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welcome to culturewire. on march 18 the san francisco arts commission hosted the 2010 mayor's artwork. the mayor's arts award was established to honor an individual artist with a lifetime of outstanding achievement in the art and civic life. this year's award is to none other than carlos santana.

before the award ceremony, the director of cultural affairs had a chance to sit down with carlos to ask him a few questions. >> once a year, mayor gavin newsom gets to select one distinguished individual to receive the mayor's arts award. in 2010,á(át that distinguished individual was none other than the legendary musician carlos santana. carlos, it is so great for the city to be able to recognize you. given all of your accomplishments already, from the awards, all of the other distinctions you have received, what does it mean for you to get the mayor's part award? >> i am very grateful, moved.

i always want to be in the company of illuminaries like cesar chavez. people making a difference, but to people's hearts. giving people a sense of tangible hope. one thing is to be famous, it is quite another for people to like you. i am grateful for this award. it is another blessing. i do not take it for granted. this is an incredible city. everywhere i go, i tell everyone that this is the atlantis of today. there is no other city in the world -- i have been everywhere. there is nothing like san

francisco. in fact, to me, it is not even the united states. you can see how fox network always attacks us. we do not have an inferiority complex. we just do not follow blindly. we question authority. as i said before, a person for person, there are more artists and con artists in the bay area. >> you are someone who has identified so strongly with the bay area. a lot of it reflects the values that you also identify with. i know that you have been promoting an idea for a work of public art that could be pretty transformative. could you talk about that? >> peace brother is something

that i saw, i think in the 1980's there was this lady. she started back there and converted -- she went to the neighborhood and was collecting the guns from some of the gang members. she had it melted and turned into angels. we want to do the same thing and take it to the next level we want to build a boom box by his feet, he will be 7 feet tall. this will be made up of military guns. the boom box will be playing some great songs. marvin gaye. john legenlennon. bob marley. sam cooke. >> songs that really touch people deeply. >> i have come to a place where i call it the sound of

maternity. bob dylan calls it eternal young. i think there are certain songs that help you live without fear. when you are living in fear, you invest in violence. fear is expensive, just ask president bush. inn love. and what marvin gaye says is true, war is not the answer, only love can conquer hate. these things are not cliches, they are truisms. if we implement them, you will see a transformation in the bay area, richmond, oakland, the mission. all places where we need to

dismantle the violence, the fear, the unnecessary pain that goes on. >> you are a person that has lived a pretty miraculous life. pretty extraordinary what you have accomplished, the range of people you have been able to touch with your music. you chose a beautiful word in spanish for your foundation -- miracle. could you talk about what the foundation has been able to do? >> we are able to empower and give young people a way for them to develop their own decisions. i started with my own vision. there are people like andre agassi who helped finance. desmond tutu. in essence, in the bay area, like on larkin street, i want to

see people invest more in people. i love the giants stadium, but i want to see cumins investing in a humans, instead of expensive. expensive buildings. i love to see the mayor and governor invest more in education than in incarcerations. so i am committed with the music and the platform that i have, if i have to, to give a little spanking to those who need to break up. we spend way too much on weapons. all the money that we spend on tv advertising, gears of war, that is stupidity. in new zealand, they passed a law that said that you could not sell it. all those games about killing

people. they do not want it. to me, i'd equate that with columbine, with war. once you desensitize a human being, you cannot tell the difference between shooting someone in a video game and a real person. some people can be gentle and kind. i can be ghetto when i want to be. i grew up with the black panthers doing peace and freedom benefits for them. so on the one hand i like the softness of spirituel the day, but i also like the energy that you need to be a warrior where you need to be. i love martin luther king, but also malcolm x, sometimes you have to really hold your ground.

compassion, kindness, education. rather than more killing. >> when you graduated in 1965, it was the height of the civil- rights movement. you just alluded to the environment that you were growing up in. as a young musician, what was it like for you in san francisco at the time? >> it was heaven on earth. we would go down to the fillmore and see these great band, the doors, and jimi hendrix, cream, and then go down to the grove to see other music. you could go to the mission district to hear mexican. everywhere i went there was this multi dimensional color and i

felt like it was on necessary for me to do just one. like baskin-robbins, i want all the flavors. you cannot just be a mexican play music. there is a lot of beauty in that, but it was not for me. i was born without arms around my heart that wants to embrace everything. palestine's, israelis. japanese, apaches. i am more concentrated with life and love than flags, nationality, religion. that stuff gets in the way. one gets in the way is me, myself, my story. for me, that is why music is liberating.

when you hear "imagine" anywhere in the world, people sang the lyrics. as soon as you hear the melody -- same thing with a bob marley song. i grew up taking everything from bob dylan, curtis mayfield, the beatles, smokey robinson. mike alma mater was the streets of san francisco. i would dare to go to school. where i really hung out was at the fillmore. that was my university, checking out be the king, and james brown, a cream. finding out how they were able to penetrate people's hearts. with their music. once you do that, something happens to their eyes. they become brighter.

they start crying, they do not know why. they start dancing. it is like when a woman gives birth. =mmfirst, she cries and then she laughs. later on, she dances. and that, to me, is the beauty of what san francisco is about. >> one final question, and we are going to link it to your music today. such a rich legacy that you are giving us. you mentioned to me that you are working on a new album. could you share what is coming up? >> i love to dream when i am awake. kand so i had this dream of working with india arie and yo- yo ma to do the george harrison saw; and "-- song.

this is the definitive way to do this. we are all in it together, we do not leave anybody out. t conviction, i am one of the few people that you can recognize by one note. god gave me that universal tone, and that is what we want to implement in all the songs. thank you. >> carlos santana, thank you for accepting the 2010 mayor's part award. >> to watch the ceremony, visit the home page of the arts commission website, sfarts commission

captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> is honor to bring you together as often as we can to celebrate the arts in san francisco. tonight is the night but we want to celebrate each other and not only our incredible honorees,

but all of the artists in the community who give to the city of san consist of. one of the main reasons why san francisco is such a special place and remains one of the world's greatest destinations, the arts. we need to make sure that our leaders remember that. but tonight is not for talking about budgets, it is about celebrating one of the greatest artists of any time, our time. how good is carlos santana [applause] -- as carlos santana of? -- carlos santana? [applause] an internationally renowned artist that lives his life with

the generosity of a social worker, but is one of the biggest stars in the world today. he is also an international superstar who always keeps his heart here in san francisco and the bay area and we are so fortunate to have someone like him that always comes home to us to perform, held the community, just to be with us. he is an expert -- he is an incredibly special person and we are honored to be able to honor him tonight. quickly i would like to bring up -- you cannot do this alone, we have the help of many city departments throughout the year, we needed sponsors from the private sector as well. we had a wonderful partner for the past few years, louise came

on the scene with "the san francisco examiner, who has underwritten tonight's events half. without further ado of would like to invite the publisher, john wilcox, to come and say couple of words. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. like so many other nights in this great city, tonight is special. not just because of the award being received, which honors otter this from generations who have made this city great and have been made great by the city. no city invites the hard to soar like san francisco does. and renowned san francisco and

may have set a better when she said the some of them -- synonym for san francisco is inspiration. most people think that cities inspire leaders and leaders inspire cities, but i would like to add that artists inspired cities and cities inspire artists. who knows which in print -- which inspiration comes first? it does not really matter, what matters is that happens. right here in our city, generation after generation. we are proud to participate tonight in the recognition of one of music's greatest artists. to continue to fulfill the pledge from one year ago to expand the coverage of the arts and support arts in our community. we want to thank you for allowing us to move out on this rewarding mission, thanking you

for the opportunity to serve tonight on this stage and on the stage that is our city, every day of the week. we are honored to share this night with one of the musical greats of all time. we want to congratulate carlos on a wonderful, outstanding career and on his award tonight. thank you, everyone. [applause] >> so, the first time that i saw carlos santana was when i graduated from high school in angels camp, he played some legendary shows there with the grateful dead. a lot of incredible memories followed, filling the auditorium, carlos's superstar status went through the roof in

the 1990's and continues today. the last time that i saw him was at the amphitheater with 25,000 people. everyone in this room, mostly everyone in this room, has seen santana of at least a few times. i know that everyone appreciates what an incredible artists he is. it is really special to be able to acknowledge that, as someone who receives his fair share of recognition but comes home to be with san francisco, a lot of the work that went into -- the mayor had the good judgment to recognize carlos, but staff did a lot of work to make this happen. no one more so than our executive director, louise, who has been the helm of this agency for the last two years.

[applause] >> thank you. we could not ask for a better president of the arts commission published than dee jay johnson. [applause] let's take a moment to also thank john wilcox and staff at the san francisco examiner. they really have been partners with many of the arts community and organizations, as well as the arts commission. many of you will remember that when we saw the installation, the examiner helped to spread the word throughout the city by printing 100,000 copies of the handouts that were distributed

for an entire year while he got his sound insulation installed in city hall. they have been extraordinary partners on many occasions. thank you so much. i was blessed when i came to san francisco to have found extraordinary, talented, dedicated, hard-working, more than 40 hours per week staff. i would like to thank them, please join me in thanking this hard-working staff. they really deserve it, they were -- will work tirelessly on behalf of arts and culture in the city, and they never punch a clock. they are extraordinary. this evening we have a double celebration. not only do we have literally a rock star robbery -- pottery --

honoree, but hundreds of arts organizations here in san francisco, in the year approved, 2009, we can celebrate the good fortune of these people calling at home. we thank you, the artists in the art organization, for making san francisco your home. [applause] yesterday we had the privilege of starting the day with the chairman of the nea. we were allowed to give a cuff

overview to the chairman of the creative committee of san francisco. in a way we were also the warm- up act for the mayor. the chairman wanted to meet with the mayor. you had the chairman of the national endowment, connected to many grants and initiatives we were competing for. he decided to enter the larger meeting and join us. 15 minutes into that meeting i was starting to get worried because the conversation had not gotten to the talking points that the staff had worked on so hard. suddenly, an artist was revealed.

he masterfully guided the conversation and spoke so eloquently about the importance of art in the city. by the time that the chairman left, hohe was totally convinced the sentences that would be one of the pilot cities. without stealing any of the limelight from the honoree, i wanted to thank the mayor for all of the support that he gives the arts. [applause] >> a couple of more thank you's, the food has generously been so wide -- supplied by [lists names of restaurants] and check out the cake in the likeness of carlos santana.

a hand for the generous donations of those sponsors. thank you. the next person needs no introduction, except to say that in the six years that the mayor has been heading this city, he has really looked out for the arts in this community. the fact is that through the good times, the mayor expanded funding for the arts in san francisco. in the difficult times, he protected funding for the arts, which is hard to do, and brave, given the priorities that the city has to keep in mind. with that, i would like to bring to the stage, your mayor, gavin knew some --