FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT: megawilson@aol.com

Artist Megan Wilson’s follow-up to her Art/Lit Living Innovation Zone (LIZ) Public Art Project & Residency with the Asian Art Museum

www.FlowerInterruption.com

When:
Week of May 7 - 11, 2018
Wilson will be hand delivering her silkscreened broadside letters to San Francisco City Leaders and Civic Center Commons Stakeholders.

Where:
City Hall, City Agencies, CCC Stakeholder Offices

Who:
Megan Wilson, inaugural artist of the Art/Lit Living Innovation Zone, Asian Art Museum, Civic Center Commons

What:
An action to hand-deliver a silkscreened broadside letter/artwork outlining recommendations for the Civic Center Commons Initiative and Civic Center Public Realm to city leaders, planners, and community stakeholders of the Civic Center Commons

Megan Wilson was selected by the Asian Art Museum in 2017 to be the inaugural artist of the Art/Lit Living Innovation Zone in the Civic Center Commons.

During Wilson’s 4-month residency (May – August) at the Asian Art Museum, painting her large flowers almost everyday, all day on the sidewalks of Fulton and Larkin streets, Wilson and her assistants spoke on average with 40-50 people each day. These encounters allowed for the artist to become more engaged and familiar with the area’s communities and stakeholders – their experiences, perceptions, concerns, and hopes for the Civic Center commons.

Currently the Civic Center is in the midst of major changes: “The Civic Center Public Realm Plan, a process that is now underway, will create a long-term vision for improvements to Civic Center’s plazas, streets, and other public spaces. The plan will build on the Civic Center Commons Initiative’s current efforts and major new investments such as the Helen Diller Civic Center Playgrounds, which are building momentum for the plan’s future capital investment and sustainable management plan.” (http://www.civiccentercommons.org/public-realm-plan/)

Following her residency, Wilson also participated in the Civic Center Public Realm Plan Community Workshop 1 in November, 2017.

In addition to being an active artist in San Francisco for over 20 years, including being the co-director of Clarion Alley Mural Project for 10 years, one of the city’s most vital and visited public art spaces, Wilson has worked with community-based organizations and communities in the neighborhoods bordering the Civic Center (Tenderloin, Mid-Market, and SoMa) for almost 20 years as a non-profit development/ planning consultant and community activist.

Based on these experiences, Wilson created a 22" x 30" silkscreened letter/artwork to San Francisco's Mayor, Board of Supervisors, Civic Center Commons leadership team, and stakeholders providing recommendations for the Civic Center plan. The letter was written and designed by Wilson and printed by master printer Calixto Robles.

In early February, 2018 Wilson was invited to meet with Amy Cohen, Director, Neighborhood Program Development with the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development and Julie Flynn, Project Manager, Civic Center Commons Initiative at the San Francisco Planning Department after they had learned of Wilson’s recommendations, prior to its printing. During the meeting, Wilson went through each of her recommendations with Cohen and Flynn, discussing each one in detail.

Based on this discussion, both Cohen and Flynn expressed that they believe that all of the recommendations for the Civic Center Commons will be able to be met.

Wilson’s letter with her complete list of recommendations, can be viewed here:
https://www.flowerinterruption.com/letter-to-ccc-initiative-stakeholders/

A framed copy of Wilson’s letter/broadside is also currently on view as part of the exhibition ARISE! The Power of Political Art at 518 Valencia: The Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics – more info on the exhibition can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/443496329433902/

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