Enlarged digital reproductions of the edition's ten Risograph prints, each designed by a different artist, were installed in bus shelters along Market Street from August to November 2019, many placed near the historic protest sites that inspired their designs. Risograph prints of the same posters were distributed for free to K-12 teachers, alongside a curriculum guide with activities like roleplaying protest scenarios. Students encountered the posters both in their classrooms and on the street—including at a youth-organized climate march that passed by the series while it was on view.

KQED's Sarah Hotchkiss covered the project:

The latest crop of San Francisco Arts Commission Art on Market Street posters may at first glance look like a series of inspirational quotes. “Consciousness is power,” reads one bus stop kiosk. “Tomorrow’s world is yours to build.”

But there’s more to those messages than a dose of optimism: Each quote from a prominent author or activist, selected by artist Jessalyn Aaland, opens the door to a deeper understanding of Market Street as a site of history-making marches and demonstrations. Informing the candy-colored posters is research on nearly 125 years of localized dissent, all part of a larger undertaking meant to provide future generations with the tools to make their voices heard.

The accompanying research—nearly 125 years of protest history along Market Street—was compiled into A Brief and Inconclusive History of Protests on San Francisco's Market Street, a booklet drawing on archival footage, images, and research I reviewed during a residency at Oakland's Real Time & Space in spring 2019.

Participating artists: Jessalyn Aaland, Jesjit Gill, Kindah Khalidy, Paul Morgan, Kyle Pellet, Adee Roberson, Lordy Rodriguez, Jovi Schnell, Tiffanie Tran, and Gray Wielebinski

Photos by Graham Holoch.

Enlarged digital reproductions of the edition's ten Risograph prints, each designed by a different artist, were installed in bus shelters along Market Street from August to November 2019, many placed near the historic protest sites that inspired their designs. Risograph prints of the same posters were distributed for free to K-12 teachers, alongside a curriculum guide with activities like roleplaying protest scenarios. Students encountered the posters both in their classrooms and on the street—including at a youth-organized climate march that passed by the series while it was on view.

KQED's Sarah Hotchkiss covered the project:

The latest crop of San Francisco Arts Commission Art on Market Street posters may at first glance look like a series of inspirational quotes. “Consciousness is power,” reads one bus stop kiosk. “Tomorrow’s world is yours to build.”

But there’s more to those messages than a dose of optimism: Each quote from a prominent author or activist, selected by artist Jessalyn Aaland, opens the door to a deeper understanding of Market Street as a site of history-making marches and demonstrations. Informing the candy-colored posters is research on nearly 125 years of localized dissent, all part of a larger undertaking meant to provide future generations with the tools to make their voices heard.

The accompanying research—nearly 125 years of protest history along Market Street—was compiled into A Brief and Inconclusive History of Protests on San Francisco's Market Street, a booklet drawing on archival footage, images, and research I reviewed during a residency at Oakland's Real Time & Space in spring 2019.

Participating artists: Jessalyn Aaland, Jesjit Gill, Kindah Khalidy, Paul Morgan, Kyle Pellet, Adee Roberson, Lordy Rodriguez, Jovi Schnell, Tiffanie Tran, and Gray Wielebinski

Photos by Graham Holoch.