Arts and Culture

Beyond Land Acknowledgement:
Three Part Series on Indigeneity in the Arts

March-May 2023
In collaboration with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the ARO has put together a three-part series on Indigeneity in the Arts for arts and cultures organizations in San Francisco. The first part of the series focused upon Indigenous Protocol. The second focused upon Cultural Appropriation, and the third part focuses upon Native Spirituality in Art. 

Two Art Awards
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March 2023
The ARO has been included in this year's YBCA 100​! The annual YBCA 100 list celebrates artists, activists, and leaders who are committed to building regenerative and equitable communities ​
​Sandy Rodriguez has received this years Jacob Lawrence Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jonathan Cordero collaborated with Sandy on an art installation and art catalogue.

Redwood City Mural

December 2022
Redwood City celebrated the Racial Equity Mural located along the underpass along Jefferson Ave near City Hall. Gregg Castro, Jonathan Cordero, and artist Rachel Wolfe-Goldsmith are pictured here (right). Gregg Castro will be featured in the mural (left)--Jonathan's image was used as a placeholder.

ARO Mural on JFK Blvd

2022
Jonathan Cordero, in collaboration with muralist ChiChai, have painted a mural on the roadway along JFK Blvd in Golden Gate Park. The mural project is being put together by Paint the Void and Illuminate SF. 

The mural is entitled, "Care for Mother Earth," and emphasizes the interconnectedness and interdependence of human and nature. It shows half-human/half-plant hands caring for the earth and fostering harmony and health in the world, depicted in the sphere of a Native basket.
ChiChai standing at the mural's edge. The mural is on the road immediately south of the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.

Pacifica Murals Project​

2020-2022
The ARO is consulting with the Pacifica Murals Project on a four-wall mural--each wall painted by a different artist--that advocates for unity in diversity. "The Pacifica murals project was designed to help, heal and open the hearts and minds within our community. This project is aimed at creating a public art pieces that facilitate deeper thought and discussion about our native history, our environment, and the importance of inclusion within our community."

International Women's Dance Festival

Intricacies of Art and Nature
2022
​In partnership with Demonstration Gardens, the ARO is co-sponsored the International Women's Dance event in the newly renovated Federal Plaza on March 10, 2022. 
2022
The ARO will curate an art exhibition at the ODC Theater gallery between July and September of 2022. Whether simple or complex, our connection to the natural world shapes our lives in ways that are often intangible to our everyday consciousness. Three artists will explore the impact of nature on their and our lives in a variety of ways—aesthetic, biological, spiritual, and political—and draw out the unconscious connection. Artists include Anna Sidana, Sally Weber, and Heidi Quante.

Mission Bay Project

2021
The ARO is consulting with Kat Covell on a series of interpretive bay panels that focus on the history of Mission Bay and biotechnology. Several panels of the first two bays include information about the history of the Ramaytush Ohlone in San Francisco.

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WeAreWater (Heidi Q, artist)

2021
WeAreWater is an immersive audio and video artwork illuminating the social and environmental history of SF’s relationship to water. The tour brings the sounds of submerged streams to life as well as the relationship to water of those living above these waterways. Diverse voices of the Mission community sharing their personal and cultural relationship to water all spoken in their Native Languages. ​

Mural at 16th and Dolores

National Queer Arts Festival
2021
Artist Rachel Znerold has been asked by the Catholic Church to paint a mural along the blue wall surrounding the parking lot for St. Matthews Church at the corner of 16th and Dolores St. The mural will feature native plants and landscapes. Rachel is working with the ARO and the American Indian Cultural District to ensure Native participation in the creation of the mural.
2021
Natalia Vigil of the QCC worked with the ARO to create an artistic rendering of a land acknowledgement for the National Queer Arts Festival May-June 2021 in San Francisco. The land acknowledgement recognizes many of the Bay Area tribal groups, including the Ramaytush Ohone. We appreciate the creativity!

East Palo Alto Mural Project

2020-2021
The ARO is consulting with The Scape Martinez Projects Team on one panel of a multi-panel mural, part of which will feature the Ramaytush Ohlone across history. The mural will be located in East Palo Alto. Samples of Scape Martinez' work can be easily found online.
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"Our Ancestral Homeland"
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2020
Jonathan Cordero contributed to an e-flux special issue entitled, "On Indigenous Land."  The editors of the journal framed the special issue thusly, "This account represents the institution’s attempt to frame the expansion of a college teaching art, architecture, and design on top of Indigenous cultural remains as a gesture of respect, rather than the latest iteration in a long history of colonial appropriations and obliterations of Indigenous peoples, lands, and things." 

“Concluding Thoughts:
​On Decolonizing the Study of Mission Art.” 

2020
Jonathan Cordero was invited to write the conclusion to a special issue of Journal of Latin American and Latinx Visual Cultures. In the introduction of his article, Dr. Cordero writes, "In addition to correcting the historical and intellectual record, the approach dismantles the fantasy heritage or romanticized accounts of the “mission era” that continue to undermine the real and present consequences of colonization and genocide of Native peoples."
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