Latest news with #SanFranciscoRecreationandParkDepartment
News18
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
San Francisco's 45-Foot Statue Of A Naked Woman Triggers Social Media Storm
Last Updated: The statue was installed last month with hopes it will attract more visitors and help boost economic activity in the city. San Francisco's Embarcadero Plaza is home to a new, eye-catching figure – a 45-foot tall statue of a naked woman. Named R-Evolution, this steel sculpture weighs 15,000 kg and shines with multicoloured lights. Created by artist Marco Cochrane, it is the final piece in his 'The Bliss Project' series, which debuted at the Burning Man festival in 2015. The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, together with The Sijbrandij Foundation and Building 180, installed the statue last month hoping it will attract more visitors and help boost economic activity in the city. Social media platforms have been buzzing with opinions. A user wrote on X, formerly Twitter, 'San Francisco unveiled their 45-foot statue of a nude woman Thursday at Embarcadero Plaza to attract tourism. The piece is titled 'R-Evolution.' SF continues to be plagued by crime, homeless and illegals. The city would have many more tourists if these issues were addressed." San Francisco unveiled their 45-foot statue of a nude woman Thursday at Embarcadero Plaza to attract tourism. The piece is titled 'R-Evolution."SF continues to be plagued by crime, homeless, and illegals. The city would have many more tourists if these issues were addressed. — Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) April 13, 2025 Another wrote, 'Public art is a waste of money." Public art is a waste of money.— Jakob Mi (@Jakob_Mi_) April 13, 2025 'This is not the way to attract more tourists," a comment read. Someone said, 'This is weird." 'And the point of that statue is what??" a user asked. The Recreation and Park Department defends the installation as gender representation in public art. According to their press release, 'Despite making up more than half the population, women are vastly underrepresented in public art, comprising only 8% of statues in the US. This sculpture challenges that imbalance, creating a powerful moment of visibility and reflection." R-Evolution is an impressive piece of art. Made with more than 55,000 steel welds, the statue moves slightly for one hour each day to look like it is breathing. At night, it lights up softly with colourful lights, turning Embarcadero Plaza into a beautiful spot to visit after dark. The artist Marco Cochrane explains his vision behind the sculpture: 'This sculpture is about being seen. Women's presence in public art is rare. When they are depicted, it is often through outdated or passive narratives. R-Evolution challenges that. She stands strong, aware and grounded, calling for a world where all people can walk freely and without fear." Cochrane's work focuses on empowering female figures in a way that breaks away from traditional portrayals. 'The Bliss Project' series, ending with R-Evolution, shows women not as passive objects but as powerful, self-aware beings. First Published:
Hindustan Times
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
45-foot statue of naked woman in San Francisco divides opinion: ‘Nobody asked for it'
The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department hopes that a giant statue of a naked woman – erected in Embarcadero Plaza – will boost footfall and enhance economic activity in the city. But not everyone's happy about it. According to a report in The Sun, several locals have taken to social media to register their protest against the 45-foot statue of a naked woman that went up last month in San Francisco, California. The sculpture, named R-Evolution, is made of steel, illuminated with multicoloured lights, and weighs a whopping 15,000 kg. It is the third and final sculpture in Marco Cochrane's series, The Bliss Project, originally created for and debuted at the Burning Man festival in 2015. The 45-foot statue has been displayed in San Francisco through a collaboration between the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, The Sijbrandij Foundation and Building 180. According to a press release from the department, 'despite making up more than half the population, women are vastly underrepresented in public art, comprising only 8% of statues in the US. This sculpture challenges that imbalance, creating a powerful moment of visibility and reflection.' "This sculpture is about being seen," says artist Marco Cochrane. "Women's presence in public art is rare. When they are depicted, it is often through outdated or passive narratives. 'R-Evolution challenges that. She stands strong, aware, and grounded—calling for a world where all people can walk freely and without fear." The 45-foot sculpture greeting ferry visitors in San Francisco has divided opinion. Some locals say they were blindsided when the statue first appeared, others have called it obscene. 'Somebody put up a 45' naked lady statue in San Francisco, nobody asked for it. Now you have to walk between her legs to get from the Ferry building to the Embarcadero,' wrote one X user. 'They seem like they are focused on absolutely everything except the things that matter,' another said. 'A giant, naked woman blocking the proud, iconic Ferry Building is a perfect metaphor for San Francisco these days,' said Republican John Dennis.
San Francisco Chronicle
25-05-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
Golden Gate Park's WWI monument finally gets recognition, a century after armistice
Heroes Grove, the World War I monument hidden in a redwood grove in Golden Gate Park, has always been impossible to find. But everybody can find the Rose Garden next to it, and now Ken Maley, a non-veteran San Francisco parks devotee, has found a way to link the two attractions. Maley, who is 80 and lives across town on Telegraph Hill, arranged to have a one-ton granite boulder trucked in to the entrance to the Rose Garden at John F. Kennedy Drive. It is engraved like a tombstone with the words 'Heroes Grove' and inlaid with a QR code that he says is a first for any monument or memorial in the park. The QR code works through a smartphone to access the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department website, which then gives a detailed history and description of the World War I memorial along with a park map and walking directions to the monument. The stone marker, which was trucked in from a quarry just last week, was installed in time for Memorial Day, and on Sunday morning Maley was sitting discreetly on a green park bench near it, waiting to see if it would attract enough attention to send people up the trail behind it and onto a 10-minute nature walk through redwoods to Heroes Grove. 'I've watched people look at the QR code and walk up the trail,' said Maley, who is project director of the Veterans Commemorative Committee and has put 10 years and a $50,000 budget into installing the first signage to Heroes Grove since it was dedicated on Memorial Day 1919. 'I just felt that 100 years after the war people should understand that we have this living memorial to it.' Heroes Grove, which began as public sentiment for planting a grove of coast redwoods to those who served, predates the city's main monument to the Great War — the War Memorial War Memorial Veterans Building and Opera House. Its grand opening in 1932 was to feature a granite monument in the courtyard between the two buildings, contributed by the Gold Star Mothers. The 9-foot pillar was engraved with the names of 820 men and women from San Francisco. But the big oblong rock was judged to be incompatible to the Beaux Arts elegance of the Opera House and Veterans Building, so it was banished to the park, where it went completely unmarked for 100 years. Among those who did not know Heroes Grove existed was Maj. Gen. Mike Myatt, a longtime member of the Board of Trustees for the War Memorial, who served on Maley's board. Myatt was president and CEO of Marines Memorial when Maley drove him out on a field trip. 'It really moved me when you started looking at the names,' Myatt said, 'But I could see how nobody could find it and if they found it they wouldn't know what it was.' On Memorial Day 2019, Maley and his committee got a boulder that is 5 feet wide and 3 feet tall installed along JFK Drive in a ceremony that included a color guard and veterans in World War I uniforms. The rock is easy to spot from JFK Drive, but there has never been an arrow or obvious path from there to the grove itself, and most people who see it are on bikes or running down the path toward Ocean Beach and not inclined to stop and investigate. 'It is amazing and so peaceful here, but I never see anyone looking at the monument,' said Julie Purnell, who lives in the Richmond District and runs her dog along the pathway. 'It is right off Fulton Street, and nobody knows it is here.' In hopes of applying a lure, Maley last week had that stone marker on JFK also embedded with a QR code that was drilled into the rock and is the size of a compact disc. 'It's the new wave of 'interpretive' in our park system,' Maley said. 'This is the pilot project.' It worked with Sunset District resident James Larkin and his wife, Felicia Lee. 'When we saw the stone marked 'Heroes Grove,'' Larkin said, 'I thought, 'What heroes are we talking about? Is it 9/11? World War II?' They were intrigued enough to investigate and follow the path in from JFK Drive, through the memorial and down to the Rose Garden where the path delivered them next to the bench that Maley was sitting on. 'It's spectacular,' Lee said. 'We loved walking through there and getting a hit of nature and a hit of history.' While conducting his surveillance, Maley overheard one couple look at the rock in passing and exclaim 'Oh, it's called Heroes Grove.' That made it all worthwhile. 'For 100 years, people didn't call it anything,' Maley said. Bruce and Kerry Grigson, visitors from Australia, knew all about Gallipoli but not about American involvement in the Great War or that they happened to be visiting on Memorial Day weekend. They felt compelled to follow the path from the Rose Garden to Heroes Grove. 'It's a bit of a privilege to be here on memorial weekend,' Grigson said, while standing at the memorial reading the engraving. 'It's amazing. I didn't know any of this.' Maj. Gen. Myatt, who is 84 and retired in Sonoma, plans to come down with his iPhone and activate the code next week when has a medical appointment at the VA hospital. 'Then I can show it to my wife and anybody who comes along,' he said. 'It's a piece of history that says something about the people of San Francisco.'
San Francisco Chronicle
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco approves Grateful Dead 60th anniversary concerts at Golden Gate Park
Thousands of Deadheads are expected to descend on Golden Gate Park this summer now that the San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission approved a three-day concert to mark the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead. The event will feature surviving members Bob Weir and Mickey Hart playing along with Dead & Company, their ensemble of musician friends — guitarist John Mayer, bassist Oteil Burbridge, pianist Jeff Chimenti and drummer Jay Lane — at the Polo Fields on Aug. 1-3. A spokesperson from the agency said the commission voted yes at its meeting on Thursday, May 15. It's official! @deadandcompany will perform 3 concerts at Golden Gate Park's Polo Fields on August 1, 2 & 3, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead. Mayor @DanielLurie announced the proposal on Monday, which was approved by the Rec & Park Commission today. — San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (@RecParkSF) May 15, 2025 San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, who championed the proposal, emphasized the city's deep connection to the Grateful Dead. 'What better way to celebrate?' Lurie said in a social media post earlier this week. 'We'll see you out here.' The outdoor concerts will be organized by Another Planet Entertainment, in collaboration with Live Nation and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department. The event is expected to draw up to 60,000 people per day Lurie anticipates the concerts will generate millions in economic activity, benefiting San Francisco's hotels, restaurants, and small businesses. A similar Dead & Company show in 2023 at Oracle Park contributed $31 million to the local economy. This summer's performances will commemorate the Grateful Dead's 1965 debut as the Warlocks. The event will also mark the first local performances since the death of bassist Phil Lesh in October 2024. Phil Ginsburg, general manager of the Recreation and Park Department, called the concert a 'powerful tribute' to both the Grateful Dead's legacy and the park's cultural history.
San Francisco Chronicle
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Free concert series returns to downtown San Francisco this summer
A popular downtown concert series is returning for a second year as part of a broader push to revitalize the city's urban core through free public events and cultural programming, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced Friday, May 2. In partnership with Another Planet Entertainment, the promotion company behind the annual Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate Park, and the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, the 2025 series will kick off June 14 at Embarcadero Plaza with the second annual Back 2 Baysics concert, featuring San Francisco electronic music label Dirtybird. The event follows a successful 2024 season that drew tens of thousands to Union Square, Civic Center Plaza and Embarcadero Plaza. 'Last year's shows brought thousands of people to our downtown, and we're building on that momentum,' said Mayor Lurie. 'Our arts and culture are helping to drive San Francisco's comeback, and this is a perfect example of that energy.' The concert series is part of a three-year agreement with Another Planet Entertainment, which also includes two to three ticketed concerts at the Polo Field the weekend following the Outside Lands Festival. 'Last year was such an incredible cross-section of the San Francisco community,' Bryan Duquette, a member of Another Planet Entertainment's core executive team, said in a statement. 'San Francisco feels alive right now!' The deal supports city parks and brings significant foot traffic downtown — last year's Embarcadero concert nearly tripled local attendance on a typical Sunday, according to the mayor's office. The full lineup of events will be announced at a later date. 'Events like these remind us that our public spaces are for everyone,' said Phil Ginsburg, head of the Recreation and Park Department. 'Our downtown plazas are vibrant, joyful places where people can dance, connect, and experience the magic of live music together.'
