TONIGHT at 6:30pm, SFMOMA assistant curators of painting and sculpture Apsara DiQuinzio & Alison Gass will be announcing the 2008 SECA Award recipients to an assembled group of SECA committee members and their guests. The SECA (called after the auxiliary group which supports the award, the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art) is a highly competitive, much-desired biennial award with a long local history. Since 1967, SECA has honored sixty-two Bay Area artists with its Art Award, which includes an exhibition here at the museum, an accompanying catalogue, and a cash prize. Hundreds of artists are nominated, there are thirty+ finalists, and out of those finalists, only four are typically selected. (In my memory, there have been as few as two and as many as seven.)

The SECA members, who have been traditionally sworn to silence and secrecy until the morning following the announcement, will have to wait mere hours to spill the beans this time around. Check back here late tonight, when I’ll post the list of winners and finalists. Also! Ali and Apsara have agreed to do a little Q&A with me early next week, on their experiences leading this award cycle’s nomination and selection process.

By coincidence, or so say all, the Yerba Buena Center is ALSO making a big public announcement tonight at their season sneak preview party: the artists for the next Bay Area Now. These two big institutional Bay-Area-focused exhibitions don’t usually happen in the same year. Crossover? No crossover? I’m quite curious myself.