Harvey Milk Memorial Sculpture
San Francisco City Hall Location Approved

The San Francisco Arts Commission voted unanimously on Monday, April 7 to approve the placement of a memorial sculpture of Supervisor Harvey Milk in the Ceremonial Rotunda at the top of the Grand Staircase in San Francisco City Hall.  The location had previously been approved by the Commission’s Visual Arts Committee and the City Hall Historical Preservation Commission and had the strong backing of Mayor Gavin Newsom and members of the Board of Supervisors.
 
Several other sites in City Hall had been proposed along the way. In the end the historical and symbolic gesture of placing the bust in the Rotunda that leads to the Board of Supervisors Chambers made it the favored location. Milk’s statue will be the first one to be placed in City Hall that honors a member of the Board of Supervisors who did not also serve as Mayor.
 
“It’s very heartening to see all the various elements of City government come together in support of this historic installation. It’s a fitting tribute to Supervisor Milk and his legacy,” said P.J. Johnston, president of the San Francisco Arts Commission.

The project to place the sculpture of Milk in City Hall is a joint undertaking between the Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Committee and the San Francisco Arts Commission. It is the first time such a public/private partnership has come together to place a sculpture in City Hall. The effort began in 2001 when the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution supporting the creation of such a Memorial to Milk.
 
Harvey Milk advanced the struggle for LGBT rights by becoming one of the first openly Gay elected officials in the United States, winning a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.  Less than year after taking office he was assassinated by a homophobic political opponent.  The unveiling of this Memorial, in the very building where he served and lost his life, will again make history; it will be the first such tribute to an LGBT leader to be placed in a seat of government in the United States.
 
Dan Nicoletta, co-chair of the Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Committee and a friend of Harvey said,  “It is the hope of the Harvey Milk City Hall Committee and its supporters to create a place of pilgrimage inside City hall, a place where one can vitalize ones commitment to the political process which is very much in keeping with Spirit of the Harvey Milk that I knew”
 
The sculpture of Milk will be unveiled at a Ceremony to be held in City Hall on May 22, 2008, on what would have been Harvey’s 78th birthday. The event starts at 6 PM, is free and open to the public, and will feature friends of Milk’s, local dignitaries, the Gay Men’s chorus and special guests.
 
San Francisco LGBT Pride Celebration Committee is the fiscal agent, sponsor and has been a supporter of the project for several years.