sport with music in organisation and activation – now we are seeing the start of more sport-art fusion,
As yet, few other multi-use stadium have this level of quantity and quality of original artwork.
But Levi’s isn’t the only NFL stadium with a high profile art collection.
A few months ago sculptor Anish Kapoor installed his ‘Sky Mirror’ piece at AT&T Stadium – the home of the Dallas Cowboys.
Kapoor’s 15-ton, three-story sculpture is just the latest addition to the Cowboy’s art collection – which also first began when its new stadium opened in 2009.
The collection now features 56 works from a artists such as including Annette Lawrence, Daniel Buren, Gary Simmons, Jacqueline Humphries, Terry Haggerty, Ricci Albenda, and Mel Bochner.
Is the fusion of sport and art set to become a significant new rights owner/sponsor trend?
Links
Levi’s Stadium Art Collection Website
http://www.levisstadium.com/art/
Sports & The Arts Website
http://www.sportart.net/about.html
Sports & The Arts Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sportsandthearts?sk=wall
San Francisco 49ers Website
