Why Flock Matters

A note from BRAF Director, Leslie Pritchett:

Greetings Black Rockers,

While the primary focus of this note is the joyous celebration of our collective success in placing a very large and compelling piece of artwork in front of City Hall in San Francisco, I'd like to take a sec to talk about why the Flock Migration Project really matters.

About the project, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom said, "Some people will love it, and some people will hate it, and that's fine. If it engenders conversation, that's good."

At the core of the Foundation's mission, is the mandate to work with artists and their communities to create and display works of art that help bring about change. The artwork is a medium for change to the degree that it causes people to interact with one another in ways that they normally might not. In urban areas, the if the artwork gets people to talk with one another, if it seeds engaging conversation, and it gets people to cross normal social boundaries, it's working. By putting artwork in public places, it takes it out of the sometimes rarified context of museums and galleries and brings into people's daily lives. Creating the work and bringing it to public life is usually accomplished by a team of volunteers who are drawn to the spirit of the project, and this puts people in close and rich contact. In these and other ways the artwork that we help place becomes truly interactive, brings people together, and creates contexts in which the transformative feels possible.

Okay, so we freely admit we're involved in a bit of alchemy. Those of you who have travelled to Black Rock City (most of you) know that you came away from that experience with an expanded sense of what's possible. We at the Foundation are experimenting, testing ways in which we can help bring that expanded sense of possibility to people and places beyond BRC. There is no one answer, but we have to try to find a few models that work. Best way to do it, we think, is to work with artists who share our intentions, through grants or by working in concert to produce projects, and to see what happens.

The work we are doing in San Francisco really matters, because it creates an opportunity for us to learn. We have a crazy amount of support from our local community, city agencies (including the Mayor's office) and others who believe in the spirit of what we are trying to accomplish. Our hope is to learn about what works, what doesn't, how BRAF can offer the most important and relevant help, and how we can help describe the parts that are successful in ways that offers that knowledge to others.

Michael Christian and the team start installing Flock in front of City Hall bright and early Monday morning! They will be working away, with a crane, a manlift, welding equipment, ingenuity and some brute force to settle Flock into place. By Thursday, the creature will be settled in its new home. So, if you're close enough to make it practical, come celebrate with us one important step forward...