Etymology of a crack: a story of circularity

An accessible and restorative meditation that ask participants to ground themselves and move and feel the material we stand on.

These accessible and restorative meditations will ask just where we are when we stand on a city block. Organized and led by San Francisco-based artist Alicia Escott, this is one of an ongoing series of programs, artwork, and threads of inquiry that are culmination of Escott's artist in residency at San Francisco Environment, organized by San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries.

Leading participants though the deep-time process of ancient seashells and coral reefs being turned into cement and combined with stones and sand mined both locally and abroad for the production of a slab of city sidewalk; its life as a panel of our city and its demolition & crushing for recycling. Asking what is possible as we work towards a circular economy in dense urban environments? What does porousness look like in both infrastructure and culture, and what effect is this material that we are increasingly surrounded by having on our psyche and our world, offering alternatives and participants a space of rest amid a busy city.

Loose, comfortable clothing is encouraged but not necessary, but do dress warmly.

This program is part of the San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries' Artist in Residence program in partnership with San Francisco Environment. Click for more information.

2026 SFAC Artist-in-Residence Bio
Alicia Escott is an interdisciplinary artist based in the land we currently call San Francisco. She practices in solidarity with thinkers across fields undoing the construct of “nature” as a thing separated from us and our world. Informed by how we negotiate day-to-day realities amid an awareness of the overarching specter of climate-chaos, mass-extinction, and social and political unrest, her work makes space for the unspoken individual and collective experiences of loss, heartbreak, and grief. Escott approaches these issues with an interstitial practice encompassing writing, drawing, word-making, painting, photography, video, sculpture, social-practice, composting, seed-planting, and activism.

Escott has exhibited widely including at Telematic Media Arts, Berkeley Arts Center, the Headlands Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The San Francisco Maritime Museum, The Berkley Art Museum, and Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbra among others. She is a founding member of 100 Days Action and half of the social practice project The Bureau of Linguistical Reality alongside her collaborator Heidi Quante.

About the Artist-in-Residence Program
Launched in September 2015, the Artist-in-Residence program is overseen by the San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries and is an ongoing program that seeks to build partnerships with a variety of City Departments in order to provide unique residency opportunities that result in strengthening the value of artists participating in the advancement of civic dialogue.

About the San Francisco Arts Commission
The San Francisco Arts Commission is the City agency that champions the arts as essential to daily life by investing in a vibrant arts community, enlivening the urban environment and shaping innovative cultural policy. Our programs include: Civic Art Collection, Civic Design Review, Community Investments, Film SF, Grants for the Arts, Public Art, SFAC Galleries, and Art Vendor Licensing. To learn more, visit sf.gov/artscommission

About SF Environment
Now in its 30th year, SF Environment is the City’s climate accountability, coordination, and equity engine, advancing climate protection to enhance quality of life for all San Franciscans. SF Environment is recognized worldwide for its environmental policies and programs, which center on reducing emissions, achieving zero waste, reducing toxic chemical hazards, advancing environmental justice, promoting sustainable transportation modes, expanding clean energy infrastructure, greening our built environment, and protecting our urban forest. To learn more, visit sfenvironment.org