Reimagining History: Coit Tower and Columbus

California Migration Museum Reinterprets Site of Columbus Statue with Sculpture, Map and Immersive Stories at Coit Tower

New Creative Works Invite Visitors and Locals to Discover SF as a City of Immigrants, in Collaboration with SFAC Shaping Legacy Project

This April, we're is thrilled to debut a collection of art installations, printed maps, 360° film, and audio stories that reinterpret the site of the former Christopher Columbus Statue at Coit Tower in San Francisco, spotlighting the city’s immigrant history.

In recent years, monuments commemorating Christopher Columbus have become flashpoints throughout the United States, as activists across the political spectrum ask questions about whose voices should be heard in the telling of American history — and what place immigration holds in that story. At Coit Tower, the California Migration Museum hopes to encourage new conversations by reimagining the site of the Columbus state as an opportunity to celebrate a city of immigrants.

Coit Tower Activation

Launching this April, the creative activation at Coit Tower includes four new works: Where We Find Ourselves, a project comprising a sculptural installation and illustrated print map by Italian American artist Lauren Bartone; The Italians of San Francisco, a 360° short film by Italian filmmaker Davide Fiore, and; City of Immigrants, an immersive audio walk that interprets the vistas from Telegraph Hill, created by the California Migration Museum.

Bartone’s Where We Find Ourselves, and Fiore’s The Italians of San Francisco are artist activations informed by community engagement and feedback, as part of the San Francisco Art Commission’s Shaping Legacy project, a multi-year commitment to critically examine the monuments and memorials in San Francisco’s Civic Art collection. ​

As part of the Shaping Legacy community engagement process, the California Migration Museum facilitated storytelling circles with local Italian American communities and North Beach residents, with assistance from Museo Italo Americano, Italian Community Services and La Scuola International.

On Saturday, April 25 between 1pm-4pm, Lauren Bartone’s sculptural installation will be on view and copies of her illustrated map will be distributed to the public from the vista and parking lot just outside Coit Tower. Visitors are also invited to explore David Fiore’s film, The Italians of San Francisco and the California Migration Museum’s City of Immigrants walking tour for free via mobile device at this time, and in the weeks following.

These new works launch in San Francisco at a time when American history is at risk of being erased. “California’s story has always been about immigration,” explains California Migration Museum founder and director Katy Long. “Our Museum brings this history into the streets and up the many hills of this city. Our new collaborative art activations at Coit Tower are a tangible way to build empathy and to create a public record of our shared histories.”

*A note on transit: Visitors attending the event on Saturday, April 25 should plan to take public transit via the 39-Coit Muni Bus, or walk up the Filbert Street or Greenwich Street steps. Parking at the top of Coit Tower is restricted to residents-only on weekends.

About the Columbus Statue

Unveiled in 1957, a statue of Christopher Columbus was displayed outside Coit Tower until 2020, when the monument was removed by the City.

The Coit Tower Columbus statue had long been considered problematic by many San Francisco residents; Columbus’ arrival in the US marked the beginning of centuries of enslavement and genocide for the native peoples of the Americas. Columbus has no distinct connection to California, and the sculptor who created the piece, Count Vittorio di Colbertaldo, was a Fascist, serving as one of Benito Mussolini's hand-picked ceremonial bodyguards.

However, when the statue was removed in 2020, some members of the Italian American community felt its loss. It had been installed by a community still struggling to be accepted in the United States, only 15 years after Italian Americans were declared “enemy aliens” in World War II. For this group, the Columbus statue was a way of placing Italians as central to the American story.

As part of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Shaping Legacy project evaluating and reinterpreting city-owned monuments across San Francisco, the California Migration Museum led a collaborative re-interpretion of the complex and multilayered immigration history connected to both the statue and the Telegraph Hill area.

About San Francisco and North Beach Immigrant History

Until 1848, San Francisco was a backwater, neglected by the Spanish and largely ignored by the American forces who occupied California in 1846. But as news spread that gold had been found in California, ships poured into the bay. They carried fortune-seekers from every corner of the globe — Europe, South America, Australia, Asia.  Within a year, San Francisco grew into a cosmopolitan city of 25,000, all built on unceded Yelamu Ramaytush Ohlone land.

The Chinese American community who arrived during the Gold Rush built their homes just to the south of Telegraph Hill, successfully establishing a neighborhood that survived through both the Chinese Exclusion period (1882-1943) and the 1906 earthquake. On the other side of the hill, Irish and Italian immigrants established similar neighborhood enclaves.

The Italians who settled in North Beach also faced discrimination, as poor Catholics who were not considered “white” by mainstream America. In December 1941, as the US entered World War II,  Italian-born US residents were designated enemy aliens. Though not incarcerated like Japanese Americans, Italian Americans were required to register and carry ID cards at all times, a curfew was enforced, and Italians were barred from restricted coastal zones. For North Beach’s fishermen, the impact was devastating. Although many of the restrictions were lifted in October 1942 — as the US prepared to invade Italy — the damage to San Francisco’s Italian community was not easily undone. It was in this context that the Christopher Columbus state was raised at Coit Tower in 1957.
Today, San Francisco is a city of immigrants. 1 in 3 residents are of Asian descent; 1 in 6 are Latino, and nearly  300,000 immigrants call this city home.

About Where We Find Ourselves

Where We Find Ourselves questions ideas of centering and navigation to reflect the complex range of migration experiences that are reflected in the former site of the Columbus monument. Italian American artist Lauren Bartone has created this activation in two parts: an interpretive print map and a temporary Cloud Monument sculpture. Both are based on collected narratives, and community dialogue from California Migration Museum’s story circles and archival research.

Where We Find Ourselves is a hand drawn and painted illustrated map. The perspective utilizes the view from the top of Coit Tower, with the plinth of the former Columbus monument in the foreground, and other key sites that reflect San Francisco migration histories, such as the Embarcadero and Angel Island, in the middle and back ground.

Lauren Bartone works in an interdisciplinary balance of painting, community dialogue, and archival research. Community based and collaborative mapping projects include A City in Maps (2015) produced as the artist in residence at the de Young Museum of Art in San Francisco, and SF New City Atlas for the ‘Art on Market Street’ poster series with the San Francisco Arts Council. She is a current PhD candidate in the Italian Studies Department at UC Berkeley.

About The Italians of San Francisco

The Italians of San Francisco is a short four-minute immersive experience that brings to life the rich history of San Francisco’s Italian-American community from the earliest Gold Rush arrivals through to new Silicon Valley arrivals. It builds on Fiore’s deep multi-year research into San Francisco’s Italian American history, highlighting notable Italians — such as banker A.P. Giannini — who helped shape San Francisco in profound ways.

Davide Fiore is an Italian native who has lived in California since 2017. Fiore’s 2024 documentary, A Little Fellow: The Legacy of A.P. Giannini, received the Audience Award for Documentary Feature at the Dances With Films Festival 2025, one of Los Angeles’ premier independent film festivals, and was previously honored with the Best International Docufilm Award at the Coliseum International Film Festival 2024 in Rome.

About City of Immigrants Walking Tour

City of Immigrants invites visitors and locals on a free, self-guided walk around the top of Telegraph Hill to discover the many layers of immigrant history around the Bay — from the gold rush to the Great Migration. The free experience unfolds across ten distinct locations “pinned” throughout Telegraph Hill, with each vista connected to a specific moment in the history of migration in the area. Visitors and locals can discover the stories through an interactive map, or by scanning a QR code at the Golden Gate Bridge vista point at Coit Tower.

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