Never forget: Art and history will outlast us
CONCORD, CA (July 21, 2024) — Art and history will never rise to even the top 10 of a city’s budget items. Yet, 200 or 1,000 years from now, that is what people will recall of us.
The painting on the chapel in Rome, the Last Supper in Milan or the statues of the Qin Dynasty will speak to the future people of who and what we were.
In Concord, we recently created a series of murals in the downtown area. Spreading out from there, artists painted utility boxes in the city. I can imagine a distant future where a museum has a box cover as a display, with the folks appreciating the artwork and wondering what all those wires inside were about.
One of Concord’s more interesting art displays is much older. A free cup of coffee with a Danish as my guest awaits the first person to identify the location of the cement wall relief of an outdoor scene shown in the accompanying photo.
As mayor, I instituted the Mayor’s Art Gallery outside the mayor’s office that displays both general items from adult residents as well as student efforts from each of the categories of elementary, middle and high school. There are two time periods, with the first ending April 30 and the next one starting in September with a probable date of Oct. 30.
We can combine history with art, as in our statue of Don Salvio Pacheco that has a plaque describing the founder of the city. I can imagine someone from another planet trying to figure out what it says 1,000 years from now.
I also piloted a “Historic Minute” at City Council to remind people of what went on before now and help tie us together with those who built the foundation of our community. I have advocated that we provide 10 historic markers with the story of various areas and people. Who was Black Bart, or where was the electric rail station, or the airfield in the middle of the current city that inspired the city ordinance in the 1930s prohibiting people from parking their planes in their backyards?
Even if art and history will not make it to the top 10 expenses, we need to always support them in some way so that we remain more than just a set of houses and roadways with names of mysterious origins.
Let art and history be thought of as our memo to the future on who and what we are.
Claim your prize at EdiBirsan@gmail.com.