A drab stretch of alley in San Francisco\u2019s South of Market will be transformed into a vibrant art walk under a plan approved this week.<\/p>\n
The art will be a permanent component of the Minna Natoma Streetscape Project, a public works project to provide a safer, more entertaining walk along two blocks of one-way alleys that parallel Mission and Howard streets and connect New Montgomery Street to Third Street.<\/p>\n
The goal is to provide a safe and scenic connector between the Transbay Terminal east of Second Street and Yerba Buena Gardens west of Third. Minna and Natoma both run into the back side of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which collaborated on the project. A side benefit will be to introduce the work of Bay Area artists to people who park in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art garage on Minna Street and walk to the entrance on Howard Street.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur local artists bring life and energy to San Francisco’s streets by welcoming people to our galleries and museums, and now they\u2019re literally bringing art to our streets,\u201d said Mayor Daniel Lurie\u00a0in a statement introducing the project. \u201cPublic art like this turns an everyday commute into something joyful and encourages people to discover new corners of their community.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minna Natoma Art Corridor will mostly be underfoot, consisting of inlaid asphalt art in a variety of bright colors and patterns to be paved into the roadway along 800 feet of street pavement and street furniture composed of sculptural interpretations of benches, bollards and bicycle racks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The artworks will provide the finishing touches to a major streetscape improvement project\u00a0along New Montgomery and Natoma, which includes widened sidewalks on Natoma and Minna, raised pedestrian crosswalks at intersections, new traffic signals and enhanced lighting. Installation of the art is expected to begin in spring of 2027 and be completed by summer.<\/p>\n
The budget for the streetscape project is $8.5 million, which covers sewer, street and utility improvements. It is funded by development impact fees and the transit area benefit district. The art component will be funded by city fees on developers that underwrite public art and by construction budget administered by Public Works.<\/p>\n
The art will be maintained by the\u00a0Yerba Buena Partnership and will not become part of the Civic Art Collection. The five artists were selected in 2021 by a panel of arts professionals. The final design was approved by the Arts Commission Monday.<\/p>\n
The work of artists Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, Mel Vera Cruz and Muzae Sesay will be incorporated into the project\u2019s asphalt streetscapes. Artists Jesse Schlesinger and Masako Miki will contribute street furniture.<\/p>\n
These installations will add to art already along Minna Street. There are murals on the warehouse buildings, and a public arts initiative called Sites Unseen marks the entrance to the new art walk. Called \u201cLocal Color\u201d by Leah Rosenberg, it consists of brightly colored solid wall paintings on the side of the Academy of Art building at the corner of New Montgomery and\u00a0Minna.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reimagination of the Minna and Natoma corridors amplifies and uplifts the spirit of this vibrant San Francisco arts district with an incredible addition of public art reflecting the neighborhood\u2019s culture and history,\u201d said Public Works Director Carla Short. \u201cTogether with the accompanying infrastructure upgrades now underway, the improvements will create a safer, more inviting and visually engaging streetscape.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A drab stretch of alley in San Francisco\u2019s South of Market will be transformed into a vibrant art…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[449,458,8952,365761,459,64,63,485,460,134,6113],"class_list":["post-845019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-arts-and-exhibits","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-california","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-san-francisco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}