Pull to refresh
Logo
What Changed
Following Why Sign Up
San Francisco turns toppled statue sites into monuments to everyday people

San Francisco turns toppled statue sites into monuments to everyday people

Rule Changes San Francisco, CA local

Temporary works honoring refugees, workers, and the Great Migration replace fallen bronze figures

October 13th, 2026: I Am sculpture dismantled at Embarcadero Plaza

Overview

Updated Oct 17

San Francisco is filling its emptied statue pedestals with temporary monuments to refugees, paleteros, garment workers, and families of the Great Migration. Five artist teams are installing works through 2026 as part of the San Francisco Arts Commission's Shaping Legacy project, a six-year, Mellon Foundation-funded effort.

The final commission, a light-and-sound installation on the Hunters Point Shipyard Gantry Crane, runs October 9-10 and 16-17. A closing panel, 'Evolving the Archive,' is set for November 4. The shift follows the 2020 topplings of statues of Francis Scott Key, Junípero Serra, and Ulysses S. Grant.

Why it matters

San Francisco is changing what a monument can be, and other cities are watching.

Monday: what changed in San Francisco, CA

One short email a week with the openings, closings, permits and council votes we covered. Free. Unsubscribe in one click.

Questions about this story

Free account needed to ask — your question is kept and asked for you right after sign-up. Answers are public.

No questions yet — be the first to ask.

Key Indicators

6
Years of monument research
The SFAC researched all 105 monuments over six years before commissioning new works.
105
Monuments in the Civic Art Collection
All were researched during the six-year audit.
5
New temporary monument commissions
Artist teams commissioned by Shaping Legacy.
521
Monument audit report pages
Released by the SFAC in 2025.
$3M
Mellon Foundation grant
Funding for the Shaping Legacy project.

Voices

Curated perspectives — historical figures and your fellow readers.

Sign up to generate historical perspectives on this story.

Log in Sign Up

People Involved

Kaleb Duarte
Kaleb Duarte
Artist, Embassy of the Refugee
Active
 Dana King
Dana King
Artist, Monumental Reckoning
Active
 Kim Shuck
Kim Shuck
Former San Francisco poet laureate, Cherokee diaspora
Active
 Adrián Arias
Adrián Arias
Artist, A Sweet Route: Tribute to Paleteros
Active
 Ariana Martinez-Cruz
Ariana Martinez-Cruz
Artist, Threaded Histories
Active
 Afatasi the Artist
Afatasi the Artist
Artist, Memory Portal: 1945
Active
SC
Stacey Carter
Artist, CRANE
Active

Organizations Involved

San Francisco Arts Commission
San Francisco Arts Commission
City agency
Leading the monument overhaul

The city agency managing the Civic Art Collection and the Shaping Legacy project.

Timeline

September 2018 November 2026

13 events Latest: October 13th, 2026 · 2 weeks ago Showing 8 of 13
Tap a bar to jump to that date

  1. Evolving the Archive panel discussion

    Upcoming Event

    Shaping Legacy hosts 'Evolving the Archive,' a panel at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch's Koret Auditorium, as part of the project's closing phase.

  2. I Am sculpture dismantled at Embarcadero Plaza

    Latest Removal

    Crews broke down the 13,000-pound illuminated sculpture known as I Am (formerly R-Evolution), which had stood in front of the Ferry Building for 18 months. The removal clears space for the city to build a new park at the site.

  3. CRANE illumination runs at Hunters Point Shipyard

    Event

    Stacey Carter & Team's light and sound installation on the Shipyard Gantry Crane runs October 9-10 and 16-17.

  4. Public Art in Chinatown celebration

    Event

    Threaded Histories hosts a community celebration at the Chinatown-Rose Pak Station.

  5. KQED reports on new monuments

    Media

    The story gains attention as the first temporary monuments are completed and performed.

  6. Threaded Histories monument installed at Chinatown-Rose Pak Station

    Installation

    Ariana Martinez-Cruz's 7-foot steel thread spool honoring garment workers is in place at the station, ahead of a September 12 community celebration.

  7. Shaping Legacy installations begin

    Commission

    Five temporary monuments honoring refugees, workers, and the Great Migration start appearing across the city.

  8. SFAC releases 521-page audit

    Report

    The full audit of San Francisco's Civic Art Collection is made public.

  9. Monuments advisory committee final report

    Report

    The Monuments and Memorials Advisory Committee delivers recommendations on all civic monuments.

  10. Monumental Reckoning unveiled

    Unveiling

    Dana King's 350 steel sculptures honoring the first enslaved Africans are installed at the Key statue plinth.

  11. Protesters topple three statues in Golden Gate Park

    Protest

    Statues of Francis Scott Key, Junípero Serra, and Ulysses S. Grant are pulled down.

  12. Columbus statue removed preemptively

    Removal

    SFAC takes down the Columbus statue below Coit Tower to avoid injury during protests.

  13. Early Days statue removed

    Removal

    City workers crane away the 2,000-pound bronze, ending a 124-year display of a missionary over a fallen Indigenous man.

Scenarios

1

Temporary monuments become permanent fixtures

Possible Resolves by Q2 2028

Discussed by: SFAC staff, artists, and community advocates

Some temporary works, particularly Dana King's Monumental Reckoning, gain such public support that the city elects to keep them beyond their scheduled two-year run. This would require the SFAC to alter its policy against permanent commissions on contested plinths. The decision would hinge on community surveys and the success of ceremonial performances.

2

City removes more contested statues after audit

Unlikely Resolves by End of 2027

Discussed by: Gary Kamiya and local historians

The audit spurs new removal proposals for monuments like the Dewey Monument or the California Volunteers Monument. Activists renew calls for removal, and the SFAC board takes up at least one new case. Action is likely to be more curation than removal.

3

Shaping Legacy ends without formal city policy

Possible Resolves by End of 2028

Discussed by: City budget analysts

The project concludes without codifying new guidelines for future monuments. The temporary works are taken down, and the city returns to business as usual, leaving only the audit as a lasting artifact. This would happen if the Board of Supervisors declines to act on the audit's recommendations.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

August 2017 - 2020

Confederate monument removals (2017-2020)

After the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, cities across the South began removing Confederate statues from public squares. The movement accelerated after George Floyd's murder, with over 160 Confederate symbols removed or relocated in 2020.

Then

Many cities removed statues, but others passed state laws protecting them.

Now

The debate shifted from whether to remove to what to put in their place.

Why this matters now

The San Francisco project grapples with the same question: not just what comes down, but what goes up.

2003-2005

Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (2005)

Germany opened a 19,000-square-meter field of 2,711 concrete slabs near the Brandenburg Gate. The design deliberately avoids figurative representation, instead creating an unsettling, abstract space for reflection on the Holocaust.

Then

The memorial drew criticism from all sides but became a major tourist site.

Now

It established a global benchmark for anti-monuments that prioritize feeling over heroism.

Why this matters now

San Francisco's temporary, people-focused works echo Berlin's turn away from bronze heroics toward experiential memorials.

June 2020

Golden Gate Park's Music Concourse original topplings (2020)

Protesters toppled statues of Francis Scott Key, Junípero Serra, and Ulysses S. Grant in one night. All three figures had ties to slavery or colonial violence against Indigenous people.

Then

The city removed the fragments and left the plinths empty.

Now

The empty bases became the sites for the new temporary monuments.

Why this matters now

This is the direct origin of the Shaping Legacy project.

Sources

(12)
+6
KQED ABC7 News Kamiya Unlimited Smithsonian Magazine KQED SF.gov SF Examiner NBC Bay Area We Are San Francisco SFist SF.gov SF.gov