Our Work

Charles Unser has been a participant of Art Explorers for twelve years, often exploring historical themes with a particular interest in American gangs of the 20thCentury. He created ten portraits of famous Alcatraz prisoners with colored pencils on wooden panels, offering a unique artistic and visual window into the lives of some of the most feared individuals to have been imprisoned on the Island.

Featured in cities and prison museums across North America, Europe, and Australia, Prisoners of Age found a temporary home at Alcatraz in the New Industries Building from June 2015 - June 2016. A product of over 18 years of work, Prisoners of Age seeks to connect faces and stories of aging inmates with numbers and statistics.

Presented by the FOR-SITE Foundation in partnership with the National Park Service, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and the Presidio Trust, Home Land Security  featured 18 contemporary artists and collectives from 12 countries around the world, providing a global perspective on the themes of home, safety, and defense.

The program mission of Arts in the Parks is provide programs to connect our visitors with creative experiences in the park that are transformative, unexpected, and inspirational.

Alcatraz, best known for the historic federal penitentiary and occupation by the Indians of All Tribes, also has a long tradition of welcoming artists to provoke thought about freedom and incarceration.

In 2010, at the roots of the eucalyptus trees in the Presidio, British artist Andy Goldsworthy created the scuplture Wood Line.

British artist Andy Goldsworthy brings his ethereal interactions of human creation and nature to the San Francisco with Spire. The piece towers 90 feet high in the Presidio, both a part of its surrounding elements and an entity of its own.

Tree Fall is the first indoor installation Andy Goldsworthy created for the Presidio.