Art Gallery

Some beautiful things come out of fire. Just ask George Krevsky of the George Krevsky Gallery in San Francisco, which won for favorite art gallery in the Bay Area.

Krevsky decided to open the gallery in downtown San Francisco after the Oakland Hills fire of 1978, because he realized he “had a point of view that was not being expressed” in the area. The gallery specializes in narrative art and social realism, inspired by New Deal-era federal arts projects. Art in the gallery ranges from pieces made in 1929 to those created just this year.

This month the gallery is showing the work of Ruth Gikow, a Jewish WPA painter. In September, Krevsky plans to display the work of Israeli painter Michael Kovner.

FIRST PLACE

Bay Area

George Krevsky

Gallery

San Francisco

(415) 397-9748

www.georgekrevskygallery.com

Live Theater

We in the Bay Area have a flair for the dramatic, and so it is no small honor we impart on these favorite live theater winners: Berkeley Repertory Theatre in the East Bay, Marin Theatre Company in Marin/Sonoma, American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and TheatreWorks in the South Bay/Peninsula.

Berkeley Rep, the largest local theatrical organization, is about to celebrate its 40th anniversary. Associate Artistic Director Les Waters says that the theater chooses “plays that we hope embrace and challenge the community we live in.” In the upcoming season look for George Bernard Shaw’s “Heartbreak House” and a one-woman piece performed by Carrie Fisher (aka Princess Leia).

San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater just celebrated its own 40th anniversary. One of the first regional theater companies to win a Tony, ACT’s productions, says marketing and public relations director Janette Gallegos, “absolutely take you to a different place,” with a core group of actors whom the audience enjoys seeing in very different roles. Coming up this season is a production of “Sweeney Todd,” some David Mamet, Sam Sheppard and Gogol.

Mill Valley’s Marin Theatre Company is always looking to shake things up, says Managing Director Gabriella Calicchio. They have a new artistic director and are working hard, through a number of awards, to help playwrights produce new works. The awards allow established artists to work on fresh material, and unproduced artists to get creative.

TheatreWorks in Mountain View has two theaters and focuses on musicals and new works. Artistic Director Robert Kelley say. TheatreWorks productions are always “high energy” — sometimes new pieces, and sometimes “the great plays of the past” reinterpreted. Look out especially for William Gibson’s “Golda” and Tony Kushner’s “Caroline, or Change.”

Second-place winners were 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Marin/Sonoma, the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in the East Bay and Traveling Jewish Theatre in San Francisco.

FIRST PLACE

San Francisco

American

Conservatory Theater

(415) 749-2ACT

www.act-sfbay.org

East Bay

Berkeley Repertory

Theatre

(510) 647-2949

www.berkeleyrep.org

South Bay/Peninsula

TheatreWorks

Mountain View

(650) 463-1960

www.theatreworks.org

Marin/Sonoma

Marin Theatre

Company

Mill Valley

(415) 388-5208

www.marintheatre.org

SECOND PLACE

San Francisco

Traveling Jewish

Theatre

(415) 522-0786

www.atjt.com

East Bay

Dean Lesher Regional

Center for the Arts

Walnut Creek

(925) 943-SHOW

www.dlrca.org

Marin/Sonoma

142 Throckmorton

Theatre

Mill Valley

(415) 383-9600

www.142throckmortontheatre.com

Live Music Venue

Sometimes j. readers just need to relax to the sound of music. Their favorite locations to do so are CenterStage at the Osher Marin JCC, Freight and Salvage in the East Bay, Fox Theater in the South Bay/Peninsula and Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.

Linda Bolt, managing director at the Osher Marin JCC’s CenterStage in San Rafael, says the programming is “very eclectic.” Not only is there world music, chamber music and opera at the three different venues, literary artists perform as well.

Going to Freight & Salvage in Berkeley is “like having a house concert,” says Lisa Manning, who does marketing for the venue. It seats only 200, which contributes to a special dynamic between performer and audience, Manning says. Freight & Salvage is known best for its folk and world music, and welcomes all ages.

Every band that comes into owner John Anagnostou’s Fox Theatre in Redwood City loves it as much as its audience. Anagnostou built the adjoining Little Fox in the fall of 2002, and it’s become a favorite, too. Dave Brubeck will soon come to the big theater, which has made Redwood City into quite a happening place.

The San Francisco Symphony finds a great home in Davies Symphony Hall. Davies Hall hosts 230 symphony performances every year, with almost 600,000 people attending. SFS Director of Communications Gary Ginstling says that “it is gratifying to see Bay Area audiences so enthusiastic about live orchestral music.”

Second-place winners were the Fillmore in San Francisco, Yoshi’s in the East Bay, Shoreline Amphitheatre in the South Bay/Peninsula, and Larkspur Café Theater in Marin/Sonoma.

FIRST PLACE

San Francisco

Davies Symphony Hall

(415) 552-8000

www.sfsymphony.org

East Bay

Freight & Salvage

Berkeley

(510) 548-1761

www.thefreight.org

South Bay/Peninsula

Fox Theatre

Redwood City

(650) 369-4119

www.foxdream.com

Marin/Sonoma

CenterStage

Osher Marin Jewish

Community Center

San Rafael

(415) 444-8000

www.marinjcc.org/performing_arts.html

SECOND PLACE

San Francisco

The Fillmore

(415) 346-6000

East Bay

Yoshi’s

Oakland

(510) 238-9200

www.yoshis.com/jazzclub

South Bay/Peninsula

Shoreline

Amphitheatre

Mountain View

(650) 967-3000

Marin/Sonoma

Larkspur Café Theatre

Larkspur

(415) 924-6107

Museum

In From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,” Claudia decides to run away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. j. readers are sure she would have run to these top Bay Area museums just as quickly.

The Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito, winner for Marin/Sonoma, is the only museum where kids can dig for treasure, help construct a miniature Golden Gate Bridge and learn about a black cowboy who “did not look like John Wayne.” Best of all, says marketing and public relations manager Jennifer Caleshu, there is nothing at the museum “where a parent has to say ‘no, don’t do that!'”

The scene at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford is calmer, but always changing. This winner in the South Bay/Peninsula opens an exhibit called “Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World” from Aug. 16 to Sept. 1 when it will head to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. You can see it for free, like everything else at this museum.

In the East Bay, the Oakland Museum of California celebrates our statehood with exhibits on art, history and natural sciences. Gail Bernstein, the museum’s marketing coordinator, calls it “a very family-friendly museum.” One Friday a month, the museum is open late, transforming itself into a home for live music, yoga, open exhibits and other delights.

In San Francisco, the Museum of Modern Art, says public relations manager Libby Garrison, aims to bring “the contemporary art world” to those who live in the Bay Area. The MOMA is bringing the “tunnels and mirrors and water” of Olafur Eliasson to our area for an upcoming exhibit, and right now you can see Matisse works on display through mid-September.

The de Young Museum won second place in San Francisco, and the Judah L. Magnes Museum ranked No. 2 in the East Bay.

FIRST PLACE

San Francisco

Museum of

Modern Art

(415) 357-4000

www.sfmoma.org

East Bay

Oakland Museum

of California

Oakland

(510) 238-2200

www.museumca.org

South Bay/Peninsula

Cantor Arts Center

Stanford

(650) 723-4177

www.museum.stanford.edu

Marin/Sonoma

Bay Area

Discovery Museum

Sausalito

(415) 339-3900

www.baykidsmuseum.org

SECOND PLACE

San Francisco

de Young Museum

(415) 750-3600

www.thinker.org/deyoung

East Bay

Judah L.

Magnes Museum

Berkeley

(510) 549-6950

www.magnes.org