Trace by Ai Weiwei. Photo by Alison Taggart-Barone, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy
Thursday, January 22
3:30-7:15pm
Prosecco and a Private Visit to Alcatraz Island and the new Ai Weiwei installation
Join us on a tour of Alcatraz Island and learn about its layered legacy, as a 19th-century military fortress, a notorious federal penitentiary, a site of Native American heritage and protest, and now part of one of America's most visited national parks, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. On the tour you will hear compelling stories about the Island's history and residents and learn about the architecture, wildlife, and landscape as you take in the world-class views of the Golden Gate and City at sunset.
In addition to a visit to the Alcatraz Gardens, a striking historic landscape undergoing an effort to restore, preserve and maintain the gardens, the highlight of the tour will be @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz, an exhibition of new works created specifically for Alcatraz by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, internationally renowned for work that defies the distinction between art and activism. The installation includes seven large-scale sculpture, sound, and mixed-media site-specific artworks in four places on Alcatraz Island: the two-story New Industries Building, where "privileged" inmates were permitted to work; the main ward and psychiatric observation cells of the Alcatraz Hospital; the A Block cells, the only remaining section of the military prison that was constructed in the early 20th century; and the Alcatraz Dining Hall. Revealing unexpected perspectives on Alcatraz and its layered legacy, @Large prompts visitors to consider the implications of incarceration and the possibilities of art as an act of conscience, launching dialogue that incorporates these themes of communication, individual responsibility, and freedom around the world.
Tour departs from Alcatraz Landing at Pier 33