New San Francisco 49ers Football Stadium Boasts 200-Work Art Collection

Jorge Hernandez in front of a work commissioned for Levi's Stadium. Photo: Courtesy Levi's Stadium.

Levi’s Stadium, the arena currently under construction in Silicon Valley to which the San Francisco 49ers NFL franchise will soon relocate, is following the Dallas Cowboys’ lead and launching an impressive art collection. The works on view in the new 49ers stadium will include some 200 new pieces, ranging from photographs and paintings to drawings and sculptures, commissioned from 23 artists—20 of whom are based in California. The stadium will also have on display some 500 archival photographs from the team archives, the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as many Northern California libraries and historical centers.

The collection will include portraits of 49ers legends as well as seminal North California figures like Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck, along with works alluding to local art movements, like the psychedelic art of hippie-era San Francisco. The collection is being curated by Tracie Speca-Ventura of California-based agency Sports & The Arts.

“A majority of the collection features artists that are local and this unique opportunity allows them to embrace what California means to them, which makes the collection even more eclectic and versatile from their point of view” Speca-Ventura said in a statement. “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 1960s and ’70s.”

The collection will be installed in time for the first sporting event to be held a Levi’s Stadium, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, a soccer match between the San Jose Earthquakes and the Seattle Sounders FC scheduled for August 2. The collection will also be accessible for special art tours.


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