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.

>> so thank you. i want to welcome everyone to a very exciting announcement around a pilot project we are kicking off today. and i also want to welcome everyone to one of the most parking challenged neighborhoods in san francisco, russian hill. i think it is well known that i do not own a car for good reason. but one thing i do want to mention is i used to live on russian hill. i actually did own a car for six months. it was a miserable experience. not just the cost of car ownership and gas and insurance and repairs, but every single night i had to spend half an hour looking for parking and when i didn't do a good job of

parking, sfmta provided me with a ticket. so it was a very exciting moment when about two years ago, then city add vater -- administrator ed lee and i had a conversation with the c.e.o. of car share about what we could do to expand car share in the neighborhood that is incredibly defense and that does not have the parking lots and the garages where city car share and zip car often put their cars. we know we have very challenged streets when it comes to transits. everyone who rides a car, anyone who tries to take a bus, tries to catch a cab knows the challenges we have in these very dense neighborhoods. so the thought of expanding car sharing, which you will hear often takes anywhere from 10 to 15 cars off the streets, was something that we wanted to try here on russian hill. my office worked with several russian hill neighborhood associations to suggest places on our streets for car sharing

to become a reality. i want to thank mayor lee for his commitment literally now almost two years ago to work with my office, the sfmta, city administrator's office to really figure out how we can roll out this new and exciting pilot project. and you're going to hear more about these details but the thing i will say in conclusion is with the city family coming together, we're going to provide another transit option for all of san francisco to hopefully bring us closer to our vision of a transit first city. with that i would like to welcome mayor lee to russian hill and welcome mayor lee has been a champion for car sharing and obviously making sure we have a transit first city. and i would like to invite him to say a few words. >> good morning. thank you, president chiu. yes, it was over two years ago where we began this conversation. but it also began with our own city fleet. and we were talking with city car share and zip car about how

we can share vehicles and reduce carbon emissions and all of those great goals that mayor gavin newsome had announced that we wanted to really do enthusiastically. so if you see right in front of city hall the example that we gave everybody, the green car showcase, that began with our effort to signal that we were willing to even give up city parking spaces. you know how valuable city parking spaces are, we have wars within city government around who's parking spaces those are. but to signal a big culture change, one that we felt was important to our future of the city in reducing cars, we made it our own goal to reduce our own city fleet and begin with that commitment first. so we did it, we did it with everybody's cooperation, m.t.a., city administrator as well as our purchaser to create that green car showcase. but we also realize there are many parts of the city as david

mentioned that don't have ready access to public garages. so it was for us a challenge but one that we were very enthusiastic to try to pilot with city car share, and that is to get it into our most congested residential areas, like russian hill and the area. so this is one of at least five spots that are happening and in fact around this area we're going to begin here first because we have a lot of residential support for this as well. and i look forward to the other six spots that we have already identified, have been under planning discussions with our city administrator, with our m.t.a., bring in a neighborhood where i live in glen park and also bay view, also dog patch, those areas as well as the outer sunset and inner sunset. those areas as well where we can really benefit from car sharing. i got educated really quickly over 2 1/2 years ago about a

culture change in sharing cars. and while i know in this city we're trying to retain families and i know david is still single, so he's going tible for while to get without a car. once you get married, david and one there's that first child, then the pressure of having a vehicle becomes a very big reality. and to have alternatives do that, and i think in reality terms, it's not so much just that first vehicle, really it's to prevent families from having to think about a second vehicle when they live in these residential tight areas. to use muni as much as possible. this is where we want to go. and i think we have a great partner to begin with in city car share because as a nonprofit, they know and they really have been working with us closely, not only with our own fleet but now the exposure to residential areas. i can't wait to get car sharing into even public housing. because you have seen some of the large parking areas near

public housing and to be able to use that space to car share for our low-income residents and make sure they don't feel the pressures to have to not only buy a car to get around the city to their jobs but also to repair their cars on those very valuable open spaces that we have. that's going to be i think a big culture change as well. i'm a big fan of this and i have been gratified in working with david chiu on this incredible experiment that i think is going to prove very successful. and the great thing about it is that the inertia is coming from residents themselves. they're willing to offer up very positive way their own spaces they have been competing for every single night to be able to use car sharing as a philosophy. i think that will come into very good practice, as has been with our own city fleet. i want to congratulate david for working with city government and all of the agencies here and also with city car share to have

a great partner in doing this. >> thank you, mayor lee, and thank you for a way in mentioning my marital status in a way that will stress out my mother. i also want to echo one thing mayor lee just said, for folks who have to own cars in san francisco, they may ask what is the benefit of on street car sharing for them. for every car we put on the street, we are taking every car off the street. we're making it easier for everyone to find parking spaces. i also want to mention in the past couple years there are a number of initiatives in the car-sharing space in san francisco. i required new developments to update the car sharing responses they have in their garages and spaces so again we can expand this throughout the city. one incredible partner in this effort has been our san francisco m.t.a. and i want to invite up ed risken, who has been a champion of many modes of

transit but particularly car sharing, to say a few words today. ed? >> thank you, president chew -- chiu, mr. mayor. very glad to be here as the city's transportation director leading the agency that's charged with implementing the transit first policy. we see car sharing as very integral to making transit first work here in san francisco. transit first is about making it convenient and accessible and attractive for people to live in san francisco without a car. certainly without a second car. and there are times while we want people to be able to ride and want to ride muni or to get around by bike or by foot or grab i cab when they need one, there are times when you need a car. speaking of someone who has no car and is married and has kids, it's doable in san francisco because car sharing fills that gap. car sharing is what makes it possible to live in san francisco without owning your own car. so we see it as very much

integral to the transit-first policy and as president chiu mentioned, we see it as part of our parking solution. we're not taking away parking spaces by making them available for car share. we are adding parking capacity to the city by making spaces available to car share, because those 10 or 15 people who are going to be using this one car behind us are not going to be bringing their own cars to the neighborhood to park, to compete for same spaces and be circling around creating pollution and congestion that fouls our air and slows our transit. so it's really a win-win solution. it's great for parking. it's great for implementing transit first. we're very proud to be working with the mayor, board president, city administrator's office to make this happen. we will be working with all of the partners here, city car share as well as neighborhoods to evaluate this over the next six months and like the mayor, we're very optimistic that it will be successful. thank you all for the leadership

and support. it's a great day for transit first. >> so it's my pleasure to introduce our next speaker, who after our then city administrator became our interim mayor. it fell upon her shoulders to actually figure out how to implement the details of this pilot program are interim city administrator amy brown. >> thank you, president chiu and mr. mayor. yes, i inherited a really great idea and had lots of help from our fleet director tom fang and deputy city administrator and working with the staff of the sfmta to implement it. very exciting day to see it come to fruition. one of the things that makes us so great to work for san francisco is we're not afraid to do bold or innovative things. i will share with you we put together a pilot with five spaces city wide that we were going to move forward. when it got to public hearings, when it got to the board, rather

than have people react negatively do it, they reacted very positively. they said five spaces actually weren't enough. so we ended up being able to add six more spaces to the pilot program. so people wanted to go more big and more bold. and our leaders wanted to do that. and that makes it exciting every day to come in and to have those new ideas when they're so well received. so i think this is going to be a great success. i think just the initial response to it with people saying what about my neighborhood, let's try it out in my neighborhood. it's very positive and i really look forward to seeing this rolled out beyond the pilot city wide and for a long time to come. so thank you all very much. >> our time speaker who helps to run the organization that is managing the fleet of city car share is laura haber. i do want to though take a moment to pull out my own city car share key flop with this

piece of plastic and two minutes either on a phone or on a computer, you can actually access any of the cars in the entire fleet the city car share has. zip share also has a similar arrangement. with that i would like to invite up laura, who's here on behalf of rick hutchison. rick and c.e.o. of zip car actually met with mayor lee and i two years ago to kick off the discussion around this pilot project and we very much want to thank city car share for being a great partner with the city. >> thank you, president chiu, mr. mayor. i am laura haber, director of marketing/planning for city car share. as was just alluded to, i'm here on behalf of rick hutchison who sends his regrets. as mentioned, this program is two years in the making. rick is the c.e.o. and now presenting at the international car association in montreal as we speak. car share is being promoted worldwide. just so you know, not just here in san francisco. i want to thank again mr. mayor, president chiu for the early vision and leadership in this

program and sfmta and city administrator's office, who's been a pleasure to work with operationally. we're very excited about the launch of this pilot program for a number of reasons, not the recent of which raises profile of car sharing. one of the aspects is making it more visible in the community with the very prime locations and congested neighborhoods and also makes it more accessible for people because many of our what we call pods, which are where cars are located or private garages or public garages and they're not as visible to the community. in these dense neighborhoods, car sharing does a couple things. number one, it puts people into a shared diesel experience and they rely more on other public forms of transportation, walking, biking, which is all to the good, more liveable and environmentally conscious city. alone last year, our members saved 40 million to 60 million pounds of co 2, which is astonishing given we have about 14,000 members, roughly over 9,000 here in san francisco

alone, and we have a fleet of about 350 cars. so if you do the math, you realize that we can serve a lot of people with a lot fewer cars in san francisco and everyone is quite happy to get around. i think the neighbors and neighborhoods will be happy as well because one of the other benefits of car sharing, besides the environmental benefit, is an economic benefit both to the individual because they save about $700 a month on car-related expenses. most people don't realize that's what you pay if you add up gas maintenance, registration, when you share a car for an hor or half day, you don't pay for gas, you don't pay for maintenance and don't pay for insurance. we have one of the best insurance programs in the country. so with that i would like to say this pilot program is something we're studying that's been mentioned. we want to make sure it's effective for the neighborhood, effective for users and we will look at the user experience and one of the last things again with the vitality of the neighborhoods is all of the extra money not being spent on your car limit can be spent by walking around the local merchant. not to leave that out of the

equation. so that in mind, i would like to demonstrate i also have a handy electronic key fob and i can show you how it works. i'm a recent convert. i recently gave up my own car and never been happier. this is practically free compared to what i was paying for my car. and i have a pod and everything else is included. i will get around to the other side and show you how it works. the other thing i will tell you, it takes as mentioned a few minutes to make a reservation online or on the phone. you get in and return it to the same location. it's that simple. member shd fees are nominal or annual or monthly, depending on your needs. here i go. >> i can drive away but i totally don't need to do that.