SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- A century after the Legion of Honor’s founding by the tour de force Alma de Bretteville Spreckels and her husband, Adolph B. Spreckels, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (“Fine Arts Museums”) look forward to celebrating the Legion of Honor 100, a once-in-a-generation series of festivities commemorating the 1924 founding of the beloved San Francisco institution. The Legion of Honor 100 will commence in November 2024 and continue for the next 12 months to highlight the unique histories, rich collections, and future aspirations of the Legion of Honor. Dedicated museum supporters and new audiences alike are invited to imagine the institution’s future, and how they might take part in it, through a series of exhibitions and public programs, as well as contribute to an ambitious gifts of art and endowment fundraising campaign.

As part of the Legion of Honor 100, the Fine Arts Museums announce a series of major exhibitions organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which will complement the previously announced Mary Cassatt at Work. Visitors will be able to explore Wayne Thiebaud’s six-decade career, including his rarely viewed appropriations and works from his personal collection; the artistic exchange between the Impressionist painters Berthe Morisot and Édouard Manet; and to close out the centennial year contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare’s work in dialogue with the museum’s historical collection in the artist’s first major exhibition on the US West Coast. An exhibition tracing the history of the Legion of Honor will also be on view for the year.

New displays drawn from the permanent collection, featuring founding gifts from the French government and Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, are also planned for collection galleries dedicated to porcelain and works on paper. In addition, the Legion of Honor’s grand galleries dedicated to Baroque art will be revitalized and rehung with a fresh curatorial approach, including newly conserved artworks and refreshed interpretive material available in multiple languages.

Visitors will be invited to enjoy the museum and the permanent collection on view through a new multilingual audio tour. Part of an expanded interpretation program made possible with support from Google.org, the free audio tour will be available in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and English, reflecting some of the most widely spoken languages among San Francisco residents. New multilingual in-gallery narratives will provide additional context to new and returning visitors, framing the art on view in the complex societal context in which they were created.

A yearlong series of public programs and events will foster a sense of connection between visitors and the museum. These robust offerings will commence during the Centennial Weekend Celebration, November 7–11. On Saturday, November 9, the Free Saturdays event will feature vibrant live performances, creative family activations, musical experiences, the debut of new centennial-themed docent tours, and the launch of a new monthly curatorial lecture series, “A Closer Look.” On Veterans Day, Monday, November 11, the museum will be open from 9:30 am to 5:15 pm and offer free admission, a lecture on the history of the Legion of Honor, organ concerts of patriotic music, and special veterans-themed tours. Centennial Weekend Celebration performances and weekend-long complimentary admission are generously underwritten by Bank of America. More information about the Centennial Weekend Celebration and all-year programming.

Centering robust scholarship and curatorial expertise, the Fine Arts Museums also announce several recent curatorial appointments at the Legion of Honor. Emily A. Beeny was recently named Chief Curator of the Legion of Honor and Barbara A. Wolfe Curator in Charge of European Paintings, and Furio Rinaldi has been appointed Curator in Charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts. Several new and recent appointments are also announced. Sally Katz, Assistant Curator of Photography joins other recent curatorial appointments, which include Isabella Lores-Chavez (Associate Curator of European Paintings), Jeffrey Fraiman (Assistant Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture), and Natalia Lauricella (Assistant Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs). The Fine Arts Museums also celebrate the recent endowments of curatorial positions for both Emily A. Beeny (Barbara A. Wolfe Curator in Charge of European Paintings) and Renée Dreyfus (George and Judy Marcus Distinguished Curator in Charge of Ancient Art).