Harvey Milk Center Re-Opens at Duboce Park

The Harvey Milk Center for Recreational Arts re-opened to the public last month with a well-attended dedication ceremony June 20.

Closed since the summer of 2007 for renovations, the building at 50 Scott St. in Duboce Park is home to the Recreation and Park Department’s photography center along with a dance studio that hosts music and aerobics classes. Additionally, the city program Midnight Music offers dance and drama classes to the community. A summer camp is currently being run out of the center. Expanded programs will be available to the public in the fall.

Some of the highlights of the renovation are permanent art installations that honor the memory of Harvey Milk and his legacy of working for neighborhood improvements and gay rights. These exhibits include a collage of photographs chronicling the history of Milk’s life.

On the east wall of the building is emblazoned a quote from one of Milk’s 1977 speeches, “The American Dream starts with the neighborhoods.” Other art installations chronicle the development of the arts programs offered at the center throughout its existence.

The re-opening of the center arrives at the same time as several recent improvements to Duboce Park, including the planting of new turf on the lawn adjacent to the children’s playground and the installation of new benches at the south edge of the lawn. The basketball courts in the park have new rims and backboards with new fencing to be installed in August.

For more information about classes offered at the center, visit sfreconline.org.

- Andy Sywak

Copyright 2009 Castro Courier