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SFAI’s Osher Lecture Hall, present day.


Lecture Hall


Author
Sherwin Rio

Decade

1970s 1980s 1990s 2010s


Tags

Architecture Chairs Lectures Performance 
Symposia



SFAI’s Osher Lecture Hall has been the site of important presentations, talks, film screenings, performances, classes, symposia, and other events. Ruth Asawa, Bill Berkson, Dara Birnbaum, Angela Davis, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Sharon Grace, Mike Henderson, Betty Kano, Suzanne Lacy, M. Lamar, Frank LaPena, Lucy Lippard, Amalia Mesa-Bains, Rebecca Solnit, Xiaoyu Weng, Martin Wong, René Yañez, and scores of others have appeared in this gathering place for interdisciplinary ideas and SFAI’s ethos.

 SR 

1985 spring lectures poster. Design credit: Peter Belsito. c. 1979: The announcement for SFAI’s Third Annual Film Festival includes a towering stack of film reels on the lecture hall floor. A pair of old lecture hall seats stored in SFAI’s tower. c. 1979: The lecture hall projection booth. 2016: The lecture hall booth station. 2016: SFAI lecture hall booth with Michael Friedman. c. 1985: The Paffard Clay building’s lecture hall wing. 1986 fall lectures poster. Design credit: Peter Belsito. 1989–90: Cards announcing two of Carlos Villa’s many symposia series presented at SFAI over three decades. These two were later grouped into a larger series titled “Worlds in Collision,” which came from a conversation between Angela Davis, Moira Roth, and Villa to challenge a white art historical and academic canon. The book Worlds in Collision, by Villa and Reagan Louie, presents transcripts from four symposia in the series. January 1991: John Cage lectures at SFAI. January 9, 1991: Chair used by John Cage during his “One7” performance at SFAI. 1999: A poster to unveil the lecture hall’s new seats for the fall 1999 semester includes a drawing of a chair by then-student Kehinde Wiley. c. 1970s: Two students in the lecture hall. The Osher Lecture Hall as it appears today. 1975: This SFAeye article describes the rally, which overfilled the lecture hall and quad, calling for the resignation of President Arnold Herstand. c. 1978: David Hockney lecturing. Photo: Matt Heckert.


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