Temporary Public Art Installation Planned Near Market and Castro Streets

By Emma Hall

The San Frantcisco Arts Commission is in the planning stages for a temporary public art installation to be built in conjunction with the new public plaza at the intersection of 17th, Market and Castro streets and is asking the public for input.

The SF Arts Commission hopes that the art installation could not only enliven the space, but also bring tourism to the Castro.

“I think it would be a beacon for the neighborhood and draw people to the Castro,” said Kate Patterson, a public art project manager for the City at a May 17 meeting aimed to solicit public feedback on the project.

The chosen art comes from the team of Christian Werthmann + LOMA, who created one of two winning proposals for a Harvey Milk memorial competition held in 2000. A public meeting was held and the winners were decided, but the project never materialized. When the idea for a public art installation was brought up, Supervisor Bevan Dufty suggested going back and looking at that competition.

The artwork would consist of pink clouds hovering over the street. The basic plan uses a mist-making apparatus, water and a pink light. The clouds would be illuminated, reminiscent of Harvey Milk’s famous candlelight march. The art project takes after artists such as Matthew Geller and Olafur Eliasson, who San Francisco residents will recognize from his exhibition in MOMA last year.

The original plan for the art installation in 2000 was for hollow poles similar to streetlights to emit steam. The permanence of this makes it unlikely. Also, the technology for both lighting and mist-making has changed in the nine years since the original plan was created, with lighting artists moving more towards LED lights.

“When we met with the community, the themes were art that was theatrical, active, or whimsical,” said Jennifer Louvorn, the project manager also in charge of soliciting community input. “They didn’t want art that was too serious, they wanted it to be playful.”

They have already met with various stakeholder groups, including Supervisor Dufty, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services, and the Castro Community Benefits District (CBD). A feasibility study is the next step for the project, which will be done by the artist. The study will finalize more details in the structure of the art installation and how to integrate it with the location. As of yet, there is no timeline set for the feasibility study or project to be finished.

Members of the community expressed their concerns for the project at the May 17 meeting, including traffic-calming measures for Market Street. However, Louvorn said that the art itself would accomplish this, since city planners often use public art in street space to slow traffic. Interesting visual elements such as art or landscaping close to the edge of the street have been proven to encourage pedestrian traffic while slowing down vehicular traffic.

Another concern was that the art was rendered by a resident from outside the City as Christian Werthman is a professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University (though he designed the original concept while he was living in Oakland). Louvorn insisted that most of their art contracts go to people outside of the city, since they don’t have an exclusionary policy.

Supervisor Bevan Dufty was present at the meeting, and expressed his approval for having the pink clouds as the chosen artwork. “Our neighborhood thrives on a certain wackiness and controversy. That is just a part of the ecology,” he said.

Although the art installation is piggybacking on the development of the new plaza, it is not critically tied to the plaza’s success. Even if the community rejects the permanence of the pedestrian plaza before its trial period is up, the installation of the artwork would still move forward.

Currently, the plan is for the art to be a temporary project whose placement will run between a few months to a year.

Copyright 2009 Castro Courier