{"id":260476,"date":"2026-04-10T03:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T03:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/260476\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T03:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T03:16:07","slug":"bay-area-artist-inspired-by-pioneering-city-agency-fighting-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/260476\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area artist inspired by pioneering city agency, fighting climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the sand dunes near Ocean Beach in San Francisco, artist Alicia Escott<\/a>\u00a0felt the pull of history and the sense of loss, heartbreak, and grief. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“This is a profound reminder that these ghosts that are around us all the time, that I’ve been making work about. The ghosts of animals that have been displaced are all around us,” she murmured.<\/p>\n

When Escott talked about the ghosts on the dunes, she was referring to the Xerces Blue Butterfly<\/a>. The Xerces butterfly is the first butterfly species in North America to be driven to extinction due to human activities. The butterfly’s dune habitat was destroyed by humans for urban development.<\/p>\n

“I was really struck by that and started making work for it,” explained the artist.<\/p>\n

Escott is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans drawings, paintings, photographs, sculptures, videos, writing, performances, and research-driven experiments. Her art addresses what she calls “climate chaos,” mass extinctions, and political and social unrest.<\/p>\n

Now Escott is tackling a new project in an unusual setting. For 12 weeks, she is embedded in the San Francisco Environment Department<\/a>, thanks to a grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission<\/a>. Since 2015, the SFAC has placed about 15 artists in different city departments. This is the first time that the environment department has been involved.<\/p>\n

“Alicia is meeting with people across the entire department,” said Jax Puliatti, the strategic engagement lead at the environment department.<\/p>\n

“This is a first, we’re grateful for the opportunity, “added Joseph Piasecki, who is the public affairs and policy coordinator with the department.<\/p>\n

The San Francisco city agency, a global climate leader, was created 30 years ago by SF Voters.<\/p>\n

“Alicia is now looking back over those 30 years and seeing you know what happened before, what’s happening now and then how do we move that forward into the future,” said Puliatti.<\/p>\n

Escott will interview staff, attend meetings, take notes, and then create a new work of art for the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It could take the form of a book; it would take the form of a series of public engagements. It could take the form of a gallery,” mused the artist.<\/p>\n

The San Francisco Arts Commission runs the grant program, with money from the city’s hotel tax. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“Alicia’s work really stood out to us. She is someone who has been working and looking at the environment and looking at the impact of climate change for a very long time,” explained Jackie Im, the acting director of Galleries and Public Programs for SFAC.<\/p>\n

Piasecki said he was excited to see the final product.<\/p>\n

“Alicia’s work is really bringing a new lens to that focus and allowing just a very specific visual element to come through,” he noted.<\/p>\n

The artist will allow CBS New Bay Area to follow her progress. She is also enthusiastic about creating a new piece of art.<\/p>\n

“It’s about changing minds and changing hearts and not just collecting data,” she said.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the sand dunes near Ocean Beach in San Francisco, artist Alicia Escott\u00a0felt the pull of history and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[33216,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-260476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-project-earth","9":"tag-san-francisco","10":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","11":"tag-san-francisco-news","12":"tag-sf","13":"tag-sf-headlines","14":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}