nebulon is not changed. for those wishing to change rocket ships, you can talk to spot. we have another rocket ship on the way, but this one is where they take off, any minute now. we have a couple of speakers here today. the first one is an lazarus from the port. public art like this is not done without partnerships, and the partnership that we have with the port of san francisco turned this space into an art space and has been spectacular. thank you, ford of san francisco. if you are representing the whole commission and some staff, though, ann if you want to say few words, that would be great. our boarding up is right here. >> thank you all for being here today. i would like to thank mike for wearing his seersucker suit so we were sure to get some

sunshine today. i'm assuming there is a cause and effect there. it takes a village to accomplish something like this, just as with everything else in life. as mike said, this has the complete, wholehearted endorsement of the port commission, all of us, of our staff, our planning staff, even all the way across to our maintenance staff, led by tom carter. i just want to say in closing and thanking everyone, who says we do not have ships down at this waterfront? [laughter] thank you. [applause] >> i also want to thank the opportunity thank thebcdc who helped us -- bank -- thank bcdc, who helped us get a permit for this. i told people that the cost of putting something up like this cost the city about the cost of a billboard for one month, and

they had a greater ability to create community and space, and it has been a fabulous addition to the port of san francisco. people will talk about this rocket ship forever. the next person we have is our district supervisor, david chiu. when david first came to the board of supervisors, he had a conversation with the cultural affairs director for the city and county of san francisco, and he made art in san francisco a priority. he wanted to make sure the money we were spending was spent on artists from the bay area. it was very important to him that this happened. as many of you may or may not know, san franciscans -- san francisco is one of the city with the most artists per capita. our government agencies spend more money on arts than any other government agency per- capita, and the foundations that work in san francisco spend more of a percentage of their money on art in san francisco, so with

that -- for them, we're all grateful, and we will talk more about them. without further ado, supervisor david chiu. >> hello, fellow travelers. i go to a lot of events every day, and i have to say, this was the event i was looking forward to all week. yes, and one feel that way? happy friday, by the way. i'm going to say a couple of things that elected officials probably should not. when i was a kid, one of my favorite pastimes was to launch off bottle rockets. and if i had gotten some better grades in physics, i might be helping to build these things as opposed to major in political science and becoming a politician, but at the end of the day, this is part of what is so special about san francisco, and one other thing that i'm going to say that i probably should not say -- i have never gone to burning man, but i think it might be about time. i want to thank all of you who

are part of this amazing community that has helped to move forward not just the arts community, but to really improve upon community collaboration, improve upon how we think about living together as san franciscans, as californians, as citizens of the universe. i think the last thing i want to say is, as someone who represents much of the waterfront here, this is obviously what i hope is just one of a number of amazing installations that i know that the local artist community is so incredibly capable of developing, and i look forward to future installations like this so that we can make sure that our art remains not just burned in our minds, but burned in the minds of everyone throughout the world and throughout the universe. congratulations. thank you. [applause] >> this fabulous relationship that the city and county have

started in about 2005, and we had some very creative project that had happened since then, and it all started with the executive director than coming into the mayor's office and saying that we want to do more public art. put more public are on the streets and the community of san francisco, and start trying to build community. then, it changed to melissa. she carried over, and we had more projects, and we kept coming back, and then, it started to go national. started happening in detroit and reno. if you want this to continue, you have to go and give. it does not happen without your support and supporting your community. i know we all do it in different ways, but you have to try to find a way to do more so that stuff like this can continue happen. with that, tomas is going to

talk a little bit about the project and the people responsible for it. [applause] >> he just said everything i was going to say, except when we saw this ship last year -- i do not know how many of you were there -- and friday night, when the incredible thing happened that nobody thought could happen -- this rock actually launched, and as it was out there, i had a feeling that it would probably land right here. thank you all for coming out. i do need to thank a number of people that made this possible. chad, andrea lesser l --ester -- lester, thank you all so much, and also, to alex rosenthal who

pulled together this event, thank you. have a good time. [applause] >> one of the great things about this art and the other art from the desert that has come to san francisco is to see how much the art changes in a different environment and how our perception of where we are at in our space and how this has changed -- it will change before. it is interesting looking at the perspective here. it is a really great day. i do want to bring up sean orlando, who is representing the artist. it is so great to have him here. he represents a team of many people, and i'm sure he is going to talk about those people. it is a great to see -- many times, artists have communities that follow them out there, but

oftentimes, you do not have artists where community is the process. do you want to talk a little bit about your piece? . -- [applause] >> thank you all for coming out. this is really incredible. thank you to the port of san francisco for clearing the air space to allow us to crash land on pier 14. it is really quite an honor. this has been an incredible experience for us, working with brad and lesley trichet and the port and city to allow us to place this amazing work of art that was designed and built as a group project in a collaborative manner by artists and engineers and programmers from all round the bay area, and i'm really proud to work with them. it is incredible that -- even more so, that this is the first ever rocket stop in the united states. virgin galactic, you have

nothing on us. one of the new elements that we have added to the rocket, which you will notice in the background is the rockets thought, is our intergalactic bay area rocket transport or ibart. [laughter] thank you all for coming out. we have the phenomenon coming on in a little bit. we have the space cowboys, gastronaut and all their amazing food. thank you to all the volunteers. [applause] i want to go over couple of things. first off, braf has a table over there, so if you can, and get more information about what they're doing across san francisco, across the country, and get them to try to dedicate

a little bit of time, money, and cash to try to help them succeed in putting art like this together. here is the reason why -- if any of you have a chance, leslie wrote a piece about why flocked matters, which was a piece we put out in city hall a little while ago -- i guess three or four years ago. basically, it said that public art is art that you own. no one can tell you what to think about it. there's no one telling you how the field or believe is possible with this art. it is art that any opinion matters. one of the highlights for me was went 35 grammar school kids came up and tried to tell different people what they thought that that was, and it was so fascinating. with each piece, there is a different story and a different tale that the community is telling. with david best's piece that went in his brain, some guys said thank you for that piece, and some guy said definitively without a doubt, but " this is a

bird house", right? and everybody in the community saw an argument start between people in the community about a debate about what it was. another thing, the art that was created there has created another space, which is dedicated to art. out of that came the hayes valley coalition that continued to put up piece after piece and are committed to continue to bring artists into that space to show their work here in san francisco, which is really great. i'm trying to string a little bit of time out here before i introduce the mayor of san francisco, and i'm trying to get an indication of how far out he is. any indication? >> [inaudible] >> laugh i do not know any jokes, but we do have someone here who wants to do some poetry. no poetry and no jokes, but what many of you may not know is that we built this rocket ship in 1944 and launched it in 1944.

we got lost, so we -- throughout our travels, we have been traveling through space and time, picking up passengers, dropping them off, upgrading our rocket ship, collecting specimens and aliens, and some of the specimens and aliens are actually amongst you. we landed in san francisco because we thought you would not notice them as much, but the problem is that the customs agent approached me, and you all forgot your cards, your id cards, so aliens, if you could please come here and collect your cards, because you will get stock. there is one. thank you. thank you. they just blend right in, don't they? thank you.

great, here he is. ladies and gentlemen, the mayor of san francisco. gavin newsom thank you all for coming out. -- mayor newsom: thank you all for coming out. i want to thank all of you for being willing to once again allow the city to try new things. it was not that many years ago that we could not put a peace sign up at the panhandle. we could not put a spider on top of city hall, and we could not even put a giant foot down at the embarcadero. folks, in san francisco, for all our progressive politics and our aggressive policies, there's just something about public art where we are not always as progressive as we should be. i made the distinction "public art." there is something about putting something on the streets and sidewalks that is incredibly personal to san franciscans, and

as a consequence, incredibly controversial. when i came into office, one of my firm commitments was to break the rules. and i say that in a loving way, that the idea was that if we could not win by the current rules of the game, we either had to challenge those roles or change them. so what we did is we tried to reinvent our focus on public art by finding a loophole, and this was it. temporary public art. that has been the big differentiator. we went in, and we said, "don't worry. it will just be here for 30 days." 60 days. 90 -- was it a year ago? i thought it was just 60 days ago. the point was once people got

used to it -- in fact, we found the spider right here. she was here. and people started to say, "what is that?" and then, two months, they would ask why we were taking it away. that has been the narrative and partnership with the black rock arts foundation and all those incredible artists that you guys represent, all those artists that are here that are represented in this extraordinary piece. we have done that 20 significant public arts installations in this city in the last couple of years, and that is pretty good. those are significant. thousands of others significant, but at a smaller level. we did the arts in the store front. people thought we were crazy, and now that has been replicated and modeled all across the country. we had a budget with $500

million deficit, and they thought we were crazy when we said there would not be any cuts to arts programs and arts investment in the city, but we were able to do that as well. so we are moving in a different direction. i will just end by saying i think an exciting direction. i think we have raised the bar once again. the bar was always high in our city with our 40 years of our neighborhood arts program and all that contribution at all of you make with a set aside on every new public projects, but this is one of my favorites, and that is really what i was coming here to say. i think this is just incredible. this is going to get a lot of attention, appropriately, and deservedly. it is good attention. you have the new span on the eastern side of the bridge that is being done. you have the most environmentally friendly development in the history of this country that will happen

next year on treasure island. you have a revitalized waterfront that slowly is evolving. organic produce, organic farming, our values being advanced here every single week. a lot to be proud of. a lot to be thankful up. in that spirit, great job. keep up the great work, and i am a proud san franciscan today. thank you all very much. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the phenomenon will be here shortly. they are still trying to land. they weren't the late, so it should be just another couple of minutes. thank you very much. >> ♪

>> ladies and gentlemen, i want

to welcome you to the newest of the art materials stores. we are very, very excited to open our new facility here in san francisco. we have been here for a while, but this new facility is wonderful. it is going to bring wonderful things to the neighborhood. our president, who is the president of our retail stores, is going to make a number of comments on how we work with the community, and also our students and teachers. thank you. [applause] >> welcome. welcome, mayor newsom. welcome to another art materials grand opening. despite the economic unrest we face, we are growing, serving, and creating jobs in all the

communities where we have a presence. in fact, we are one of the few family-owned businesses in the u.s. that can say that while celebrating our 100th anniversary. how do we do it? we put people and communities first. while we are one of the largest independent suppliers of art materials in the country, providing the broadest assortment and low prices, it is really our service and community involvement that sets us apart from the others. every year, our list of colleges and universities we support has grown. today, we visit over 250. whether on campus or at the events we sponsor, we see the same story unfolding. that is communities and the arts are struggling to get funding, improve, and revived. it is so important to remember,

while the foundation behind art and life do not change, the supporting structure continuously evolves with time. as part of this evolution, we and others like the mayor's support the continuing of art and the revival of communities in which they exist. here in san francisco, the market street community was once a thriving, exciting center for the arts. it was a place for the people in the city to come to forget their social and political differences and just another to enjoy life. hasn't san francisco waited and debated long enough on providing this area? now, along with mayor newsom, the planning and arts commission, galleries, theaters, and artists themselves, in places like san francisco's st., we are helping paint the way to revival today.

we are not waiting for the economy to turn, but helping it turned around today. we will build a better market street for tomorrow. thank you and enjoy. [applause] >> do you have to introduce me? >> i do not have to. everybody knows you. ladies and gentlemen, the mayor of san francisco. >> thank you all for being here. do not let me get in the wake of the most important sound, which is not my voice. it is the register. the retailers will appreciate what i am saying. this is once again a testament to this renewed vision, this renewed energy, this renewed effort to revitalize the central market, the fact that so many of you took time to be here. if i could turn these cameras around, we could see the folks not only in the store but

throughout the district. they come down almost every time we come down to celebrate another milestone. the reason we do this is we are marking progress. the reason we are doing this is we think every opening like this is not insignificant. it is extraordinarily significant to the revitalization of the central market area. we have long believed, but could not demonstrate, because we could not show people that arts will be the economic catalyst for revitalizing the central market area. the artistic expression, the community, the artistic contributions are self evident to anyone who has lived or visited san francisco. we have not necessarily organized the arts community in the measure and fashion today. do not get me wrong. we do not do the organization. the community is organizing itself in a meaningful way. we are just providing the conditions or the conduits to

establish the conditions to allow that to flourish in an organic matter. and that is why this store has moved to the heart of this district. that is a big deal. they have not only revitalized a remarkable and spacious flotation -- spacious location, exponentially bigger than i imagined, but have doubled the number of employees in this economy that are working for them. that should not be lost on anyone. what i love about the employees is they are also customers. they are artists themselves. there is tremendous diversity and expression with the staff. congratulations on all your success and the growth of this business. you get it. you do it right. you speak the language of those that are on this side of the aisle. the folks on the other side understand the unique needs of

their customers. i am thankful that you recognized not just in your opening comments, but recognized throughout your stewardship of this brand, the importance of contribution and giving back, the importance of what is happening outside your doors. we also understand that you need help and support and that this is not the end. we know that from our friends at fashion cafe on sixth street. we know every business accounts. we have more work to do. something else we want to celebrate in the market today -- in market today is this thursday, tomorrow, in 24 hours, we will be launching this arts fair, this arts market that will be in the un plaza between the hours of 12 and 8:00 p.m., showcasing the individual and

collective efforts of artists throughout our community and reinforcing this artist imperative. we are working with intersection of the arts and the black rock foundation, and others. they have identified 72 to 75 other arts organizations that are down here looking for space, that are encouraged about what is happening and encouraged about their prospects to put together the resources with city support, these low and no interest loans we are handing out. we will be following that with some really exciting things in september, where we will start doing some dance and some theater out on the streets and sidewalks, as i believe that is where theater should be. it is democratizing the medium. that is something else i think is going to create a lot of

energy, good will, identity for the neighborhood. a lot of good things happening. some months back, people said we were just shutting down markets street. it was an anti-car program. it was not about that. it was using that in a way that could anchor these other efforts. i see randy shaw here. i am glad he is here. he has been a great partner for this city and a partner for these efforts. pulling this up into the tenderloin area, the new tenderloin museum which had its grand opening if you weeks back. i love these reporters from the new york times. they come down and say, "you are doing walking tours in the tenderloin? you are celebrating the historical contributions of the tenderloin? you are marketing this area to tourists?" we say absolutely right. eat your heart out. the history of the tenderloin is our history. it is something to be proud of.

there is a lot that is right in these neighborhoods and this particular neighborhood. at the end of the day, we celebrate his work, your work, eds work -- ed's work, and all of you here. we are proud to be here today. now come back and shop and eat. [applause]