Take a Behind-the-Scenes “Tour” of BAMPFA with AJ Fox

2315 Durant Ave,Berkeley CA 94704

06 July, 2022

Description

It’s hard to miss the distinctive home of the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), an Art Deco building with a futuristic, metal-clad addition telescoping out from its north side. And most of us have been inside to see art exhibits or films. But what goes on behind the scenes of this treasured part of Berkeley’s cultural scene? On Wednesday, July 6, at 7 p.m. AJ Fox, the manager of media relations at BAMPFA, will illuminate some important facets of the museum and film archive that may not be visible to the casual visitor. These range from the work of its film collections team to preserve rare and fragile fragments of historic films and the amassing of one of the world’s largest collection of African American quilts to the vital educational role the museum plays. In addition, AJ will explain BAMPFA’s mission, values, and programming strategy, including some highlights of its recent and upcoming art exhibits and film screenings. Tickets for this Arts & Culture event, available on Eventbrite, are $5 for members and $10 for non-members. Masks are required. In his illustrated talk, AJ also will highlight some milestones in BAMPFA’s history, such as its establishment as the flagship museum of UC Berkeley in 1970 — remember its Brutalist building on Bancroft Way? — and its relocation to downtown Berkeley in 2016, an event that earned coverage in The New York Times. Fast forwarding fifty years from its founding to perhaps the most challenging period in BAMPFA’s history, AJ will talk about how the institution emerged from an unprecedented 13-month closure during the Covid-19 pandemic, thanks to the leadership of Director Julie Rodrigues Widholm, who was appointed in summer 2020. ​​AJ has been directing media relations at BAMPFA since 2017. For five years before that, he worked at the New York-based public relations agency Resnicow + Associates. Among his clients were the City of Buffalo, the Clyfford Still Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Frick Collection, the Rolex Arts Initiative, and San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum. AJ earned his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, majoring in film and media studies.