Let reason survive, for art's sake
By: Ken Garcia
Examiner Staff Writer
11/19/08 1:49 PM PST
The debate of the proposed Contemporary Art Museum in the Presidio rages on, but one question will linger like a permanent sculpture.
Is San Francisco really ready to slap down a $1 billion gift?
As stated in this space on several occasions, the proposed location smack dab on the military parade ground may not be the perfect fit for such a modern building, but certainly there's got to be a place for it in the 1,491 acre park. The Presidio Trust is apparently looking at compromise plans for the museum that would be donated by Gap founder Don Fisher, but it would be a crime against logic just to dismiss the building because of the historic nature of the former army base.
You can still preserve the past with an eye on the future.
Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier on Tuesday introduced a resolution supporting the museum's placement in San Francisco, but the last thing Fisher wants is for the Board of Supervisors to take whacks at his plan because they don't agree with his politics.The Presidio offers him some much needed protection from the board's misguided forays.
Anyone who wants to understand what the museum could do for the Presidio only needs to take a walk in Golden Gate Park to see two world-class structures side by side in the concourse. Somehow San Francisco survived fights about the de Young Museum and the California Academy of Sciences, two cultural sites that will attract more than two million visitors each year.
It's one thing to engage in ideological wars on corporate ethics. But art? Even by San Francisco standards, that's a foggy notion.
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