Let's Party Like It's San Francisco in 1948!

Come join us as we celebrate the life and vibrant artwork of noted SF artist Marion Osborn Cunningham. She was born in Indiana in 1908 and when she was young, her family moved to Bakersfield, California where she began studying art in high school and later at Stanford, the Art Students League of New York and the California School of Fine Arts (now the SF Art Institute). Cunningham began producing serigraphs/silk screens in the 1930's, and earned substantial popularity for her views of San Francisco scenes especially those of cable cars. She exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1935 and at the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in 1939. Her life was tragically cut short when she died in 1948 in New York of a brain tumor while on her way to Europe. Marion's family founded the Cunningham Memorial Art Gallery in her honor after her death and it was later renamed the Bakersfield Museum of Art. Her works are found in the collections of the SF Museum of Modern Art, the De Young, The Palace of the Legion of Honor, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. as well as other noted museums around the US. You may have seen the greeting cards created by The Green Arcade depicting many of Marion's colorful, light-hearted images of San Francisco. We'll celebrate her life and her artwork with talks by Marion's niece, Priscilla Wheeler, curator of The Bakersfield Museum of Art, Rachael Magnus and the viewing of James Broughton's 1948 short film Mother's Day starring Marion Cunningham. Door prizes will be presented and 1940's attire would be appreciated!