City College of San Francisco's gateway building just got a finishing touch.
"Sentinels," a bronze statue by Aristides Demetrios, was installed in a prominent location outside the Student Success Center on Aug. 28 after years in storage.
On permanent loan from the San Francisco Arts Commission, the nine-and-a-half-foot-tall sculpture was first installed at the college in 1973 in front of Conlan Hall. Its new location at Ocean Avenue and Frida Kahlo Way ensures the angular, green-blue artwork gets widely seen.
Art Commission spokesperson Coma Te said, "It received a full conservation treatment by Preservation Arts in 2024, where it was cleaned and repatinated."
Te said there are no plans for a dedication ceremony, which a college official confirmed. Te added that the work of art should have been installed with the completion of the Student Success Center. He did not share the restoration cost before press time. The sculpture had undergone restoration in 2017, as well.
"Sentinels" is the last of three major pieces of the college's surprisingly robust art collection placed in and around the Student Success Center. It joins Robert B. Howard's "The Whales" and Dudley Carter's "Bighorn Mountain Ram."
City College's alternative newspaper, Free Critic, reported on the discontent over spending $20,000 on the artwork.
City College's The Guardsman put the sculpture's installation on the front page.
Student Reports
When "Sentinels" was installed, the college had two student newspapers. Both covered its addition to campus.
Don Borgstrom covered for the college's alternative newspaper, The Free Critic, the dismay with the sculpture's price tag. The headline: "$20,000 GIFT."
The $20,000 paid for "Sentinels" is just more than $150,000 in today's dollars.
The Guardsman put an item with a photo of the artist on the front page. (Disclosure: This reporter is the faculty adviser to The Guardsman.)
Demetrios told the newspaper that the artwork represents "an ocean of tradition and protection in a pleasing series of shapes."
