The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive pay tribute to Oakland visual artist Stephanie Syjuco and celebrity chef Alice Waters for their 2026 Art and Film Benefit.
Syjuco, who was born in the Philippines and moved to the Bay Area in 1977, is a UC Berkeley professor of sculpture and an artist whose work often investigates how history is represented. Her Art Wall project “Present Tense (Roll Call)” is currently on view in the museum’s Crane Forum. Syjuco’s work is in numerous collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Waters is a chef, author and food activist who pioneered the sustainable farm-to-table cuisine model at her famed Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse. In 1995, she founded the Edible Schoolyard Project at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, a model that has been replicated in more than 6,000 schools globally.
“Since the earliest days of BAMPFA, Alice and Chez Panisse have played a major role at the intersection of cinema, community, and cuisine,” said BAMPFA Executive Director Julie Rodrigues Widholm.
Proceeds from the benefit support BAMPFA’s ongoing work presenting exhibitions, community events and student engagement programs.