The FREE Arts for the City book launch party

If you’re like me, not much. But next week Thursday you could find out plenty at the book launch party for San Francisco: Arts for the City Civic Art and Urban Change, 1932–2012.

If you’ve ever enjoyed the WPA murals, wondered about the story behind Coit Tower, or been curious about why San Francisco is such an art-friendly city at all, this is the book that tells that story.

In 1934, San Francisco’s Coit Tower was finally complete and open to the public. Coit Tower was one of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s first projects, and it set the tone for the next eighty years of public art in a city full of world-class sculptures, music venues, and community arts programs.

From the Ethnic Dance Festival to slam poetry performances at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, Arts for the City tells the story of an urban landscape where diversity, creative energy, and political activism are reflected in civic art that is bold and innovative and where citizens take pride in vigorous, often contentious, creativity.

And it’s full of photographs from amazing photographers like: Richard Barnes, Ruth Bernhard, John Chiara, Imogen Cunningham, Jim Goldberg, Doug Hall, Todd Hido, Reagan Louie, Mike Mandel, Richard Misrach, Dan Nicoletta, Ira Nowinski, Susan Schwartzenberg, Larry Sultan, Catherine Wagner, and Henry Wessel.