MONUMENTAL RECKONING
On June 19, Illuminate, artist Dana King, the Museum of the African Diaspora, and the San Francisco African American Chamber of Commerce will unveil an extraordinary new installation in Golden Gate Park called Monumental Reckoning.
Monumental Reckoning will encircle the memorial to Francis Scott Key that was partially toppled by protestors last Juneteenth by placing “350 ancestors” standing in judgment. San Francisco Mayor London Breed will formally unveil King’s dramatic presentation.
Here’s a three-minute video on the project.
The unveiling will take place on Juneteenth, which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States. It will debut in tandem with an interrelated Illuminate project – the elevation of the words “Lift Every Voice” atop the newly-renovated Spreckels Temple of Music.
“Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900, the same year the Spreckels Temple of Music opened. For more than a century, it has been sung as the Black national anthem. Born in 1871, Johnson’s 150th birthday falls on Juneteenth this year.
Join us in Golden Gate Park on June 19 for this important unveiling.
Illuminate The Pink Triangle
On June 1, Illuminate will again light the Pink Triangle.
One year after creating a sensation in San Francisco with a full acre of pink light above the city, Illuminate will again bring (night) life to Patrick Carney’s epic canvas triangle on Twin Peaks.
And this year, the Triangle will remain illuminated for the entire month of June.
Here’s a two minute video about the project
For the past 24 years Carney and his team of nearly 300 volunteers had installed a massive canvas triangle atop Twin Peaks to kick-off the city’s Pride celebration, but Covid-19 restrictions prevented volunteers from gathering. It appeared that the Triangle – in its 25th year – would not happen. But Illuminate stepped in, assembled a team of light artists and engineers, and safely installed a grid of lights onto the hillside. On June 26, with a locked down city below, Illuminate lit the beloved symbol of hope and inclusion.
Immediately after San Francisco Mayor London Breed flipped the switch on the 2,700 pink LEDs, it was celebrated locally and around the world as a brilliant and still poignant evolution of the Pink Triangle.
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Read about the Pink Torch Procession
Revival!
Illuminate’s renovation of the bandshell in Golden Gate Park is complete.
Formally called the Spreckels Temple of Music, the bandshell was slated to debut in time to celebrate the Park’s 150th anniversary in April but the project was halted in March due to Covid-19 restrictions. When restrictions on work were finally lifted, work commenced again and final work on the massive upgrade was completed. The full renovation features a brilliant new multi-level stage, professional-grade theatrical lighting, and a state-of-the-art new sound system.-
This project, led by philanthropists Carla and David Crane – with support from JP Conte – marks a new beginning for this long-dormant and underutilized jewel for public performance. When it’s safe to return fully to the park, a sparkling new Spreckles will be front and center.
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Illuminate is proud to announce the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund has joined us as our newest Illuminary providing critical operating support. Thank you for your extraordinary commitment to public art in San Francisco.
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Conservatory of Flowers
Experience the nightly brilliance of Photosynthesis in Golden Gate Park. Illuminate and SF Rec & Park are lighting up the famed Conservatory of Flowers again this year. Come out and see it after dark!
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Illuminate's mission is to rally large groups of people together to create impossible works of public art that, through awe, free humanity's better nature.
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