The San Francisco Arts Commission on Sept. 6 presented "Shaping Legacy," a multi-year project to audit the city's monuments and memorials and recommend ways to better reflect the diversity of San Francisco. Director of Cultural Affairs Ralph Remington framed the work as an effort to "shift the narrative of monuments and memorials to reflect more equitable stories." The project is funded by a $3,000,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation and will run through the grant period, which staff said extends to June 2026.

Angela Carriere, who was brought on to implement the grant-funded program, said the work will include an equity audit, artist-led activations and public workshops, and a final report. "This work requires that we focus on race as we confront inequities of the past, reveal inequities of the present, and develop effective strategies to move us all towards an equitable future," Carriere said. She told commissioners the audit is in its analysis phase and that the final equity-audit report is planned for public release in early 2025.

Carriere and Remington described the project's scope as an audit of the Arts Commission's civic art collection (the staff presentation identified more than 4,000 objects in the civic-art holdings and 98+ works initially identified as monuments or memorials for review). The project will convene artist advisors, community collaborators, and consultants to prepare recommendations that could include removal, relocation, or contextualization; staff emphasized those recommendations would be advisory and follow existing public-art guidelines and processes.

Commissioners discussed outreach strategy and representation. Commissioner Hakimi urged the Commission to plan engagement that reaches less-organized communities (for example immigrant and newer communities that may not be represented by established organizations). Project staff said they will hold community workshops later this fall, are convening artist circles and advisors, and are working with equity-audit consultants to analyze the collection and prepare recommendations.

The presentation traced recent monument decisions and community responses: the Arts Commission removed the early-day sculpture from the Pioneer Monument in 2018 and removed the Columbus statue in 2020; the Monuments and Memorials Advisory Committee (NMAC) produced a final report that informed the current work. The staff presentation cited national examples and said the Mellon Foundation has set up a cohort of eight other cities receiving similar grants to share practice and data.

Public comment at the meeting was sharply divided. Independent journalist Erica Sandberg told commissioners, "We, the people of Baghdad By The Bay, will not permit our majestic artwork to be censured," and urged the Commission not to remove monuments. Another speaker, Karina Velasquez, compared wholesale removal of monuments to authoritarian erasure of history: "If we start erasing history, we are no better than the regimes that seek to control the truth," she said. Other public commenters urged recontextualization or adding monuments rather than removal.

Remington and Carriere responded that the project aims to be transparent, trauma-informed, and community-driven and that the audit's recommendations would be grounded in research and public engagement. The project website, artist-activation plans, and a public email list were cited as opportunities for continued public participation. The Commission did not take a formal vote on final policy during the meeting; staff described the project as ongoing and iterative.