The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco: The _Heeb_ Review

Earlier this week, we got a super early preview of the new Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. (The press tour’s not until mid-March and the museum doens’t open until June 8th so, seriously, Heeb is special.) I’ve got nothing bad to say about the museum. At all.

Daniel Libeskind designed it back in ’98 before he was designated a "starchitect" and the building is fucking awesome. It’s constructed out of an old SF power station that restored energy to the city after the last big earthquake (why do I live here?), and Libeskind has added onto the existing old-fashioned brick with his trademark angles and sleek materials. Sounds weird and I’m sure haters of modern architecture will object, but he’s really managed to make it work.

Libeskind was inspired by the fact that the original building brought power back to the community. He designed the building around the Hebrew word "Chai" (the add-on is based on the forms of "chet" and "yud"), with the intention to create a lively and "living" museum. Hoping to mix the old with the new in a way that does justice to contemporary Jewish life, the museum directors have planned an eclectic slate of exhibits for the space, including a John Zorn music project, the only West Coast exhibit of Andy Warhol’s Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century and a show entitled "In the Beginning," which collects works from the 14th century to present day that deal with the creation story.

Oh! And there will be cocktails often, which is something I look for in a good museum.