Mildred Howard expands on her engagement with public space and collective memory through a series of site-specific installations in response to San Francisco’s reckoning with its civic monuments. Informed by the toppling of statues in Golden Gate Park following the murder of George Floyd, Howard will create three installations—at 500 Capp Street, FOR-SITE (Presidio), and the Oakland Museum of California— from June 2025 (500 Capp Street and FOR-SITE) to June 2026 (Oakland Art Museum of California) critically addressing the relationship of monuments with power and public memory. These works, draped in red textile, will serve as both interventions and sites for public engagement. With Collaboration with the Muses, Howard reaffirms her belief in art as a catalyst for dialogue and healing, bringing her lifelong commitment to political engagement, site specificity, and community-centered practice into urgent contemporary discourse. Public programs led by 500 Capp Street will take place in July and August 2025.
The exhibition at 500 Capp Street is generously supported by The Kenneth Rainin Foundation. The public programs are part of Shaping Legacy: San Francisco Monuments & Memorials, a project of SFAC supported by funding from the Mellon Foundation.