congratulate you with your new home and the best of luck. thank you. [ applause ] >> so we are pretty close, we are 3 minutes away from noon. without too much further delay, i do want to acknowledge a few more people, our city administrator, naomi kelly. [ applause ] as i would like to call it my partner in public safety, sir, thank you for being here. city engineer is with us. from the department of emergency management along with other people from the department of emergency management and i'm introducing all of these people because it wasn't just the fire department alone. it took a lot of work from the department of technology to the department of city planning, i saw brian strong here early and ken rich

from the mayor's office. a whole host of people, and we have john green who is our department captain, who earlier this morning gave a very special blessing upstairs in the dining facility to all the members at station 1 and for blessing this building and all the work done here. few other folks that i would like to acknowledge, local 798, the men and women presented by tom o'connor behind me, thank you, tom. as well as some of his members of the executive board here, thanks very much to local 798. there is two retired deputies here. i have seen this happen. i'm grateful they came back because it's this early

phase, he got us where we are at today. thank you very much. [ applause ] and also retired deputy chief of operation patrick guard who was a member of station one 1 gaevend us -- gave us a lot of input. most of my command staff is behind me. just like when you go out and run a call you count on each other as a team. i couldn't stand here doing what i do without the team behind me. i would like to acknowledge all the members from the team behind med -- me, the deputy chiefs. everyone. there is one person i would like to call out who crossed the finish line, assistant deputy chief, ken lombardy. [ cheering and applauding ]

[ cheering and applauding ] >> we get the job done. thank you to everyone who came out. we have a few retired folks that are here. welcome, consider visiting us again. thank you for coming today and final thanks to the museum of modern art for your generosity and vision of getting us where we are today. now we'll do the ribbon cutting. there is one person i want to call up and introduce and appreciate her willing to do so. her name is sarah, her longest standing member of station 1. she's been in the department since 1987 and came to station 1 and been here since 1994. it's been a great pleasure to have her assist us with the ribbon cutting. take a look at the

station and we will perform great work for you out of this station. thanks for your attention. 3, 2, 1. [ cheering and applauding ] [ cheering and applauding ] >> >> >> >>

it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all today. we are very happy to be able in a moment to announce our new

director. but i want to acknowledge all of you who are here, particularly trustees who are here who have been enormously supportive of this effort to find a new director. it has been quite a long procedure, although it was no longer than the search for john buchannon. both searchers took about 13 months. my selection committee which was 13 people and i would like to thank them for their participation and in particular the search committee voted to appoint this particular individual in january and they have been able to keep the secret of this person until today. and i really commend them because it's a very hard secret to keep and i know that there have been many rumors of names of people, 6 that i know of in particular

including my dog twin kel but i started that myself. they have been able to keep the secrets of the board and this particular individual. so i want to thank all of them for their loyalty and support to the museum and which i very much appreciate. we have an outstanding group of trustees and their love for this institution is as astounding but rightfully deserved. thanks to all the trustees i see in this room today and i want to say how much i appreciate the staff. we have an outstanding staff at this museum. they are a happy lot and a confident group of people. i have worked with them for years and enjoy every moment with them and i would like to say they enjoy working with me as well. they are very excited at the announcement of a new director

but they have been functioning very well with our deputy director who has been here as a deputy director since september and has done an excellent job and we look forward to having him with our new director. so, it gives me great pleasure to announce our new director is collin bailey who is the deputy director of the museum and the curator of the department. the selection committee spent a great deal of time looking at what direction to pursue looking for a great director, we spent months before we found

john buchannon, and i think that john did that for us admirably and we did in fact become the great exhibition museum. our next step is we believe to focus on our own collections and elevate ourselves intellectually and to have a leader who was a scholar and known internationally as a scholar and someone who would elevate this new museum in our direction and art in this museum now exhibition based on the collections we have and further the name of the fine arts museum in this area, i think there is no one better than that collin berry, he's knowledgeable in every area of art, not just european art which is his specialty. he's a

very delightful person and i know our staff will love working with him. i think he's watching this somewhere in the world. collin, whenever you are, i can't wait to have you here. he is a lot of fun and i did tell all of the staff that we would look for somebody who is a great leader for this institution but also somebody who is fun because john was really fun and i feel we have fulfilled every qualification that we were looking for. his start date is june 1st, but he'll come out here in a short time. i would like to introduce our san francisco leader, mayor lee and we really value his

input and the great he's here today to honor us. mayor lee? [ applause ] >> thank you, first of all let me tell you how i'm excited about being here. i always get excite when i come here. i want to signal my appraise for the board of trustees. you just did a marvelous job time and time again with the board of trustees to keep the confidence not only in this honor but our cultural view in general. i just came back from paris toond -- and to let you know, last time i was in paris i was a high school student. now to be

introduced to mayor, he's an arts expert, so kudos to the board of trust cease, -- the staff, to all of the members and would be members, quickly get your admissions into this because it's going to continue being great. many of you know i work hard for the city. i have always worked hard for the st e but one of the reasons i do is because so many others work so hard for the city. i can't see more reflected for the city. the factor why we are a number of world destinations to come to whether it paris or china, the golden gate park, the legion of honor, this very exhibit that we are doing now with the girl with the pearl

earning is just drawing wonderful crowds. last year, it drew 1.6 million visitors. that's an incredible number. then to add to that, both museums combined together service over 250,000 children and families. this is an incredible part of what our city is. i know that you know i have been working hard to attract different businesses, create more jobs in the city, provide more housing, all in an effort to make the city more successful but i will always say, that as people like you and the board of trustees that provide us with a reason why the work hard to keep this city great as an international city to make sure we do all the things because arts, oftentimes when you talk to the employees of all the technology companies that i have been talking with every week and ask them what

draws their talent to a city, the first three things they know whether it's public transportation, it's also the arts. because that's what keeps their creative mind functioning. and it's these institutions with their wonderful service and their continuing exhibitions, world renown exhibitions that introduce and keep their minds active and keeps the tremendous amounts of visitors coming to our city. i know how difficult it has been for board and for the president to make quick search, to matchup the right person with such an incredible institution as these are. i for one, know how difficult it is and when you are trying to do that when you are running government, i want to also say to the staff that i enjoyed mr. buchannon's leadershipa as much

as you do, to fill those shoes with mr. bailey i'm excited because i trust the board of trustees, the time you took to select him, i'm going to welcome mr. bailey and look forward to and excited to do it. this city is on such a great recovery economically for everybody that there is going to be even that many more families that are going to enjoy the institutions that we have here. so on that background and with that effort, i just want to congratulate the board again, thank you to the staff. i know that the attendance is going to continue increasing. i know the contributions to not only art but just to the way we live in our city is going to continue because of this institution, the institutions that you are

in charge of. so i'm here to just be a part of this experience, to welcome mr. bailey but to also know that your mayor is looking out and being a part of this institution and i want you to know that i am very happy to be a part of the boards effort and staff's effort to continue this great institution and all the wonderful work you do. it's my pleasure to be here and we'll continue to make all the success it has been for many many decades. thank you very much. [ applause ] >> well, thank you very much. i'm also very happy to say that on march 12th, we had our millionth visitor of our fiscal year that doesn't finish until june 30. i think we'll have

another record breaking year. all of our wonderful shows this year and exhibitions are doing very very well. so a week ago wednesday, we had over 13,000 visitors in this museum. so we are really on a roll as the mayor said and we look forward to many many more successes and with collin as our new leader, i know he's going to come up with some wonderful exhibitions. we are now going to have a videotape which someone is going to create. is that correct?

>> [film] i always say that our search was the same to raise or persona intellectually and to my selection committee, what we have to do is find the finest person there is and i think we have been able to do that. >> after an exhaustive international search the board of trustees selected collin bailey. >> when i was in the indemnity panel. i was wondering how is it they have these shows? i was very impressed with this energy and really didn't quite understand how this had happened but could see it had

happened. >> after the tragedy death of our director. we had to figure out how to reinvent ourselves and go to the next level. we found the right person to be to say he's of that stature, is a really a great thing for us. they know your name and they will google you and i can't wait until they do. >> you will find he studied at the post in malibu, the kendall in fort worth and he's been awarded the prize for best art history book. >> i don't want to get bound up with one approach. i want to go back to a very fundamental obligation of the museum which is to conserve, to show, to communicate and educate. a museum is a place of

enlightenment anden enjoyment. both of those are important. >> dr. bailey has been deputy director and chief -- i can feel comfortable with and admire and to be honest, the fact that the fine arts museums of san francisco, in a way are the moment in one and serve like as that for this vibrant community. i'm really excited. i know there is lots of support. what's so exciting in the visits i have made to san francisco is how welcome you feel. that sense of a home, of a place, regardless of size, is

very important. and it was thrilling to me to see that there is already suchen enthusiasm for the audience. >> he's talking about the art itself. just listen to the way he enters these works from -- >> who was the goddess of fertility of flowers, of spring, it brings in the regeneration, if you like and this is a fantastic painting by one of the greatest 18th century artist, at the top of his game. this is the most flamboyant, exciting paint is of this artist. and we do feel

that everything is possible. >> we can't, when we look but think of fertility and of femininity, some sense of generation. we can smell the perfume. >> to rembrandt. >> his mistress, incarcerated. he won't change the way he paints. >> some of dr. bailey's observation about his own experience with art museums. >> you have to have real commitment and belief in your vision in what you believe is right and yes you have to be flexible and malleable to a certain degree but you keep going. i think that is case of a great artist. >> we are finally led to another of the museum's great treasures by wayne tibo.

>> how happy one feels to look at these objects. a painting talks about more than what we can have, about consumerism but also about childhood pleasure. i love this artist. when i look at this, i feel happy. >> [ applause ] >> okay. we now have a brief question and answer period if anyone has any questions? no? okay. >> i have one. [inaudible] what

changes do you for see for the museum of collins coming here? >> well, i think what he'll do, first of all i think he'll take his time getting to know the museum and the staff really evaluating because especially because we have 2 museums. it's really a matter of becoming familiar with both of them, they are very different in character. i think it will take several months to getting to know all the aspects of the museums and then he'll make very serious evaluations and take a very serious look at our department and evaluate whether we have the finest people we can have and are we running the department in the best way possible and other departments as well. this is