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​7TH ANNUAL
BAY AREA ART STARS
​SOLD OUT!!
Sunday, November 9, 2025, 2:30-5:00PM
​at Root Division, 1131 Mission St, San Francisco, CA

Mark your calendars for Sunday, November 9, 2025, 2:30-5:00PM at Root Division, 1131 Mission St, San Francisco, CA

Join us for an inspiring day of art and mentorship at the Bay Area Art Stars Women’s Networking Event, presented by the Northern California Women's Caucus for Art! This exciting in-person gathering gives women and non-binary people in the arts a unique chance to meet with established gallerists, curators, artists, and representatives from major arts organizations.

This event is a great opportunity for BFAs, MFAs, fine art and curatorial students, and emerging/mid-career artists of any age or background. If you are interested in pursuing a career in the arts, whether as an artist, art educator, curator, gallerist, or museum/nonprofit professional, please come along!

Small groups of participants will move around to each table in a "speed-networking" format. You will learn how each of the Art Stars achieved their successes and will have a chance to ask them questions that will help in your future career. Engage in meaningful conversations, expand your network, and find community with our esteemed panel of Bay Area arts luminaries.

NCWCA Members $10, General Admission $15. A limited number of STUDENT tickets are FREE

2025 ART STAR BIOGRAPHIES

Mary Chou
San Francisco Arts Commission
Director of Public Art and Collections

Kate Eilertsen
Executive Director
di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art
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​Mary Chou is SFAC’s Director of Public Art and Collections, an award-winning program known nationally for its public art practices, the quality and innovation of the artworks commissioned for public spaces, ranging from parks and libraries to the San Francisco Airport, and the care of the City’s collection, including its monuments and memorials. She first joined SFAC in 2008 as a Public Art Program Associate. Previously, she worked at Visual Aid in San Francisco, and various New York-based cultural institutions including the Asia Society Museum. She has a BS in Business Administration, BA in Art History, and an MA in Modern Art and Curatorial Studies with an emphasis in public art.  

Kim Larson
Owner and Gallery Director
Modern Eden Gallery

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Kim Larson is an entrepreneur with a background in psychology, design, and sculpture. Her passion for art began at a young age and continues today through her private art collection and professional work. She was a founding member and longtime Director of North Beach First Fridays (2010–2020) and has served on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Art Dealers Association, where she remains an active member.

For over 15 years, Kim has been the owner and gallery director of Modern Eden Gallery, a cornerstone of San Francisco’s contemporary art scene. She has juried for the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize, Artspan, Art Works Downtown, and more, and has shared her expertise as a panelist and speaker at institutions including the Academy of Art University and the San Francisco Artists Network.

Of all her accomplishments, Kim is most proud to be a working mother raising her family in the heart of San Francisco.

Diane Williams
Abstract painter, Educator, Collector & Curator
​2021 NCWCA Mentor

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​Diane Williams is an abstract painter, educator, collector and curator based in Crockett, California. She earned her BA in Studio Arts from UC Santa Barbara, an MA in Studio Art from California State University, Sacramento, and an MFA in Arts and Consciousness Studies from JFK University. Her work is deeply rooted in nature and the feminine, drawing inspiration from the wisdom of her ancestors. She teaches workshops locally as well as in Santa Fe, Colorado, and Washington, weaving together knowledge and intuition to create paintings as a form of prayer.
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Kate Eilertsen has worked in the art world for many years as an arts advocate, museum director, curator and educator. She began her museum work at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, moved to Boston where she opened a new museum for the Harvard University Art Museums and then to California where she was the Director of Intersection for the Arts, Museum of Craft and Folk Art, Acting Director of Visual Arts for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Executive Director for the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. She has taught at the California College of Arts, San Francisco Art Institute and Sonoma State University. She has been an advisor and juror for numerous public art commissions and is currently the Executive Director at di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art.
 
Eilertsen earned a BFA from Macalester College, MA from Hunter College and completed the Executive Program for Non-Profit leaders in arts from Stanford University. She was on the Editorial Advisory Committee for the Sonoma Index Tribune, Art Advisory Committee for the Green Music Center at Sonoma State University and Chair of the San Francisco Art Institute’s Community Advisory Board. 

Maria Porges
Artist and Writer
​SFMOMA SECA Awardee
Professor, California College of the Arts

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Maria Porges, is an artist and writer. The recipient of a SECA award from SFMOMA, her studio practice focuses on sculpture and works on paper; over 25 solo shows of her work have included exhibitions at galleries, museums and alternative spaces across the country.  Porges received a BA from Yale University and an MFA from the University of Chicago and has taught or lectured at many art schools and universities, including Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley, Cranbrook Academy of Art, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and University of Illinois at Champaign. She is presently a Professor in the Graduate Fine Arts program at CCA.

Since the early ‘90s, Porges’s critical writing has appeared in many publications, including Artforum, Art in America, Sculpture, American Ceramics, Glass, the New York Times Book Review, squarecylinder.com and a host of other now-defunct art magazines. She has also authored more than 100 exhibition essays and book contributions, blogs about unusual museums and outstanding artists at wordsaboutart.com, and has twice been in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts.