SAN FRANCISCO, September 4, 2013 - The San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries (SFAC Galleries) is hosting its signature fundraising event, Passport, on Sunday, October 13, 2013. This unique event allows the public a hands-on art collecting experience by bringing local artists to neighborhood venues where the buyers can "create" a limited-edition artist's book by collecting original, artist-designed stamps in a customized Moleskine "passport" notebook. Walking throughout the Divisadero corridor from noon to 4 p.m., hundreds of do-it-yourself art collectors will follow a designated route to collect stamps from hot local artists while discovering the small businesses that line the neighborhood.

San Francisco artists participating in the event this year include: Michael Arcega, John Bankston, Claire Colette, Teraneh Hemami, Sanaz Mazinani, Ferris Plock, Brian Barneclo, Sarah Smith, Josephine Taylor, Favianna Rodriguez, Martin Venezky and William T. Wiley.

This fall, Passport will be celebrating its fifth anniversary. SFAC Galleries has been able to support its mission of making contemporary art accessible to broad audiences through this annual fundraising event. In four years, Passport has taken over The Mission (2009), Hayes Valley (2010), the Castro (2011) and North Beach (2012), worked with 50 local Bay Area artists including Barry McGee, Claire Rojas, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, partnered with 50 San Francisco neighborhood businesses and venues, managed hundreds of community volunteers and sold 1080 passports bringing in over $24,000 to help support SFAC Galleries future exhibitions and programming.

PURCHASING PASSPORTS  
Passports may be purchased in advance for $25 online at www.sfartscommission.org/gallery. Passports will be available for purchase the day of the event at Passport Home Base (Location TBA). Only official Passport 2013 notebooks will be eligible to receive stamps.  

For $125, collectors can purchase a Concierge Passport; gallery staff will collect all the stamps and mail it to the purchaser's home.

About SFAC Galleries

Located in the heart of San Francisco's Civic Center, the San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries makes contemporary art accessible to broad audiences through curated exhibitions that both reflect our regional diversity and position Bay Area visual art production within an international contemporary art landscape. By commissioning new works, collaborating with arts and community organizations and supporting artist's projects, the SFAC Galleries' programs provide new and challenging opportunities for contemporary art to engage with a civic dialogue. The SFAC Galleries was founded in 1970 and is the exhibitions program of the San Francisco Arts Commission, the arts agency of the City and County of San Francisco.

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