“Lucas Cultural Arts Museum To Explore Alternative Sites”

Media Contact: David Perry / david.perry@skywalkerranch.com / (415) 746-5057

3 February 2014 – San Francisco, CA: In light of today’s announcement by the Presidio Trust, the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum’s executive team is considering alternative sites.

In May 2002, the Presidio Trust Master Plan was adopted. The Crissy Field commissary was identified by the Trust as a desired site for a cultural institution. The Lucas Cultural Arts Museum first presented its plans for a museum on the commissary site in 2010 and has been working with the Trust over the last four years to come up with a mutually acceptable plan for the site to no avail. Lucas said that his team has begun exploring several other offers that have been presented to them.

“I want to thank all the people, especially educators and young people, who have written in to voice their support for the cultural arts museum,” said George Lucas. “I also want to thank everyone, staff, volunteers and community leaders, who have worked so hard to try to bring this educational opportunity to the Bay Area.”

Conceived by George Lucas, the museum is based in the filmmaker’s passion for education and the role art can play in inspiring young people. The museum will offer state-of-the-art facilities and unparalleled programming for children, families, schools, scholars, and visiting artists. The 10,000 piece permanent collection ranges from fine art to animation, from fashion to cinematic design and is comprised of works of the great masters of the Golden Age of Illustration through today’s digital artists, showing the ways culture is reflected in the popular arts of any given time period. In addition to the permanent collect, the museum will feature works and traveling exhibits from many collections and institutions from around the world.

Media Preview for “Beth Van Hoesen: Portraits from the Castro,
An Exhibition to Benefit the Rainbow Honor Walk” and Meet the Designer of the Rainbow Honor Walk

WHERE: George Krevsky Gallery 77 Geary (at Grant), 2nd Floor, San Francisco

WHO:
Carlos Casuso, Madrid, Spain—Architect and Designer of the Rainbow Honor Walk Plaques
David Perry, Board President, Rainbow Honor Walk
George Krevsky, George Krevsky Gallery

WHEN: Saturday, January 4, 2014, 2pm to 3pm
Exhibition Dates: January 3 – March 1, 2014

WEB:
www.georgekrevskygallery.com
www.rainbowhonorwalk.org

WHY:

The Rainbow Honor Walk (www.rainbowhonorwalk.org) will honor 20 historic LGBT figures in 2014 with bronze plaques to be installed along Castro Street, designed by Spanish architect Carlos Casuso, who won an international competition for his design for the plaques, which feature a portrait and brief information about each of the first 20 honorees. To raise funds for the fabrication and installation of the plques, the Rainbow Honor Walk has joined with George Krevsky Gallery to present a benefit exhibition of artworks by Beth Van Hoesen, the late Castro district resident and nationally recognized artist. Beth Van Hoesen: Portraits from the Castro, on view at George Krevsky Gallery from January 3 through March 1, 2014, features more than 20 original works donated by the E. Mark Adams and Beth Van Hoesen Adams Trust to benefit the construction of San Francisco’s newest public monument. The artworks include watercolors, drawings, and prints from the 1990s that depict colorful personalities that Van Hoesen encountered in her neighborhood, including well-known figures in the LGBT community. Beth Van Hoesen: Portraits from the Castro, An Exhibition to Benefit the Rainbow Honor Walk is free and open to the public at George Krevsky Gallery, 77 Geary (at Grant), Suite 205, in the Union Square District of downtown San Francisco. Gallery hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11am–5:30pm. On Thursday evening, January 9th and February 4th, the Gallery will be open for the First Thursday Gallery Walk, 5:30pm to 7:30pm. The works are also available for online viewing at www.georgekrevskygallery.com www.rainbowhonorwalk.org

For more than forty years, Beth Van Hoesen (1926-2010) and her husband, artist and designer Mark Adams (1925-2006), lived in an old firehouse on 22nd Street at the top of the Castro Street hill, where they maintained their studios. For many years, Van Hoesen and Adams hosted weekly figure- and portrait-drawing sessions, joined by prominent Bay Area artists Robert Bechtle, William Theophilus Brown, Gordon Cook, Wayne Thiebaud, and others.

In the late 1980s and 1990s, Van Hoesen became particularly fascinated with people she saw in her neighborhood, occasionally inviting them to pose for her at the firehouse. Many of these artworks from Van Hoesen’s sessions with her Castro neighbors have not previously been exhibited or available. The drawings, watercolors, and color etchings of Castro personalities range from leather-clad, dyed, and tattooed punks and queers, to well-known figures such as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the late Jose Sarria, known as The Widow Norton. Thanks to this generous gift from the artist’s estate these portraits are now available to benefit the Rainbow Honor Walk. # # #

The Rt. Rev. Otis Charles of San Francisco Dies

April 24, 1926 – December 26, 2013
Was first openly gay bishop of any Christian denomination

29 December 2013 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA: The Rt. Rev. Otis Charles, born April 24, 1926 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, died peacefully on December 26, 2013 at San Francisco’s Coming Home Hospice following a brief illness. Charles was with family at his bedside at the time of his death.

Charles was the eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Utah. Soon after his retirement in 1993 he came out as an openly gay man, making him the first openly gay bishop of any Christian denomination in history. Soon after he and his wife divorced. He relocated to San Francisco, where he helped to found Oasis California, the LGBT Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of California. which seeks to open dialogue between LGBT communities and the congregations in which they worship.

Originally from New Jersey, he served first as a priest in Washington, Connecticut. From 1968 until 1982 he was a member of the Standing Liturgical Commission of the Episcopal Church, which developed the 1979 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. In 1971, he was elected Bishop of Utah. He was active in the peace movement, and opposed Nevada and Utah being launching sites for the MX missile. In the House of Bishops, Charles was chair of the Prayer Book Committee and a member of the Bishops’ Committee on Racism. Charles became Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in 1985. Charles also has significant academic achievements, including a Doctorate of Divinity, and a Doctorate of Sacred Theology.

Following his coming out, Charles retained his voting seat in the 300-plus member House of Bishops. Before and following his announcement, he was an active and forceful advocate on behalf of LGBT communities. In 1979, Charles was one of 17 dissenting bishops when the Episcopal Church’s General Convention stated that practicing homosexual clergy were prohibited from ordination – a decision that continues to generate controversy to this day. In 1999, Charles was arrested and led away in handcuffs for his civil disobedience at the Church’s General Convention in Denver, Colorado during a protest against what demonstrators described as the Church’s long history of oppression against lesbian and gay peoples.

Charles married Dr. Felipe Sanchez-Paris on September 29, 2008. Sanchez-Paris died on July 31 of this year. The two appear in the documentary film Love Free or Die, testifying about a resolution directing the Episcopal Church to create a provisional rite for the blessing of same-gender relationships at its General Convention in Anaheim, California, in 2009.

Charles is survived by his first spouse, five children, 10 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, four children of Sanchez-Paris and his San Francisco family.

A memorial service and celebration of the life of Otis Charles will be held at on Saturday, January 11, 2pm at San Francisco’s St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church (500 De Haro Street).

“Zero Tolerance for Public Drinking” Campaign Reminds Revelers to Party Safely on New Year’s Eve

San Francisco Police Stresses “Safe, Sane & Sober” Behavior on Tuesday, December 31

30 December 2013 – San Francisco, CA: As in years past, thousands of revelers are expected to ring in the New Year throughout San Francisco on Tuesday, December 31, 2013 and into the wee hours of January 1, 2014. As was the case last year, San Francisco City officials are reminding partiers to keep it safe, sane and sober on City streets.

“For the last few years, we have instituted a policy aimed at taking individuals who were drinking in public or drunk in public off the streets. This year, we will continue to remove offending individuals from the streets,” said San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr. “We want everyone to have a good time, but we want to remind people of a simple fact: drinking in public is illegal. It only takes one drunk driver or one out of control individual to spoil the festivities for dozens of people.”

Chief Suhr also stressed that there will be zero tolerance for open containers of alcohol.

While there is no official City sponsored celebration or street closures for New Year’s Eve, there is an annual fireworks display over San Francisco Bay for which many people line the sidewalks along the Embarcadero to observe at midnight.

“It’s a wonderful, celebratory evening but one in which people sometimes take their partying to the streets,” says Chief Suhr, noting that over the years, New Year’s Eve has sometimes become an excuse for nuisance and even violent behavior. Just in case, Suhr makes clear: the SFPD, including its alcohol control officers, will be out in force to ensure public safety. “This year – as in years past – we just want to remind people to keep it safe, sane and sober in San Francisco this New Year’s Eve. Spending the night in the SFPD drunk tank – or worse – is no way to celebrate.”

Statement on the Port’s Waterfront Walk Brick Program December 5, 2013

The Port of San Francisco is setting the record straight in regard to misinformation that is being spread on social media about the Waterfront Walk Brick Program for the new public park at Piers 27-29 (also known as the “Brick Program” or “Pilot Donor Recognition Program”).

For 150 years, the Port of San Francisco has welcomed the world to its waterfront. Now, local residents and businesses can be part of that effort through a new and unique program that allows citizens to welcome the world to the City’s newest public park and Waterfront Walk at Pier 27-29 adjacent to the new James R. Herman Cruise Terminal. Helping fund the park is a campaign by which personalized bricks are purchased online at www.sfportbricks.com When the new park at Piers 27-29 opens in fall 2014, the Waterfront Walk will be a major feature of the design with two sizes of bricks available for purchase: 4 inches by 8 inches ($150) and 8 inches by 8 inches ($300). The purchase is tax-deductible.

As outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding agreement among the Port, the City and the America’s Cup Organizing Committee (ACOC) funds generated by the Brick Program will be used to defray Port-related expenses associated with the America’s Cup event. This program has been fully vetted through a public process and approved by the San Francisco Port Commission.

FACTS:
• All net funds being raised for the Brick Program must be allocated to costs related to the America’s Cup Event venue site that directly benefit the Port. Consistent with the State Charter, revenues generated by the Port shall be used for public trust assets.
• Funds raised by the Brick Program will be used to pay for public amenities at the new 2.5 acre park at Piers 27-29, which are not funded by the $17 million 2012 General Obligation Bond proceeds.
• Brick Program revenues will be used to cover capital and operational expenses on Port property associated with preparing for the 34th America’s Cup event, such as the $1.6 million spent on substructure improvements at Pier 29.
• The Brick Program reflects a strategy seen at several other general obligation bond-funded facilities within the City; due to legal limitation on the use of such bond funds under state law, equipment and furnishings must be paid from other sources.
• An example of a similar program is the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, which has a partnership with the nonprofit San Francisco Parks Alliance to administer donor recognition assets within San Francisco’s parks with donations enhancing parks and recreation centers in the City. The new Exploratorium, California Academy of Sciences, Legion of Honor and the de young Museum are among cultural institutions utilizing similar programs to attract funders.
• The Waterfront Walk Brick Program offers the public a way to support the newest waterfront park, while commemorating their name or message on a legacy project for years to come.
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Media Contact: Renée Dunn Martin, (415) 274-0488 or Email: Renee.martin@sfport.com