Faith Ringgold: American People – Docent Lecture

This informative docent lecture at the JCCSF will introduce us to the the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco exhibition of Faith Ringgold’s groundbreaking vision. Featuring works from across Ringgold’s best-known series, the exhibition at the de Young tracks the development of her figurative style as it evolved to meet the urgency of political and social change. Throughout her sixty-year career, Ringgold has drawn from personal and collective histories to both document her life and amplify the struggles for justice and equity. From creating some of the most indelible artworks of the civil rights era to challenging accepted hierarchies of art versus craft through her experimental story quilts, Ringgold has produced a body of work that bears witness to the complexity of the American experience. The exhibition also foregrounds her radical explorations of gender and racial identities, which she incorporates into the rich textures of her paintings, soft sculptures, and story quilts. Long overdue, the retrospective provides an opportunity to engage with the art of one of the most influential cultural figures of her generation. 

Anne Burns Johnson has been a docent at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco since 2011. She is docent chair of the Access program at the FAMSF and works closely with museum staff and other docents to offer tours for persons with dementia, low vision, developmental disabilities and post-traumatic stress. Anne’s interest in art comes from her own artwork in textiles and art quilts. Since 2016 she has been a docent at the Crocker Museum in Sacramento. Until March 2020, Anne was active in the senior living and affordable housing field. For five years, she was the Executive Director of the Institute for Senior Living, a think tank for CEOS. Prior to that, Anne was the President and CEO of what is now called Leading Age, California, an association representing not-for-profit providers of housing and services for seniors. She has been a developer of assisted living for Eldercare Alliance and a senior manager for BRIDGE Housing, a not-for-profit developer of affordable low-income housing. Prior to entering the housing field, she was a hospital administrator in the East Bay. Anne has a masters from UC Berkeley and a BA from Antioch College, Ohio. 

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) are comprised of two iconic sites in San Francisco’s beautiful parks- the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and Legion of Honor Museum in Lincoln Park. As the largest public arts institution in the western United States, the Museums house a world-class collection of 151,000 artworks that span more than 5,000 years. The JCCSF and FAMSF have collaborated for over a decade and we are grateful that FAMSF graciously shares the beauty and history of their collections with the community through inspiring educational docent talks.