Friends of the Gateway
2011 – $7,500 General Support

Friends of The Gateway (FOG) is a community of artists and innovators championing the creation of a unique public space at the foot of the new Bay Bridge. Using the arts as the organizing principle, the Gateway Park envisioned will integrate engineering, infrastructure, landscape, economic and community development, creating a vibrant regional asset and an international destination.Gateway Park will be located at the touchdown point of eastern span of the Bay Bridge, on the Oakland side, and will encompass at least between 35 and 150 acres.

FOG envisions a public space akin to Millennium Park in Chicago or Landschaftspark in Germany, with a comparable economic and social impact, using the arts and the industrial arts movement as the central themes. The East Bay is the international epicenter for a major industrial arts movement, and our hope is that the Gateway will both celebrate this and capitalize upon it. FOG’s vision will seek to integrate human-scaled, social and economic activities into this context using the arts as an engaging vehicle, while creating a vital, vibrant Bay Area arts destination that attracts a local and international audience; explores the relationships between place, structure and creative innovation; and celebrates the remarkable new span of the Bay Bridge.