About Us
San Francisco’s Public Art Program, one of the first in the country, was established by City ordinance in 1969. The public art ordinance provides for two percent of the construction cost of civic buildings, transportation improvement projects, new parks, and other above-ground structures such as bridges, to be allocated for public art. It also provides an allowance for artwork conservation funds and allows for the pooling of art enrichment funds for interdepartmental projects. Circumstances that would allow construction projects to be exempt from public art allocations are also defined.
The Public Art Program provides curatorial expertise and project management for the implementation of the City ordinance. It is administered by the San Francisco Arts Commission, and is overseen by the Visual Arts Committee of the Commission.
Program Goals and Project Development
The Public Art Program seeks to promote a diverse and stimulating cultural environment to enrich the lives of the city’s residents, visitors and employees. The Program encourages the creative interaction of artists, designers, city staff, officials and community members during the design of City projects, in order to develop public art that is specific and meaningful to the site and to the community. Public art is developed and implemented in conjunction with the overall design and construction of each project. Each project’s life span from the design phase through completion of construction is approximately three to seven years.
Program Responsibilities
- Development of project guidelines and budget for each new site in cooperation with City agencies, project architect and community advisors.
- Curatorial research and coordination of artist selection including outreach to artists from underrepresented communities.
- Facilitation of community involvement in project development.
- Specification writing and review when art component is integrated into the construction of the City project.
- Administration of artist contracts during design, fabrication and installation.
- Coordination of interaction between artists, City representatives, project architects and communities.
- Supervision and inspection of art project installation.