FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Kate Patterson, San Francisco Arts Commission
Tel: 415/252-4638 Email: kate.patterson@sfgov.org

SAN FRANCISCO ARTS COMMISSION ANNOUNCES FINALISTS FOR THE CENTRAL SUBWAY PUBLIC ART PROGRAM

19 Prominent National and Local Artists and Artist Teams will Compete for Opportunities at the Chinatown, Union Square/Market Street and Moscone Stations

SAN FRANCISCO, January 29, 2010 – Director of Cultural Affairs for the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) Luis R. Cancel announced today the finalists for the Central Subway Public Art Program. In conjunction with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s (SFMTA) new Central Subway stretching from Chinatown to South of Market, the SFAC’s Public Art Program will manage the implementation of a diverse and exciting public art program that includes permanent artworks and related arts programming in adjacent neighborhoods. Currently scheduled to be completed in 2018, the Central Subway will include three subway stations, one above-ground platform, and an underground pedestrian walkway connecting the Union Square/Market Street station to the Powell Street Station on Market Street. Nineteen recognized local and national artists and artist teams were selected by community-based artist selection panels to create proposals for one of six permanent art opportunities at the Chinatown, Union Square/Market and Moscone stations. In the spring, the artists’ proposals will be displayed for review and comment on the SFAC’s website and at public locations in the three station neighborhoods for which the proposals have been prepared.  In the future, other artists will be selected as additional art opportunities are identified for each of the stations and the adjacent vicinity.

“The Central Subway Public Art Program will greatly enhance the experience of San Francisco’s new transit corridor with a world-class art collection,” said Luis R. Cancel. “The Arts Commission has approved an exceptional pool of candidates representing a diverse range of backgrounds and styles. We look forward to displaying the proposals in the spring, and we welcome the neighboring communities to participate in this process by sharing their thoughts and comments.”

Each station’s short listed candidates will work with the SFAC and SFMTA staff, project architects and community representatives to prepare proposals for two art opportunities at each of three stations: a landmark artwork and a way finding artwork. At the Chinatown Station, the candidates for the landmark artwork are Ming Fay (New York), Yu Mei Hou (San Francisco) and May Sun (Los Angeles) and for the wayfinding artwork the artists are Carl Cheng (Santa Monica), Tomei Arai (New York), Yunfei Ji (New York) and Faye Zhang (San Francisco). At the Union Square/Market Street Station the candidates for the landmark artwork are Brian Goggin (San Francisco), Ilya and Emilia Kabakov (New York), Erwin Redl (Ohio) and for the wayfinding artwork the artists include Michael Davis and Susan Schwartzenberg (Los Angeles and San Francisco), Keith Godard (New York) and Jim Campbell and Werner Klotz (San Francisco and Brooklyn).  At the Moscone Station, the candidates for the landmark artwork are Brian Tolle (Brooklyn), Joyce Hsu (Oakland), Catherine Wagner (San Francisco) and for the wayfinding artwork, Tom Otterness (New York), Mildred Howard (Berkeley) and Michele Oka Doner (New York).

“The Central Subway will provide convenient underground service to jobs, medical care, educational opportunities and entertainment for residents and visitors from Candlestick Point to Chinatown,” said Nathaniel P. Ford Sr., SFMTA Executive Director/CEO. “We are pleased to work with the Arts Commission to ensure that this new transit artery is rooted in the surrounding communities with vibrant, relevant art.”

As part of the Central Subway Public Art Program, the SFAC will implement a Central Subway Temporary Art Program extending throughout the design development and construction phases of the Central Subway Project.  The Arts Commission will commission a series of temporary community-based outdoor art projects in the three neighborhoods along the transit corridor route. The goals of the art projects are to engage community members in the development of artworks/projects that reflect the neighborhood’s life, history and culture in relation to transit.

One established, nonprofit organization rooted in each of the neighborhoods will be selected by an independent panel through an open application process to develop and implement the art projects in collaboration with the Arts Commission. The first in the series will take place in the Chinatown District and will officially kick off in March and continue through 2011. The first two-year project cycles in the Union Square/Market Street District and the Moscone/Yerba Buena District will begin simultaneously later this year. For more information visit www.sfartscommission.org/pubartcollection.

About the San Francisco Arts Commission and the Public Art Program
The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts in San Francisco. We believe that a creative cultural environment is essential to the City’s well-being. Established by charter in 1932, SFAC programs integrate the arts into all aspects of City life. Programs include: Civic Art Collection, Civic Design Review, Community Arts & Education, Cultural Equity Grants, Public Art, SFAC Gallery, Street Artists Licensing, and the Summer in the City Concert Series. The agency’s core values are committed to the principle that all residents have equal access to arts experiences in all disciplines, that programs are provided comprehensively and evenly throughout the City, and that they are innovative and of the highest quality.

The Arts Commission’s Public Art Program was established by the City Arts Enrichment Ordinance in 1969, as one of the first of its kind in the country. 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 to the site and meaningful to the community. SFAC Public Art website: www.sfartscommission.org/pubartcollection

About the SFMTA
Established by voter proposition in 1999, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (www.sfmta.com), a department of the City and County of San Francisco, oversees the Municipal Railway (Muni), parking, traffic and taxis.  With five modes of transit, Muni has approximately 700,000 passenger boardings each day.  Over 35,000 extra vehicles enter San Francisco on any given business day, and rely on the SFMTA to keep the flow of cars, transit vehicles, taxis, delivery trucks, pedestrians and bicycles moving smoothly through the streets.  For more about the Central Subway, and to follow the project on Facebook and Twitter, visit www.sfmta.com/central.