Press Coverage

The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is in the news! Read the latest coverage about the Parks Conservancy and our work below. Check out our Press Room for press releases and more about the Parks Conservancy, or contact us directly at media@parksconservancy.org.

Mashable

Get an inside look at the penitentiaries and reformatories that once held inmates, have become increasingly popular tourist attractions.

Boston Globe

Alcatraz derives from the name Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala gave to one of the three islands in San Francisco Bay, “Alcatraces,” probably referring to the “strange birds” or “pelicans” he saw on it. Its strange name (its meaning still debated) is appropriate, given The Rock’s unique history as a federal penitentiary, but as our guide noted, some of the island’s truly unique artifacts are its gardens and the stories behind them.

Examiner.com

In what many consider the hottest ticket in the art world, China’s best known dissident, artist Ai Weiwei, has created a series of works on the former prison island of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay.

Stuff, Entertainment. New Zealand

Alcatraz is perhaps the world's most famous prison. And Ai Weiwei is arguably China's best known artist. Now they have come together in a viscerally powerful show in the notorious former jail.

The Daily Star. Lebanon

Alcatraz is perhaps the world’s most famous prison. Ai Weiwei is arguably China’s best-known artist. Now they have come together in a viscerally powerful show in the notorious former jail.

Bay Area Reporter

An exhibition marrying the work of Ai Weiwei, the world-famous Chinese political dissident artist, and Alcatraz, the notorious federal "ghost" prison with spectacular vistas of San Francisco Bay.

Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz, Trace exhibit
Yahoo News. Singapore

An installation featuring seven new sculpture, sound, and mixed-media works by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has opened on the historic prison island of Alcatraz.

SF Weekly

The words of dissidents, political prisoners, and free speech advocates are everywhere in "@Large," a multi-work exhibition by renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei now open on Alcatraz Island — embossed on kites, represented in LEGO portraits, and echoing from speakers hidden behind jail cell vents.

The Daily Beast

The confined Chinese dissident’s new exhibition raises important questions about human rights at a site that’s home to America’s own notorious past.

NBC Bay Area

Ai Weiwei's exhibit on this former federal penitentiary raises questions about freedom of expression and human rights.

Time

The Chinese artist's seven installations on America's most notorious island champion human rights and recall America's dark past

FOX News

A highly anticipated exhibition at America’s most famous prison by one of China’s most prolific contemporary artists will open to the public Saturday, September 27.