Piedmont artist Larraine Seiden will show her work at Artspan’s 50th anniversary San Francisco Open Studios 2024 (SFOS) campaign this season. The event runs four weekends throughout the city each fall. For Seiden, this will be her 20th SFOS and her first time showing at the design district showroom “Room and Board” on October 5 & 6, from 11 am to 6 pm both days.
Seiden teaches art at Wildwood Elementary and has two children at PHS. She credits Artspan with “meeting you where you are and growing with you” as an artist. She has participated in San Francisco Open Studios since 2003 and says, “The only time I missed were 2006 and 2008 due to the fall births of my kids.”
Artspan’s theme this year is “From Disco Days to the Tech Craze,” which captures how this small and mighty non profit has supported a vital arts community through all of the city’s ups and downs over the past 50 years. Seiden cites how Artspan supported her right out of grad school as she started to show her work in San Francisco. Artspan grew with her as her studio practice did. When her family moved to Piedmont in 2011, she was able to join group venues to continue participating in SFOS. In 2020 they even took SF Open Studios online, when that is what the moment required.
Advocating for community through creativity is a vital priority for Seiden, a founding board member of Piedmont Makers. In 2020, she co-founded the Piedmont Artwalk with Jon Schleuning and local artists, as a fundraiser for the Piedmont Arts Fund. Created in response to the feeling of disconnection during quarantine, the event was influenced by the SFOS model she knew so well. Later that year, when Artspan asked her to join the Open Studios Committee, she felt compelled to help encourage emerging artists to get involved.
This year, Artspan celebrates 50 years of supporting the artists who make San Francisco’s art scene thrive. Seiden’s painting Seamless #14 is featured in Artspan’s publicity poster for the event (see attached photo). Her work can also be seen in the beautiful SFOS 2024 catalogs, which let you preview hundreds of artists and to plan your visits for each of the four weekends. They’re free and can be found on Mulberry’s newsracks until they run out.
Seamless #14 Seamless #13 Net Migration
Come visit Seiden and 12 other artists during Weekend 3: October 5 & 6, 11 am to 6 pm at Room & Board’s San Francisco showroom at 685 7th Street. Free parking on site. To learn more about Seiden’s work see LarraineSeiden.com, or her instagram. For more info about San Francisco Open Studios 2024 check out artspan.org