Meet Our Grantees – Ocean Beach Fire Pits

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We got this note from one of our 2008 Grant Recipients the Ocean Beach Fire Pits – Rebecca Anders, Yasmin Mawaz-Khan and Charles Gadeken, San Francisco, California:

We are proud and happy to report that the Ocean Beach Fire Pits project, so generously supported by BRAF in 2008, is complete. As you know, Charlie and his crew installed their beautiful fourth Sea Star this past summer, and yesterday the fourth Firebloom successfully made it to its new permanent home on Ocean Beach!

We are so grateful for the grant support from the Black Rock Arts Foundation.

Congratulations on another successful public art installation, and thanks so much for everything!

Rebecca Anders

The experience of building a fire at the ocean’s edge is as old as human time, and a much-beloved ritual on the San Francisco coastline. Ocean Beach Fire Pits are locally made sculptural fire pits made from cast concrete or recycled steel and designed to succeed in the harsh and extreme beach environment. Taking the form of Sea Stars and Fireblooms these beautifully crafted, unique objects provide a valuable and accessible site of public interaction and connection. Already a success among the San Francisco community, the intentional welcoming aspect of the fire pits draw people together and encourage engagement between a diverse cross-section of beach visitors and the surrounding landscape.

In 2007 the San Francisco Parks Department wanted to ban fires on Ocean Beach and these fire pits were a component of convincing the Parks Department to continue to allow the fires.

We are proud to have been supporters of this project and are thrilled to see it completed.
To learn more about the controversy that fires on Ocean Beach engendered and the involvement of our sister organization, check these out:

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