Last August, we sent the following letter to the Legion of Honor:
August 25, 2013
To whom it may concern:
I have loved the Legion of Honor since I first saw it as a
teenager in the Hitchcock movie Vertigo. When I moved to San Francisco after
college, my dad bought me a membership. I spent many wonderful afternoons
riding my bike to the museum, taking in a few rooms and maybe a coffee, and
then biking home again.
My 2-year-old daughter and I love visiting museums. We
recently spent a magical afternoon discussing the Diebenkorn paintings at the
de Young (and I renewed my membership). We also frequently visited the SFMOMA.
I was so looking forward to sharing with her the Impressionists now on display
at the Legion. But, alas, the Legion seems determined to prevent families with
young children from being able to comfortably see this art. They do not allow
personal strollers.
At first, I was told (after we got our tickets) that the
reason for strollers not being permitted was because of the crowds. I was
relieved to see the rooms were only about half full when we got downstairs.
Unfortunately, the supervisor I spoke with said they have “a lot of reasons”
for banning strollers – though she did not name any of the other reasons. The
Legion did provide a small, rickety umbrella stroller with a 40-lb. weight
limit that would only be comfortable to push if I was shorter than 5 feet tall.
My daughter thought it was a toy and wanted to push it around the exhibit
bumping into other viewers. Because I was unable to contain her without our own
stroller, she also attempted to push an “emergency door”, and the guard yelled
at us.
Sadly, we left the exhibit without being able to view or
discuss the art, and many of the other rooms at the Legion were closed. We
strolled through a few, and she particularly enjoyed The Bath by Jean-Léon
Gérôme.
San Francisco is a hard place to raise a family with the
high costs of housing and childcare and the inconsistent schools with their
lottery-assignment system. We struggle to stay because we love the cultural
resources here, and I want them to be part of my daughter’s childhood. I cannot
imagine the motivation of the Legion’s management to make life more difficult
for families to see the exhibits – especially when the rooms are not even
crowded. Shouldn’t educating our youth be everyone’s priority? Why obstruct art
education? I would like to believe that we all want San Francisco to have a
diverse representation of age among other things.
In short, I request the ban on strollers be cancelled, a
strong reprimand for the management who created these dismal policies and for
the supervisors who will not override them when they should.
I look forward to these problem being fixed quickly – as the
Legion is otherwise a wonderful place.
Sincerely,
...
Much to our surprise, it was picked up by the Chronicle
(after we sent it to them... and they edited it).
Since then, we've exchanged some voicemails with the
Director of Member and Visitor Services. I emailed her back today as follows:
Hi, Karin-
Thanks for your call back regarding your family policies. I
did not realize until yesterday that an edited version of the letter I sent you
on 8/25 was picked up by the chronicle about a month later.
Let me know if I have this right regarding the changes you
are making:
* improved communication and website so people know the
policy -- great idea!
* strollers allowed whenever possible -- what are the
constraints here? no one has yet explained the reason for the restrictions to
me.
* new loaner strollers sturdier and better quality -- I just
want to clarify which museum you mean -- the problem we had was at the Legion.
* more baby bjorns -- The baby bjorns are a waste of your
money. If parents can comfortably carry their children that way, they will
already have a carrier with them. Generally, the highly-mobile children who
need to be contained to focus on the art are too heavy for a carrier.
Other than noted above, that's a good start.
Thanks for your offer of tickets to Hockney. As I mentioned
in my letter, I am already a member of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco;
it looks like members are free to that special exhibit. I also wanted to
clarify that I have never had a problem with our stroller at the de Young. The
problem was at the Legion of Honor.
I hope you will continue to work towards improving family
access to both the museums. We love Friday nights at the de Young and find it
very child-friendly. The Legion is magnificent and should be equally
accessible.
Sincerely,
...
