San Francisco

Reclaim Market Street! Sidewalk Intervention

Special Program

Image credit: Colleen McHugh, SPUR

How can we redefine the social life of the sidewalk? Amid the hustle and bustle of commerce and business, how do we slow to the pace of conversation, interaction or reflection? Can we create places to sit, make or play? This free one-day event will explore these questions through a series of artists interventions along Market Street.

Featured artists include:

Futurefarmers
After the Market (Market between 5th and 6th)
Futurefarmers will enliven a derelict marquee between 5th and
6th streets. Passersby will be invited to collectively imagine a
new Market Street through play, humor, and dialogue. Drawing
upon current instability of the "market," Futurefarmers will create an abstract language in the form of a set of symbols. Using poles they will compose messages, in collaboration with the public, to hang on the marquee.

Michael Swaine and Paul Benney
BroomTrade (6th and Market)
Who cleans the streets? What is the definition of Civic Pride? What is teamwork? Where did you get that broom??? These are some of the questions that are at the core of BroomTrade, a social experiment/art piece by Michael Swaine and Paul Benney. Join them as they parade down Market St, with a series of hand-crafted, tandem brooms, and an open invitation to join in and help clean up the streets! Swaine and Benney have created a number of brooms that require groups of two, four, and six people to operate, transforming the simple act of sweeping into a collaborative, public dance event. They also invite people to bring a broom from home, and engage in a BroomTrade
with other willing participants. Come to Market Street! Bring a broom! Learn a dance! And clean your city!

Genine Lentine
Listening Booth (UN Plaza)
Listening Booth arises out of an abiding interest in the brightening effect of being listened to, even for a brief period of time. Listening Booth is enclosed not by a structure but by regard. Creating a context for heightened attention, the piece emphaizes listening over the product of speech or conversation. Attention itself is the medium. Listening Booth provides an opportunity for face-to-face conversation when much public conversation now happens with either an absent listener, i.e. on a cell phone, or an absent speaker, i.e. a podcast. All are welcome to sit down in “the booth” and talk to an attentive listener for five minutes.

Amber Hasselbring
Urban Hedgerow (UN Plaza)
Join a public think-tank of artists, designers, and plant experts in a discussion and workshop set in a temporary native habitat staged in UN Plaza. The group will scheme ways of creating wild, unmanaged green veins throughout San Francisco made of hedges, sidewalk gardens, treetops and stream corridors -- thoroughfares for songbirds, pollinators and other urban wildlife.

This event is part of the Reclaim Market Street! exhibition.

Admission

Free to the public. Register here.

Refund Policy

Sponsorship payments: Will not be refunded, as sponsorship benefits take effect immediately and are on-going through the date of the event.

Auxiliary Services

If, in order to participate in a SPUR event, you need auxiliary aids or services for a disability (e.g., qualified interpreter, qualified reader, written materials, taped texts) please submit your request five business days before the event to [email protected] or 415-781-8726 x132. SPUR will work with you in identifying effective auxiliary aids or services that it can provide. If you need to cancel your request, please notify SPUR at least two business days before the event.