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Visual artist Ray Beldner and landscape architect Loretta
Gargan collaborated with the San
Francisco Arts Education Project, students
and faculty of Francisco Middle School, Levi
Strauss Community Involvement Team, and interns from the San
Francisco Art Institute on the creation of a sanctuary garden in a formerly abandoned courtyard
at the middle school. This project culminated in several
forms: the garden itself, an exhibit of the developing work
in the Diego Rivera Gallery at the San
Francisco Art Institute,
and “Garden Care,” a source book of lesson plans and
ideas for ongoing use of the garden as an educational space. In
all, the collaboration encompassed a core group of 20 people and
a full complement of some 500 participants.
Many of the students attending Francisco Middle School live in
San Francisco’s Tenderloin District, Chinatown, or the housing
projects in North Beach—generally in small apartments without
decks or yards. The artists sought to create with them a
beautiful, peaceful garden that also could serve as an outdoor
classroom for experiments in biology and botany, for study of local
ecology, and for such creative activities as drawing, writing,
and storytelling.
The students were integrally involved in the planning, preparation,
and planting of the garden. Their collaborative design and development
process, which unfolded over the course of a school year, incorporated
lessons about composting, plant nutrition and growth, social and
cultural uses of plants, and mapping the geometry of the garden
space, along with creative writing and visual art projects. The
finished piece incorporated several distinct areas: a fountain/waterfall
near the entrance, a pathway suggesting a creek that leads from
the fountain to the inner garden, murals by the children, butterfly-attracting
plants, native plantings, and an outdoor classroom area with a
semi-circle of benches.
Recycling and re-use of materials is a strong theme in many works
by lead artist Ray Beldner. At the time the Creative Work
Fund grant was awarded, the San Francisco sculptor previously had
collaborated with many artists and in many different communities,
including work with children. Two recently finished projects
were Winds of Change at the Fairfield Center Gallery;
and Playland Revisited, developed through a collaboration
with a writer, and resulting in a series of large-scale stainless
steel sculptures commemorating the former San Francisco amusement
park, Playland-at-the-Beach. The process for Winds of
Change involved students from local grade schools writing
stories and poems about their homes in Fairfield in response to
a prose-poem by Beldner. Their writings were copied onto
strips of paper that blew around in space, powered by the turbulence
of industrial fans.
Landscape architect Loretta Gargan had worked on projects of varying
scope, including community planning, corporate roof gardens, the
AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park,
Marin General Hospital’s Healing Garden, and the Jelani House
(a home for pregnant, drug-addicted women and their children). She
had been involved with designing gardens for ten years prior to
undertaking this project. Much of her work emphasizes the
use of California native plants. She and Beldner shared an
interest in incorporating environmental sculpture into landscape.
Started in 1965 by renowned sculptor Ruth Asawa, the San Francisco
Art Education Project began by offering creative arts experiences
to children in the classrooms of San Francisco’s Alvarado
School and quickly expanded to serve many other elementary and
middle schools throughout the San Francisco Unified School District. Its
mission is to provide participatory arts experiences to the children
of San Francisco so they are better equipped to make use of their
creative abilities in all aspects of their lives. Professional
working artists, in the disciplines of music, visual arts, and
dance, are placed in classrooms to lead extended workshops. In
total, the Arts Education Project serves 12,000 students each year.
It augments its classroom programs by providing students with a
variety of performance and exhibition opportunities in schools
and community settings. These include The Event Players,
an after school musical theater troupe for 9-14 year olds, and “One
to See,” a visual arts exhibition that displays young artists’ works
in public venues. Built upon the base of a sustained
residency with the collaborating artists, “Common Ground” expanded
the curriculum to include landscape architecture and the forms
of presentation to encompass a permanent installation.
Ray Beldner
RESUME HIGHLIGHTS
Public Art Projects
- Playland Revisited, San Francisco Municipal Railway,
five stainless steel sculptures with historic photographs and
text plaques (1996)
- For Walt Whitman, International Sculpture Conference,
Whitman quote carved into asphalt and planted with native perennials,
Oakland, California (1994)
- Art Renews, perforated metal and recyclable material,
Los Angeles County (1993)
- Nature Remains, perforated metal and recyclable material,
City of Dublin, California (1993)
- The Lay of the Land, site-generated sculpture made
with wood and recyclable materials, collaboration with Robin
Lasser, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California (1991)
- Nature of Experience, site-specific nature trail and
exhibits, Millerton Point, Tomales Bay State Park, California
(1990)
Installations
- Winds of Change, Fairfield Center Gallery, Fairfield,
California (1996)
- Surveillance, for the exhibition, “Counterspace,” Haines
Gallery Annex, San Francisco, California (1995)
- Untitled installation, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha,
Nebraska (1994)
- Returning Books to the Earth, for the exhibition “Beyond
the Written Word,” San Jose ICA, San Jose, California (1993)
- Strained Relationships: Boys Will Be Boys, Sonoma
State University, Sonoma, California (1992)
- The Nail That Sticks Out Gets Hammered In, War and Peace,
Water Table, three projects at Headlands Center for the
Arts during a collaborative residency with Robin Lasser
- Converse, Confer, Conceit, for the exhibition, “Site: Western
Union,” San Francisco, California (1991)
- Diminishing Resources, Haines Gallery, San Francisco,
California (1990)
- The Language of Volcanoes: Pompeii Revisited, collaboration
with Robin Lasser, Berkeley Art Center
Solo Exhibitions
- The Other Side of the Aisle, Linda Moore Gallery,
San Diego, California (1996)
- The Body of a Dead Enemy Always Smells Good, Haines
Gallery, San Francisco, California (1994)
- Landscapes and Dark Suits, Haines Gallery, San Francisco,
California (1992)
- Introductions, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, California
(1990)
Group Exhibitions
- Work/Space, University of California, Irvine, California
(1997)
- Chateau Marmont Art Fair with Haines Gallery, Los Angeles,
California (1996)
- Work/Space, 44 Montgomery Street, in conjunction with
Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, California (1996)
- Facing Eden: 100 Years of Landscape Art in the Bay
Area, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California
(1995)
- Landscape: A Concept, Oliver Art Center, California
College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California (1995)
- Old Glory, New Story: Flagging the 21st Century, Capp
Street Project, San Francisco, California (traveled to the Santa
Monica Museum of Art) (1994)
- Here and Now: Bay Area Masterworks from the di Rosa
Collection, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
(1994)
- Body Parts, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, California
(1993)
- Funnels, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rental
Gallery, San Francisco, California (1992)
- Under Cover: The Book Becomes Art, Scottsdale
Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona (1992)
- The Camera Obscured, Spectrum Gallery, San Francisco,
California (1990)
- Chain Reaction V, San Francisco Arts Commission, San
Francisco, California (1989)
- Crocker-Kingsley Annual, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento,
California (1988)
Awards and Residencies
- California Arts Council Fellowship, New Genres, Installation
Art (1996)
- Artist-in-Residency, Centre D’Art D’Herblay, France
(1996)
- Gold Award, California Discovery Awards (1994)
- Bemis Foundation Residency, Omaha, Nebraska (1993)
- Grand Prize, San Jose Museum of Art, KTEH (1992)
- Residency, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California
(1992)
- Residency, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Woodside, California
(1992)
- Site-specific Sculpture Award, Gallery Route One, Pt. Reyes
Station, California (1990)
Curation, Teaching
- Instructor, Interdisciplinary Seminar, California College of
Arts and Crafts, Oakland, California (1998)
- Instructor, Graduate Critique Seminar and Graduate Tutorial,
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California (1997)
- Instructor, Sculpture, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco,
California (1996, 1994)
- Curator, “Site: Western Union,” Haines Annex,
San Francisco, California (1991)
Selected Private Collections
- City and County of San Francisco, San Francisco, California
- Rene and Veronica di Rosa Preserve, Napa, California
- Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
OTHER COLLABORATING ARTISTS
Loretta Gargan
RESUME HIGHLIGHTS
Professional Experience
- Principal/Landscape Designer, Lava Landscape Design (1995-97)
- Landscape Designer, Todd R. Cole Landscape Architecture (1993-95)
- Landscape Designer, Delaney and Cochran Landscape Inc (1991-93)
Selected Landscape Design Projects
Lava Landscape Design
- Conrad Garden (California Japonesque Garden), San Francisco,
California
- Davis/Hancock Garden (Vines Create Walls of Color in the Garden),
Oakland, California
- Gargan Garden (Garden to Attract Birds and Butterflies, Carved
Stucco Wall with Waterfall), Pleasanton, California
- Halvorsen/Witngott Garden (California Native Chaparral and
Fruit Orchard Garden, Los Altos Hills, California
- Harding Garden (Grass, Perennial and Herb Garden), San Francisco,
California
- Kahn Garden (Potted Grasses and Water Garden), Alameda, California
- Mulkeen Garden (California Native Garden with Dry Creek Bed),
Novato, California
Todd R. Cole Landscape Architecture
- The AIDS Memorial Grove, San Francisco, California
- Chapman Garden (Pool, Perennial and Fountains), Berkeley, California
- Coleman Garden (Pool, Perennial and Native California Hillside
Garden), Ross, California
- Hertzog Garden (Entry Way with Fountain), Sonoma, California
- Muldow Garden (Terrace and Rose Garden), Atherton, California
- Schwab Garden (Estate Garden) Atherton, California
Delaney and Cochran Landscape Inc.
- Bank of American Roof Top Garden (Wind Sock & Chair Gallery
Garden), San Francisco, California
- Highlands Hospital African Healing Garden, Oakland, California
- Jelani House, (Catholic Charities Home for Pregnant Women Addicted
to Crack Cocaine) San Francisco, California
- Knecht Garden (Residential Garden with Topiary Vines), San
Francisco, California
- Marin General Cancer Hospital (Healing Garden) Greenbrae, California
- Table 29 Restaurant (Olive Orchard, Edible Ornamentals and
Bocci Ball Garden), Napa, California
Competitions
- Wall of People Bus Shelter, with Eric Blasen, Civic Innovations: Los
Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design (1996)
- Garden of Hope, Mount Zion Hospital, with Eric Blasen,
Objects and Land, “Healing Garden” (1995)
- Montclair Village Public Art Project, with Ray Beldner
- Finalist, San Francisco Landscape Garden Show, California
Native Dry Creek Bed with Sculptural Rocks (1995)
- Seed Viewing Desk for the Armchair Traveler, “A Call
for Vision,” Victorian Collections (1995)
- “For the Birds,” Embarcadero Water Front Design,
Rediscovering the Barbary Coast (1993)
- Bird House Reliquary (1993)
LINKS
www.SFArtsEd.org
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