Arts Commission holds closed session after public pleas to save Vaillancourt Fountain

The San Francisco Arts Commission on Sept. 5 convened a closed session to confer with legal counsel over a request by the Recreation and Parks Department to deaccession and remove the Vaillancourt Fountain from Embarcadero Plaza, and to consider the threat of litigation from the artist's attorney.

The closed session followed more than an hour of public comment urging the commission to pause or deny the request and to allow additional public review. "If this request is granted, it would send a clear message that public art in San Francisco does not belong to its residents," said Camilla Baum, a representative of DOCOMOMO US’s Northern California chapter, during the public-comment portion. "We at DOCOMOMO echo the request from the artist family that you pause, reconsider, and understand the irreplaceable value of this artwork before it is too late."

The commission’s agenda item cited the San Francisco Administrative Code and the Brown Act as the legal bases for convening a closed session on threats of litigation. Commissioners voted unanimously to move into closed session with the city attorney present; after the closed session the commission reported…