Panel: Shaping Legacy Monument Case Studies

Presentation and a panel conversation with the Community Engagement Consultants that spent a year on a monument case studies from the Civic Art Collection.

Hear from the Community Engagement Consultants that guided community engagement and artists’ activations for five selected monument case studies. Each consultant collaborated with a community historian to guide three community story circles and two artists to propose creative interventions and public programming over the course of a year. Their work aligns with the Shaping Legacy Audit Report recommendation that the San Francisco Arts Commission create a participatory, community-based planning process for monuments and memorials with long histories of adverse public reaction. 

Case study monuments include Francis Scott Key, General Ulysses Simpson Grant, Padre Junipero Serra, Christopher Columbus and The Dewey Monument. 

Panelists & affiliated organizations

• Sharaya Souza, Executive Director & Co-founder, American Indian Cultural District
• Lauren Bartone, Artist, California Migration Museum
• LisaRuth Elliot, Co-director, Shaping San Francisco
• Raquel Redondiaz, Director, SOMA Pilipinas
• Paul S. Flores, Community Storyteller, Youth Speaks

This program is part of the Power & Public Memory: Shaping Legacy Program Series, which uplifts community stories and artists’ proposals for reimagined commemorative landscapes and inclusive spaces of public memory. The series runs through November, with subsequent programs on the first Wednesday of each month.

American Indian Cultural District is the first established Cultural District of its size in the United States dedicated to recognizing, honoring and celebrating the American Indian legacy, culture, people and contributions.

California Migration Museum is a museum without walls that creates immersive experiences that take you out into the neighborhoods where immigrant stories began and continue to unfold. Free, web-based experiences invite you to walk right into the past and uncover stories of exclusion, displacement and resilience on a city street or from wherever you are in the world.

Shaping San Francisco is a 27 year-old project dedicated to a participatory approach to San Francisco’s social, political and ecological history, through public programming such as walking and bicycle tours, urban explorations, and public discussions and a living community archive at Foundsf.org, which presents the multitude of untold stories of the City's history, the people who live here and the landscape as it has been transformed.

SOMA Pilipinas is a cultural heritage district spanning 1.5 square miles that honors 120+ history of Filipinos in San Francisco, and celebrates the community’s living legacy of making home, celebrating culture, building community and fighting for economic and racial justice in the rapidly gentrifying South of Market neighborhood.

Youth Speaks is a leading presenter of Spoken Word performance, education and youth development programs. Trailblazers of local and national youth poetry slams, festivals, and more, Youth Speaks offers a comprehensive slate of literary arts education programs and provides numerous opportunities for youth to be published and heard.

Shaping Legacy is a multi-year commitment to critically examine the monuments and memorials in San Francisco’s Civic Art Collection. The project will engage communities that have historically been excluded from discussions, produce an Audit report, create opportunities for artist-led activations in public space and support temporary installations that reimagine future monuments and memorials in our city. 

San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy. SFAC programs include: Civic Art Collection, Civic Design Review, Community Investments, Public Art, SFAC Galleries and Art Vendor Licensing.