Art & Creativity Quote by Gavin Newsom

“Daringly traditional” is the kind of phrase that only works in politics: a small verbal bridge engineered to carry two skeptical crowds over the same river. Newsom is promising risk without promising discomfort, experimentation without alienation. “Daring” flatters the arts world’s self-image as boundary-pushing; “traditional” reassures taxpayers and donors that no one is about to bolt a ten-story provocation onto the civic skyline and call it a win. The adverb “daringly” does the real labor here, laundering “traditional” into something that can still sound bold.

The procedural language matters as much as the aesthetic one. By vowing to “fully support” an Arts Commission and “professional selection committees,” Newsom frames himself as the patron who respects process rather than the mayor who micromanages taste. It’s an inoculation against the perennial public-art backlash: if controversy erupts, the decision can be defended as expert-driven; if it succeeds, the mayor gets credit for empowering it. The word “commission” repeats like a drumbeat because it signals action, budgets, installations you can point to on a campaign mailer.

The context is a city where public art is never just decoration. It’s an argument about whose history is honored, what neighborhoods get investment, and how “culture” gets used to sell urban renewal. Newsom’s line tries to square that circle: legitimize ambitious work while keeping it legible, civic, and ultimately governable.