Project Synopsis

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California Wildflowers, by artist Dana Zed at Portola Library.

BACKGROUND

The San Francisco Arts Commission is continuing to commission new public artworks for ten new or renovated San Francisco Public Library branches as part of the San Francisco Public Library’s Branch Library Improvement Program (BLIP). Each artwork is being created by a Bay Area artist or artist team to enhance the architecture of each of the ten branches and reflect the interests of the residents who will be using each facility. Funding for the artworks is provided by 2% of the BLIP construction budgets for each of the ten branches that qualify for art enrichment, which includes replacement facilities in Bayview, Glen Park, Ingleside, North Beach, Ortega, Portola, and Visitacion Valley, a new library in Mission Bay, and substantially renovated Potrero and Richmond branches. This ambitious citywide upgrading of the City’s library system is funded primarily by a bond measure passed by San Francisco voters in 2000, with additional funding authorized by voter approval of 2007 Proposition D in 2007. Arts Commission staff worked with Library staff to develop an Arts Master Plan, amended as additional branches are designated for art enrichment, for expenditure of the Art Enrichment funds generated by the eight new facilities and the renovated Potrero and Richmond branches. The BLIP Arts Master Plan included a two-tiered artist selection process to allow community panels from each branch to have a direct role in the artist selection process. The two-tiered artist selection process began with the establishment of a prequalified artist candidate pool of eligible professional artists working in a wide variety of appropriate media selected through an open competition. An ad hoc artist selection panel, which was convened to select members of the artist pool, included three arts professionals: Saudy Sanchez, Public Art Officer with the San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs; Beau Takahara, Director of Zero One, an art and technology organization; and JoeSam, an artist. Also serving on the panel were Marilyn Thompson, the Branch Library Improvement Program Manager, and Joan Jasper, Chief Curator of the San Francisco Public Library.

The original Artist Pool has been disbanded and a new Artist Pool was established in August 2008. The new Artist Pool will provide candidates for the Bayview, North Beach, Ortega and Visitacion Valley branches.

For the second tier, community-based panels select the artist(s) whose approach and medium is most compatible with the architectural and neighborhood characteristics associated with each branch. This process ensures maximum community participation in the art enrichment process. The community-based panels include three neighborhood residents elected by community members, the branch manager, the project architect for the branch, and an Arts Commissioner.

Branch Library BLIP Projects and Artists

Bayview/Anna E. Waden Branch

Location of new branch: Revere Avenue and Third Street
Completion date: Fall 2011
Artist: Selection process to be completed in May 2009
Art project status: To be selected in May 2009

Glen Park Branch

Location of new branch: Wilder and Diamond
Completion date: The branch opened in October 2007
Artist Team: Reddy Lieb and Linda Raynsford
Art project status: The artwork, Six Degrees, is a wall relief of hand-made circular glass and metal elements referencing local history and ecology.  A poem written by Diane DiPrima for William Blake is quoted on a glass disk located at the bottom of the artwork. The artwork is installed on a wall in the entryway of the branch.

Ingleside Branch

Location of new branch: Ocean Avenue and Plymouth Street
Completion date: September 2009
Artist: Eric Powell
Art project status: Mounted above the bookshelves on the back wall of the north reading room, Ocean Current is a 30 ft x 4 ft low-relief sculpture composed of metal tubing fashioned by hand into an organic, curving design inspired by the library’s location and proximity to the Ocean. The surface of the sculpture is awash with subtle colors referencing the neighborhood’s cultural diversity.

Mission Bay Branch

Location of new branch: 4th Street at Berry
Branch Completion Date: The branch opened July 8, 2006
Artist: Vince Koloski

Art project status: The artwork, A Library Book, is an illuminated sculpture in the form of an accordion-fold book. Installed on two adjacent upper level walls in the main reading room of this library branch, the artwork includes quotations about books and libraries contributed by patrons of the San Francisco Public Library.

North Beach Branch

Location of new branch: Mason at Columbus
Branch completion date: TBD
Artist: Selection process TBD.
Art project status: TBD.

Ortega Branch

Location of new branch: Ortega at 39th Avenue
Expected branch completion date: Fall 2010
Artist: Wowhaus
Art project status: Abundance is a pair of large-scale, shimmering fish mosaic sculptures that takes as its theme the concept of abundance.

Portola Branch

Location of new branch: Bacon and Goettengen
Branch completion date: The branch opened in March 2009.
Artist: Dana Zed
Art project status: Twenty colorful translucent glass panels, inserted in metal shutters, are installed in the front window of the new branch. Titled California Wildflowers, each glass panel design reflects a different Bay Area native plant.

Potrero Branch

Location of new branch: 20th Street at Connecticut
Expected branch completion date: Winter 2010
Artist: Gina Telcocci
Art project status: The artist is finalizing a design for a group of sculptures incorporating local plants and other materials to be suspended from the ceiling in the open atrium area of the new branch.

Richmond Branch

Location of new branch: 9th Avenue at Geary
Expected branch completion date: Winter 2009
Artist: Scott Donahue
Art project status: The artist has completed designs for two bowl-shaped concrete sculptures, to be covered by horizontal bronze disks with relief maps of the Bay Area and imbedded with small porcelain enamel disks depicting the history of transportation in the Bay Area. The sculptures will be placed on either side of the outdoor path leading to the front door of the branch.

Visitacion Valley Branch

Location of new branch: Leland near Bayshore
Expected branch completion date: Fall 2010
Artist: Selection process underway.
Art project status: Selection process underway.

This information was last updated in March 2009.