San Francisco has long served as a real mecca of art and culture in the United States. Throughout its history, this city has proven itself a powerful beacon that has attracted artists from around the world to its beautifully decorated structures, its warm and open minded people and a vast number of museums and shops that heartily support the working artist by both dealing in and displaying their creations. This is a place where a woman like Dede Wilsey can make a huge difference and that is precisely what she is driven to do. Never taking the word no for any kind of real answer, Dede set about to replace the old de Young Museum when it was terribly damaged from a severe earthquake, one of the many that regularly rolls beneath the hills of San Franscisco on an almost annual basis. She took it upon herself to see that a proper place for the city’s finest works of art and those around the world had a place that was not only safe, but in good condition and beautifully designed to please the eyes of those who flock their for a dose of serious inspiration on a frequent basis.

Once decided upon her course, it seems that nature itself could not sway this woman from her course. She battled for 10 years to see the project through and during that time she kept having to raise progressively higher amounts of money in order to get the building constructed as public sources of funding were entirely lacking. She chiseled away at the resolve of those who stood in her way, always dreaming and pushing for the one result she would accept: the building of a new de Young. Dede Wilsey achieved not only a victory for the art world, but a victory for the human spirit which everyone can admire.