Our dear friend David Pace passed away on October 22, 2020.
David and his wife, Diane Jonte-Pace, first joined SJMA as members in 1990. David’s steadfast support of SJMA greatly enriched the Silicon Valley arts ecosystem.
A renowned photographer most known for his street life portraiture and documentation of daily life in Burkina Faso, David gifted his photograph Egg Beaters (1998) to SJMA’s permanent collection after the piece was included in the Museum's Domestic Odyssey exhibition in 2004.
David served on SJMA’s Acquisitions Committee from 2015 to 2020, during which time the Committee acquired works by artists including Rina Banerjee, Tiffany Chung, Jay DeFeo, Yojiro Imasaka, Richard Misrach, and The Propeller Group. David was especially passionate about SJMA’s historic commission and acquisition of Pae White’s Noisy Blushes (2020) for the Museum’s atrium. In addition to his own significant contributions, David helped lead fundraising efforts to ensure the project’s completion.
David and Diane not only supported SJMA’s day-to-day operations as members of the Council of 100, but they also sponsored the current exhibition of South East North West: New Works from the Collection—a showcase of the many works David and the Acquisitions Committee helped SJMA to acquire over the past five years. Committed to building community amongst SJMA’s supporters, the Paces graciously hosted Museum events including an intimate Jeffersonian dinner at their Los Altos home and a memorable tour of David’s photography studio in Sunnyvale.
David and Diane collaborated on the book Where the Time Goes, a collection of photographs that documents youth, aging, and love over their five decades together.
David Pace was a pillar of the Bay Area arts community who also served as a board member for the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art.
