this is what we want to do, we want to offer. let me give you two examples of upcoming exhibitions to illustrate how we further implement our brand, starting from today, but it is a journey that will take years. you want to implement our brand by stages, so we are constantly working on improving the service and visitor experience. one exhibition that is about to open all daymaharaja the splendor of india's royal courts. this will showcase 300 years of the indian art and culture. the exhibition will have world class objects such as a large -- it did not fit in the doors. we had to take the walls of of the back of the museum and moved

inside. on the way out, you may want to peak at the corner to see it. to protect a work of art, you have to let it sit for 24 hours to acclimatize. this tells you the caliber of the objects in the show. to the right is a wonderful piece of jewelry, a turbaned ornaments. the show also includes objects of multimedia. for example, the largest piece. it also includes paintings, sculptures, furniture, a tremendous collection of art. as always, our visitors can enjoy the excellence of individual works of art, on an individual basis, but would be what to do differently is to add a new dimension. we want to call out those stories. we want to object to talk about

themselves, to tell us what makes a maharaja. how did he conducts his public life? maha means big, raja means king. so literally, and baking. how did he live his everyday life? how did he conducts his religious duties? negotiatinart and politics is an marriage, in this case, too. so we want to offer our visitors multiple choices. you can enjoy the art on its own individual basis and focus on its artistic quality, stylistic dilution, but also, if you like, there are stories at your disposal to learn. you can make a journey of self discovery.

the maharajah has also inspired contemporary artists. engaging with the early contemporary artists like sanjay patel. is there a semblance between the two? i think it is there. we had given him a book, a catalog of the exhibition, showing the wonderful works of art in the show, including this one. he looked at this and fell in love with the objects in the show and came up with a fresh imbricate -- interpretation of what a maharajah is. this is only in detail of his great creation. not only did he increate fresh works of art, but work inspired by the works from the 300 years

of indian culture, but also, through hands lens, in joining these treasures. we can also use his work as a way to encourage visitors to the museum. this is a very strategic corner. anyone coming out of the bart station, across indicted nations square, you come to this corner. we want to improve the way finding in the city center, to our museum, to enable the visitors to have an easier time. this is sanjay's work.

today, we express our community power through parades, and demonstrations. this will help to to guide you to the asian art museum. we live in a historical district. we want to be respectful of the historical integrity and the duty but we're also here to improve service to the public, improved wind-finding, improve the arts in this area. we want our visitors, once they step inside the museum, before entering an exhibition, you will be able did give the evocative environment of the maharaja. these are some of the sketches. also, wayne-finding, processions. beyond this exhibit, next

spring, we have an exhibition at our museum will be doing for the first time in history. we will generate a self- organized major scale contemporary art exhibition called contemporary awakened the past. the subtitle capture of one dimension of our vision, which is making a connection between the past, present, and future, but we want to cross the contemporary art program with our unique characteristics. where are was made, it was always contemporary. so we need to look at the art not only from the time of their making but also from today's perspective. they make a connection between the are being made today. this is one possible work of art.

we will and juxtaposed these contemporary works of art with these masterpieces from other collections, whether they were made 100 years ago or two dozen years ago. another thing we are doing, creating a super brand about our contemporary project, making the connection between the part of the past and art of today. the second unique thing about this exhibition is it will not only be presented in the special exhibition galleries, and will be presented also in the second and third for collection areas. in other words, the whole building is at the disposal of our visitors to engage, enable them to have an experience. making a concrete, active dialogue between the art of the past and the art of today. let me now in by our associate

curator of the south asian art to tell us about the detail of the maharajah, as well, snjay patel to tell us about his inspiration. >> we have already heard about the maharajah expedition -- exhibition, have seen some of sanjay's participation in it, but how did these alamance connect with one another? that is what we are trying to explore further. i have been interested in sanjay's work for some time now. not as much for the work itself, as for the process, because he, like many generations of artists before him, have been bringing stories of the past, subject matter from the past, back to life through their own art, making them into

relevant pieces of art with his unique style. that is what attracted my attention towards sanjay. what started out as a project to activate the exterior of the building became something completely different. it took on its own life. when sanjay came back to us with a body of work for what was supposed to be a simple exterior project, we were completely blown away. >> that is kind of you. first off, she is the smart one. she should know better to pick someone like me. thank you for recognizing my work and inviting me to participate with the museum. before i go into that -- i have to segue. there is one cool distinction

with the modern russia. i do not want to give away too much, but all the paintings, he has an awesome mustache. i feeling that is the son of a king. i notice there are not a lot of people here with moustaches except one. one particular person. mr. mayer has an awesome mustache. that is a great sign of his king weakness. it was really exciting. you hear awaken, expire. i am kind of cynical. that is like the corporate man telling me something. the fact is, they were already doing awaken and inspire. the fact that nick and his team got beyond the idea just speaks to the fact that the asian was already doing this great work. i was telling stories from my roots. when i got the e-mail, i was woken up.

she said, do you want to come by to do something with the exterior of the building? i would totally do it. i was open and inspired thanks to her. once i got the assignment, i started digging into the background of the maharajah. did i go down the rabbit hole. i feel like i am a pro, doing professional art for a long time now that fix our. the one no-no is you do not go off and start and finish something by yourself. typically at picks are, you show your early progression. you are showing it to the director. of course, being an idiot, i got totally obsessed and there went down the rabbit hole.

i worked on my birthday. i did not update my facebook. i just worked. i work for about a month. we were lucky and smart enough to set a deadline. in a month i showed her but i had. at that point, i had a two-hour presentation. i showed it to my friends at picks are. they said, you need to get some facts of it -- fresh air. we have a term known as a spanking. that means you have to discipline it, and trim the fat. we were able to get it to a manageable size. i brought it to the museum. i showed it and apparently it did not stop. happy picks are ending. there was more good news in store, but i will let her explain that. >> the next year project quickly became something bigger than that.

it became a second phone call which was, would you like to do a collaborative project where your work is in dialogue, in the same space as amazing work from our collection? that led to another product we are working on, which will open after maharajah, on the second floor of the gallery. here is a preview of what it will look like. >> that is cool. i do not care if anybody else likes it. that is like the inside of my mind. i'm so happy with this room. i hope you all come back to check it out. we came up with a fund title as well. the museum was marred and serious. the bees, and demons, and views of staches.

i think the exhibition opens november 11. i have one more surprise today. i know you want to check out the show, but i have one more surprise. jay put me up to some work. he said, sunday, i am going to give you permission to put your mark on the asian. what does that mean? i think i know i want to do but i do not want to get arrested because -- this is the city. graffiti is not cool. i do not know, i'm going to try something. bear with me. i'm going to invite everyone else to put their mark on the asian as well. i am going to kick us off first. do not arrest me. i am sorry, nick. no pressure. i am a big fan of staches, so i

will start with a beautiful sta che. while i do this, i want to invite -- stick around, is going to get there. how about that? jay, nick, mayor, please come up and put your mark on the asian. akiko, tony, please come and make your mark. please come up and put your mark on the asian.

a hundred kids actively participating in our programming. it doesn't stop here, we're continuing the momentum and

continuing to grow. and like those students, we want to make sure that college becomes the rule and not the exception. so i want to thank everyone here who is gathered here today. and because of all you in the room, you have contributed time, resources, advocacy, energy, to make this dream a reality. so thank you all for coming. i want to introduce some -- everyone here is a v.i.p. and i thank people for coming. they are behind me. first of all, mayor lee, mayor of san francisco. please give him a round of applause. [applause] >> and supervisor malia cohen from district 10. thank you very much. who is doing an awesome job representing district 10. we want to make sure she is on board. she's been a great supporter

since she was elected to the board of supervisors so we thank you, again, supervisor cohen. with that, and one last person i want to introduce is randy lenit. randy is a graduate of college track oakland, a graduate of san francisco state university with a degree in civil engineering and randy was instrumentally involved in planning this entire building. you'll hear randy's story in a little while. round of applause for randy. and so with that, i would like to invite mayor lee up. thank you. mayor lee: thank you, omar. and thank you, everybody, for coming to college track. what a wonderful, wonderful name and a beautiful goal. you know, i don't know if you know this, during my college years i worked for this program called the upward bound program and i did that for about 3 1/2 years. during those years in the 1970's, it was about just

persuading parents to let their kids try to get a college education. what we didn't know at the time, for, particularly, low-income kids, and kids from challenged neighborhoods, was there was a lot more than just persuasion at work. there was a lot of dissuasion going on with our kids, a lot of distractions. and over the years old, working with programs like college track and bridge to success, we learned a few things in partnership with our school district. rich caransaz is here today, in partnership with wonderful non-profits and our business and philanthropic communities, many are here to support this today, we learned there was more than just persuasion to be done. if you look at kids going through high school these days, if they're there, and if we're

preventing truancy, they're there sometimes alone. they're there with tremendous financial pressures, community pressures to do things other than seek success for themselves. and so we figured some of those things out and it led to needing to have a place for additional support to happen and there's where this wonderful program called college track has appeared with us. and i'm here today to signify the first success, because i know in june, the first class, although we started in 2007, the first class graduated this june and 100% of that class is going to college. isn't that wonderful? and did you know that 85% of that graduating class are kids that are first time going to college for their families, the first in their families to do

so. that's another great goal. [applause] as omar said earlier, there's a bunch of us that sometimes we're v.i.p.'s but i really think the v.i.p.'s today are the college track kids that are right here with the blue shirts. thank you very much for -- thank you very much for joining this wonderful, wonderful program. we're here today in this beautiful -- looks like a shell right now but if you see the designs, you'll see how wonderful this will be filled in. it's the additional 13,000 square feet that's going to more than double the number of kids that we'll reach out. and i want to especially thank someone who's been working alongside with me for many years and his leadership along with the redevelopment commission. i want to give a personal thanks to fred backwell.

fred, take a bow, fred. fred blackwell and malia cohen and so many other wonderful people who have really been leading this effort to revitalize the whole of bayview hunters point and third street but i know fred's heart has been in this from day one. i've watched him. i've worked with him. and i know that he's gone through every emotion in life to bring revitalization and hope in this neighborhood and now on the eve of his so many successes going on and we shared some tears with him a few weeks ago when we announced the alice griffin from neighborhood choice program. we knew that that, along with college track, and his droction

droction -- direction in getting this building and his leadership not only in redevelopment -- work with our school district, working with city college, working with san francisco state university, working with the private sector. he's crowning so many things before he leaves to be the deputy city administrator in oakland. i want to thank you, fred, for all your wonderful leadership and your commitment here. [applause] i know that college is going to be a reflection of everyone's success here and from the years that i worked in upward bound to now, i want to congratulate the kids who are here right now. because, guess what, not only have you joined a very successful program that will work very hard on your behalf to deal with things like academic affairs, college affairs, student aid, to get you where you need to have a sustainable

economic forecasting so that you can be successful there, but you're also joining a a very exclusive club that i think will be more and more kids coming from this neighborhood. you have just committed to joining the million dollar club. did you know that? the million dollar club, do you know what that is? the million dollar club is the difference between a high school diploma and a college degree. it's the difference in economic income that you will earn relative to those who don't graduate and go to college. that's the million dollar club. you're joining that club and you're going to make yourself successful and by the way, as you do your part in graduating from college, we, in the city, working together with all of the different entities here, we're going to do our part to make sure we create and sustain the jobs that you want, the best kind of jobs, the high-tech jobs coming in. the life science jobs, the jobs that are going to make a

difference in your lives. we will do. that we will keep those jobs here in san francisco so that when you graduate if college, those jobs will be there for you. how do you like that as an agreement? [applause] and i know there are so many partners. i see great partners in carmen policy and wilkes bashford and mrs. fisher is here and the board on behalf of college track, there are so many people that are participating in this because they have the same belief, they have the same knowledge that if we can help take care of those distractions that afford you the opportunity to keep focused on your education, we're going to do right, we're going to succeed, just like randy. randy's going to tell you about his engineering light that's about to be successful. he's going to work on many projects here in san francisco, right? we've got a lot of development going on in the city, successful

developments that will have those wonderful jobs, because that, at the end of it, is your prize. going to college is a sacrifice. you will be faced with distractions, no doubt about it. and we've identified those distractions with the college track program we have here so they don't become distractions for you, so you can focus on your education and focus on the goal. that's what i want to do and that will be the commitment of this mayor and this administration as long as we are here, we'll get the jobs to you and keep supporting these wonderful programs. thank you very much for being here at college track. [applause] >> thank you very much, mr. mayor. i would like to invite supervisor cohen up to speak, please. thank you. >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, once upon a time ago, about six, seven years ago, i met a man named ed

lee and he was a quiet little bureaucrat. he was an administrator -- actually, no, before that, he was the director of d.p.w. and then an administrator. he just did what he was told to do and worked very hard at doing it and was very diligent and now over the last nine months, i've had the opportunity to watch him blossom into a mayor and to listen to his speak, he's so mayoral. i mean, there was a time he would start his opening remarks would be two or three minutes and that would be it. and now i have to follow him on the program, of course, i yield to him. but i have to follow him and he takes every last one of my talking points. every last one of them. so when he wasn't mayoral, when he was a bureaucrat, it was much easier to speak after him. nowadays, it's really a tough act to follow so i just want to say publicly, thank the mayor r