San Francisco: Arts for the City: Civic Art and Urban Change, 1932-2012
"Susan Wels combined history, politics, business, and all branches of arts in her massive collection based on an impressive body of research. Whether you love history or arts, and mostly if you live in The City (San Francisco),Arts for the Citybelongs in your book collection, or on your coffee table."--San Francisco Book Review"Arts for the Citythoughtfully and comprehensively makes the case for San Francisco as a great urban center  for art." --George Calys, San Francisco architecture and design critic, Examiner.com"Wels's upbeat, thoroughly civic-minded book conveys not only the story of a dynamic arts agency in the City by the Bay. It also describes the extraordinary work the organization has helped to produce, and borne witness to, over the years across different media."--Publishers Weekly"The volume is well researched and abundantly illustrated and will delight and intrigue those lucky enough to live in San Francisco, those who just  visit and leave their heart, and anyone involved with cities and public  art."--BookNews''A fine new book…it serves as an early panel in this mural-like cultural history, seen through the lens of the San Francisco Arts Commission's history…The book's abundant photographs form an evocative time-capsule of the city's arts triumphs, trials and fondly remembered follies.''--Steven WinnSan Francisco Chronicle''A spectacular look at the evolution of the city's art scene carefully researched and gracefully written.'' --Robert Cherny, professor emeritus at San Francisco State University and author ofSan Francisco, 1865 1932''What a vivid lens into the churn of culture that has defined San Francisco again and again in the past eighty years! This book is a crash course in the importance of making room for socially relevant art in a city with dynamic and complex creativity and a reminder that even the conflicts are worth having, because they highlight the passions that define what our society holds dear.'' --John King, urban design critic for theSan Francisco Chronicleand the author ofCityscapes''Deeply researched, this is a 'must read' for anyone trying to make sense of 'E Pluribus Unum' in our multicultural society.'' --William Issel, author ofChurch and State in the City: Catholics and Politics in Twentieth-Century San Franciscoand professor emeritus at San Francisco State University''What a vivid lens into the churn of culture that has defined San Francisco again and again in the past eighty years! This book is a crash course in the importance of making room for socially relevant art in a city with dynamic and complex creativity and a reminder that even the conflicts are worth having, because they highlight the passions that define what our society holds dear.'' --John King, urban design critic for theSan Francisco Chronicleand the author ofCityscapes''Deeply researched, this is a 'must read' for anyone trying to make sense of 'E Pluribus Unum' in our multicultural society.'' --William Issel, author ofChurch and State in the City: Catholics and Politics in Twentieth-Century San Franciscoand professor emeritus at San Francisco State University