Public Knowledge

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Public Knowledge

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KQED, June 2019
First Heat Wave of the Year Hits Bay Area
Take refuge from the heat inside SFMOMA’s Public Knowledge Library; it’s free!

The Wattis Institute, CCA, April 2019
To Know Herself by Yomna Osman
Yomna Osman, part of the Take Part team that helped bring the 1938 scale model to the public, talks about her experience in her MFA exhibition catalog.

KQED, April 2019
WPA Models at Local Libraries Offer a Glimpse of San Francisco Last Seen in 1942
Will we find a permanent home for the 1938 scale model of San Francisco?

Portola Planet, April 2019
Check out these pics of the Portola scale model!
Images of the Portola neighborhood section of the 1938 scale model.

City Lab, March 2019
Map Lab: San Francisco at Scale
The 1938 scale model spurs conversation on history and gentrification in public libraries.

90.7 KALX North Gate Radio, March 2019
Who is San Francisco Built For?
Ever thought about what San Francisco used to look like? For the next month, it’s as easy as taking a trip to your local public library. Pieces of a model of the city built in 1938 are on display at branch libraries across the city thanks to Take Part, a collaborative exhibit from Public Knowledge and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Locals are gathering to have conversations about how the city is changing, and for whom.

San Francisco History Days, March 2019
Public Knowledge: Take Part
Gray Brechin talked about discovering the model and the need for a city museum to give it a permanent home, and Stella Lochman talked about her starring role in resurrecting it.

The Living New Deal, March 2019
The SF History Days
LND Founder Gray Brechin and Stella Lochman talked on Sunday, March 3 at the SF History Days about the WPA model of San Francisco. Titled, “The WPA City Model: Its Return to the Public and the Take Part Project,” the talk was held at the Old U.S. Mint.

Public Books, March 2019
San Francisco; or, How to Destroy a City
In Cities, Knowledge, and the Digital Age, a new partnership between Public Books and SFMOMA’s Public Knowledge project, we seek to understand how technology has changed cities. This article is in conversation with Bik Van der Pol’s “Take Part,” which asks: “Is there room for San Francisco in San Francisco?”

Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon, March 2019
Link to Composite Photo of a 3-D Model of SF in the 1940s
The link above shows a 42? by 38? detailed wooden replica of the city of San Francisco as it was in 1940 in 158 pieces at a scale of 1 inch to 100 feet.

Dell System (Wendy Liu), February 2019
Fragments-47
Fragments-48
Wendy Liu reflects on her Public Knowledge panel discussion Silicon San Francisco: The Impact of Tech Capital.

Hyperallergic, February 2019
Politicize Your Bookshelf with Colorful, Codified Stickers
Shelf Life, a take-home exercise, makes you think more deeply about the paradigms you might be absorbing, perhaps unconsciously, from your own book collection.

San Francisco Chronicle, February 2019
Gauging the Future, Savoring Doughnuts
What would happen if thousands of San Franciscans showed up at the library on a rain-soaked Saturday night and brainstormed about the future of the city until the wee hours of the morning? The French Consulate in San Francisco, SFMOMA and the San Francisco Public Library joined forces to find out.

Portola Planet, February 2019
Scale Model of the Portola Coming to Branch Library as Part of Citywide Event
Portola’s fabulous Librarian, Nicole, has let us know about several events being held here at our local branch over the next month with activities for all ages.

The Map Room, January 2019
Giant 1940 Model of San Francisco Digitally Assembled
A massive wooden model of the city of San Francisco that has not been on display, at least in one piece, since 1942 has been re-assembled as a virtual model by the David Rumsey Map Collection.

San Francisco History Center, January 2019
A New Deal for San Francisco: WPA San Francisco Scale Model
San Francisco is returning to San Francisco!

FunCheapSF, January 2019
1,000 Sqft San Francisco Scale Model from the 1930s | Jan. 25-Mar. 25
Ever wondered what your neighborhood looked like in the 1930s, or how you can help to reimagine where you live today? Portions of a rediscovered scale model of San Francisco from 1938 with 6,000 city blocks, are coming to a branch near you.

San Francisco Chronicle, January 2019
San Francisco Scale Model Finally Home After 77-Year Absence
The San Francisco scale model finished in 1940 has been mostly hidden away ever since — until now.

7×7, January 2019
San Francisco Bubbles with Excitement for this Week’s Free Night of Ideas
“Amazed by how many people came out and by how high and complex the levels of curiosity and involvement were—it felt like there was a real hunger for that kind of public conversation”—then Saturday’s night sold-out event—co-produced by the local French Consulate, SFPL, and SFMOMA—promises to be scintillating.

Datebook, January 2019
A Marathon for the Mind: San Francisco to Host Night of Ideas
This year, San Francisco is hosting its first-ever Night of Ideas, a free festival — focused on “the city of the future” — that the French government has organized for the past five years in more than 100 cities around the world.

NBC Bay Area, January 2019
Model Shows What San Francisco Looked Like Decades Ago
A thousand-square-foot scale model of the city of San Francisco built in the late 1930s is on display at the city’s library.

SF Weekly, January 2019
Check Out This Model of S.F. No One’s Seen IRL Since 1942
This late-1930s WPA map, at a scale of one inch to 100 feet, was part of the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island. It’s never been exhibited in full since.

Vidmid, January 2019
A virtual re-creation of San Francisco’s massive WPA wooden city model
A virtual re-creation of San Francisco’s massive WPA wooden city model.

Boing Boing, January 2019
A giant wooden model of 1930s San Francisco has been put online
The David Rumsey Map Collection shares an amazing collection of photographs and the history of this 42 by 38 foot WPA built wooden map of San Francisco. Visit their site for high quality images.

David Rumsey,January 2019
Featured Maps
For the first time since 1942, the entire immense 42 by 38 foot WPA built San Francisco Model can be seen assembled virtually.

Datebook, December 2018
SFMOMA and SF Public Library Hold Event Dedicated to Printed Word
City Lights book buyer Paul Yamazaki will chat with Rebecca Solnit, the incredibly prolific writer, historian and activist. It’s difficult to imagine two people better up to the task of articulating the importance of books “for fostering discourse and sparking civic imagination.”

Mission Local, November 2018
SFMOMA: SF Urban Film Festival: Street Art as Political Currency
Murals are a powerful form of art that expose us to beauty while oftentimes critiquing political and social conditions. This program is collection of shorts focusing on visual and graphic art in the public realm as a way of expressing and cultivating social capital; and will explore how mural artists around the world are engaged in a practice that provokes and unites.

San Francisco Chronicle, October 2018
Bay Area Political Events: Hacking Politics, Voter Info
Hacking politics: Keynote address for the weekend conference on how the political system is being “hacked.” Sponsored by UC Berkeley Center for New Media, SFMOMA’s Public Knowledge Initiative, and the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and Boalt School of Law.

SF Station, October 2018
15th Anniversary of SF Trolley Dances Travels from Mission Bay to SFMOMA
Tours begin at Mission Creek Park at 4th and Channel Streets, finishing at the Public Knowledge Library in SFMOMA. At each site, trained volunteers greet audience members, while professional theater artists act as tour guides leading audiences along the performance journey.

Datebook, September 2018
SFMOMA Hosts Book-Buying Bonanza
Get out your book bags. This weekend, SFMOMA is turning its capacious Schwab Hall into a book lover’s paradise. Thousands of used books will be on sale in the hall, and all proceeds will go to the San Francisco Public Library.

Carpe Diem, September 2018
Added Value: An Alternative Book Sale
Over the course of three days, the museum’s Schwab Hall will be transformed into a massive public book sale, featuring a radical re-organization of thousands of used books, with all sales proceeds going to benefit the San Francisco Public Library.

The Bold Italic, Medium, May 2018
10 Free Artsy Things to Do in the Bay This Summer
Swing through the Public Knowledge space for all the free books on art your eyes can handle in one sitting.

Art in America, November 2017
Igniting the Archive
From billboard ads to one-person corporations, Mexican artist Minerva Cuevas creates site-specific interventions that critique socioeconomic structures.

KQED Forum, September 2017
‘Hit Parade’ Uncovers the Musical Histories of San Francisco’s Neighborhood
A new project called Hit Parade, a collaboration between SFMOMA and the San Francisco Public Library, has collected the sounds and memories of San Francisco through interviews and SFPL’s music collection.

e-flux, September 2017
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) Public Knowledge
Tectonic economic, technological, and cultural shifts are currently transforming the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. The multifaceted Public Knowledge initiative will explore the meaning of these changes for civic discourse, the circulation of knowledge, and the role of libraries and museums.

Berkeley News, May 2016
Berkeley and the New SFMOMA — Partners in Art and Public Engagement
It is truly a cross-sector collaboration that’s embedding art in a wide network of social spaces, and using the public library as a kind of delivery system for art and also, perhaps, changing people’s perception of what a library is.