In 1984 Anne Trueblood Brodzky and Anthony Williams came together with others, including Dore Ashton, James Rosen, and Ronald Christ, to address the conviction that the experience of significant art could be the impetus for meaningful social, philosophical, and spiritual change. The result was The Society for Art Publications of The Americas (SAPA), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the transcendence of personal and societal growth through art by providing educational programs and artistic projects that reflect the diversity of the Americas.
Since its inception in San Francisco in 1984 SAPA has centered on the nature and meaning of art in the Americas through its"Meridian Nights"-- lectures, performances, and symposiums. SAPA has also supplied the strong, effective organizing base for collaborative projects such as the Canadian Lecture Series: Architecture and Art of the Americas; Indian Americas: Art and Architecture 1988; The Haida Project 1990; and The Brazil Exhchange Show. In 1989 SAPA compounded its goals and visions through the opening of Meridian Gallery, a pan-ethnic exhibition space in downtown San Francisco.
In 1995, SAPA will focus its efforts on The Meridian Interns Project. A project developed to offer high school and college students a hands on experience assissting in the organization and administration of a cultural institution -- Meridian Gallery. The culmination of this experience will be the opportunity for interns to work together as a team to curate an exhibition at Meridian Gallery.
The Meridian Nights series was created to bring artists into dialogue with scholars, writers, and the public. It was founded in San Francisco in 1984 by the Society for Art Publications of the Americas to promote the exchange of art and ideas in the Americas.
Meridian Night No. 1
October 11, 1984
"The Artist as Historian: Transforrmation of Cultural
Forms in Chicano Art, " a roundtable moderated by Tomas Y
barra-Frausto, Stanford University. Participants: Amaliia Mesa-Bains,
artist workingin altar installations; Rudy Fernandez, sculptor;
Rene Yanez, artist and co-director of Galeria de la Raza.
Meridian Night No. 2
October 29, 1984
"The artist as Historian: Other Sources," a
roundtable moderated by Howard Perlstein, writer, critic, editor.
Participants: Roger Berry, San Francisco sculptor; Rolando Castellon,
artist, editor, founder of Galeria de la Raza; Sidra Stichh, writer
and curator, University Art Gallery, University of Californiaa,
Berkeley.
Meridian Night No. 3
December 13, 1984
"Making a Home of Existence," a roundtable
discussion on the meaning of "primitive" and "folk"
art, introduction by Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, Stanford University.
Participants: Dennis Duerden, British scholar of African art;
Jean Kennedy, artist and writer; Frank La Pena, artist and professor
of Native American art at California State University, Sacramento;
Dr. Max Alfert, artist and professor of Zoology, University of
California at Berkeley; Leigh Hyams, artist, San Francisco. Followed
by "A Celebration of the Winter Solstice": The Men of
St. Paul's Church who play for the Mass in Spanish.
Meridian Night No. 4
January 17, 1985
"Trance Dances and Godesses of Brazil," a dance
demonstration and slide presentation, with Patricia Campe-Aguilar,
dance ethnologist , and John Turpin, Yoruba priest, as host and
commentator.
Meridian Night No. 5
February 14, 1985
"Food in Our Nuclear Age and After," with Bay
Area sculptor David Gilhooly.
Meridian Night No. 6
March 1985
"New Directions/Artistas Chicanas," moderated
by Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains, artist, psychologist and altarmaker.
Panelists: Judith Baca, artist, Los Angeles; Lorraine Garcia,
artist and arts administrator, Sacramento; Carmen Lomas Garza,
artist and curator, San Francisco; Yolanda Lopez, artist and educator,
San Francisco; Patricia Rodriguez, muralist, San Francisco.
Meridian Night No. 7
April 1985
"An evening with Anna Sokolow," choreographer,
on her collaboration with the Mexican Muralists in the 1930's.
Meridiann Night No. 8
May 1985
"Mexican Folk Art Sale," a fundraiser for SAPA
with a talk on traditions in Mexican mask-making.
Meridian Night No. 9
January 1986
"Myth and Landscape," M.A. Clark, poet and
novelist.
Meridan Night No. 10
February 1986
"Ancient Forms and Symbols: An Artist's Synthesis,"
a slide lecture by Joan Brown, San Francisco painter, and her
partner Michael Hebel.
Meridian Night No. 11
March 1986
"Obsidian Song: Homage to Popocateptl," with
Mexican artist, Victor Mario Zaballa, a multi-media presentation
combining dance, ceremonial regalia, sculpture, traditional and
contemporary music, and projected image.
Meridian Night No. 12
April 1986
"Presentation of Jamake Highwater's film Primal
Mind," concerned with contrasting views of nature, time,
space, art, architecture, and dance in European culture and Native
American culture. Introduction by dancer Anna Halprin.
Meridian Night No. 13
May 1986
"Preview of Popol Vuh: Cosmogenesis Maya,"
an animated film in progress by Bay Area filmmaker, Patricia Amlin.
Meridian Night No. 14
June 1986
"Emily Carr, Canadian Artist," slide lecture
and journal readings, presented by Ted Lindberg, art historian.
Meridian Night No. 15
July 1986 "Jane Quick-To-See," a Native American
artist, on her work.
Meridian Night No. 16
September 1986
"Dennis Olanzo Callwood," a black American
photographer, Los Angeles. Slide presentation and discussion of
his work.
Meridian Night No. 17
October 1986
"The Re-enchantment of Art: Reclaiming Sacred Vision,"
Suzi Gablik, art critic and author.
Meridian Night No. 18
November 1986
"The Modern Artist as Shaman," Dr. Mark Levy,
Chairman of the Art Department, California State University, Hayward.
Meridian Night No. 19
December 1986
"Qualities of Men," M.A. Clark, poet and novelist.
A presentation of photography, interviews, an poetic contexts.
Meridian Night No. 20
March 1987
"The Artist Speaks: Art, Love, and Politics,"
Ferdinand Penker.
Meridian Night No. 21
November 19, 1987
Raymond Moriyama, architect.
Meridian Night No. 22
December 8, 1987
Arthur Erickson, architect.
Meridian Night No. 23
February 16, 1988
Moshe Safdie, architect.
Meridian Night No. 24
March 1, 1988
Dr. Francois-Marc Gagnon, art historian.
Meridian Night No. 25
April 19, 1988
Dr. Joan M. Vastokas, art historian and anthropologist.
Meridian Night No. 26
April 26, 1988
Bill Holm, artist and authority on Northwest Coast Indian
art.
Meridian Night No. 27
October 1988
Gunvor Nelson, Bay Area filmmaker's presentation of her
collage film, Light Years (1987) and a 1988 film about her personal
journey back to her homeland, Sweden. Lecture and film presented
in conjunction with Anne Siberell's collage show.
Meridian Night No. 28
November 29, 1988
"The Gods Chose the Colors," Merle Green Robertson,
artist and art historian, on the symbolic use of color in Mesoamerica.
Meridian Night No. 29
December 6, 1988
"Not Machu Picchu: Cliff Tombs of the Upper Amazon,"
Keith Muscutt, authority on rock art, University of California,
Santa Cruz.
Meridian Night No. 30
January 17, 1989
"Eagle Transforming into Itself: The Philosophy
of Northwest Coast Native Art in Relation to oMy Work," Robert
Davidson, Haida artist, Canada.
Meridian Night No. 31
February 7, 1989
"Aesthetics and Amerindian Art Before Columbus,"
George Kubler, historian of art and architecture.
Meridian Night No. 32
February 28, 1989
"Sources of a Personal Language of Abstraction in
Northwest Coast Indian and other Native Arts," Jack Shadbolt,
preeminent Canadian artist.
Meridian Night No. 33
March 28, 1989
"Picturing the Universe: Looking at Rock Art,"
Linda Connor, photographer, and Jean McMann, author.
Meridian Night No. 34
April 4, 1989 "Sanctuaries of the Spirit: Roundhouses
of the Plains and California Indians," Peter Nabokov, anthropologist
and historian.
Meridian Night No. 35
September 1989
"In the Red," lecture by Joane Cardinal-Schubert.
Meridian Night No. 36
November 1989
"Architecture of the Northwest Coast," Jim
Hart, Haida Indian artist living in Queen Charlotte Islands, B.C.,
Canada.
The Haida Project, a collaborative venture of SAPA with Headlands Center for the Arts and Capp Street Project, was an exploration of the 10,000 year-old culture of the Haida people of th Queen Charlotte Islands, British Collumbia. During the 3 month project, 6 Haida artists carved a 30 foot cedar pole and a 30 foot cedar canoe. The Society's cycle of 3 forums was co-sponsored by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Meridian Gallery Exhibition
Novemeber 1 -December 20, 1990
"Haida Ritual Art: The Insistent Present" --
wood and cast paper malds, gold jewelry, ritual garments, cedar
hats, bronze sculpture and prints. Reggie Davidson, Robert Davidson,
Dorothy Grant, Jim Hart, Bill Reid, and Florence Davidson. First
Nations artists, Canada.
Saturday Afternoon Forum
November 10, 1990
"Wanagen, Haida Carver and Story Teller."
Meridian Night No. 37
September 1990
"Myth into Art," Joan M. Vastokas, Lewis DeSoto,
Lita Albuquerque.
Meridian Night No. 38
October 25, 1990
"Ancient Shrine: New Visions," Aldona Jonaitis,
Richard Inglis, Art Thompson.
Meridian Night No. 39
November 29, 1990
"On Making and Meaning," George F. MacDonald,
Jim Hart, Ursula von Rydingsvard.
Haida Project Day
December 15, 1990
Culminating day-long event, including naming and launching
the canoe into San Francisco Bay and naming and raising of pole
in its place in East Fort Baker.
Haida Feast
December 15, 1990
Haida Feast with music and dance at Headlands Center
for the Arts. Adjunct events for the Haida Project include a variety
of film screenings at the Pacific Film Archive, special exhibitions
at the Lowie Museum of Anthropology, and exhibition of the canoe
at the M.H. de Young Museum.
Meridian Night No. 40
March 1993 "My Dinner with Art History," Peter
Selz in conversation with Robert Kostka.
Meridian Night No. 41
December 1994
"Brazil Revisited," words, slides, and music
tapes offered by 3 of the 12 painters returning from Brazil after
"The Exchange Show."