SOMArts names SFMOMA veteran as new director

A few days after the museum reopens with its new $305 million addition and renovation, Jenson will be moving to SOMArts, a smaller, but in some ways just as critical, art space tucked underneath an Interstate 80 overpass.

[...] she’ll take on the role of executive director for an organization that, in the midst of soaring housing prices resulting in displacement of grassroots arts, is seen by many as an essential part of the city’s arts ecosystem, offering up an accessible space for artists and curators of all levels.

Jenson’s jump from SFMOMA, where she’s managed community relationships and public partnerships for nearly three years, was announced Wednesday.

SOMArts is one of six cultural institutions funded, in part, by the city and dedicated to making art opportunities accessible to all residents.

The network includes, for example, the Bayview Opera House, the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts and the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.

In the past year, exhibitions there have explored the intersection of art and alternative spaces and critiqued an overwhelmingly white art world by showcasing only artists of color.

In July, curators Karen Seneferu and Melorra Green will present “The Black Woman Is God,” a show that includes more than 60 artists examining the role of black women as “innovators, healers and social change-makers throughout history.”

“It’ll be nice to see how Maria can find a narrative for these different curatorial projects, so that you can get a kind of clear sense of the SOMArts identity,” said Frank Smigiel, who worked with Jenson in his role as SFMOMA’s associate curator of performance and film.

Kary Schulman, a prominent voice in the Bay Area arts scene as head of the city’s Grants for the Arts Program, called the move “bold.”

What started out with 35 people, turned into a series that became standing-room-only and started drawing press.

When Jenson moved to the Bay Area in 2010, she started ArtPad, an art fair held at the Phoenix Hotel — essentially another experiment in building community through art, though at a much larger scale.

Jenson will have her hands full with SOMArts, taking over at a time when art venues are struggling to stay open and artists leave for the East Bay and beyond.

Jenson already has confronted this issue as one of the stewards of Arts for a Better Bay Area, a group that recently helped push through an increase in city arts funding.

“How do we make collaborators and partners of those people who we feel owe a responsibility to the city?” she asked.