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In Aunt Charlie's Angels, visual artist Tim Snyder captures the glittery greatness of the Grand Ducal Council of San Francisco, a charitable organization that provides grants to communities and individuals who are often marginalized by civic fundraising structures.
An official SF Design Week event!
Join the Tenderloin Museum for an exploration of the typography used on the matchbooks featured in our recent publication The Match Book: Vintage Matchbooks from San Francisco’s Tenderloin. Randall Homan and Al Barna from San Francisco Neon and Stephen Coles from Letterform Archive will present and discuss the unique letter forms and design of Tenderloin matchbooks associated with legacy businesses and neon signs. Just like matchbooks, historic neon signs are a fascinating synecdoche of the small businesses they represent, and a window to the past explored through material culture.
Come down to the Tenderloin Museum Friday, June 21st for our fourth installment of the wildly successful Drag Queen Bingo! This fabulous fundraiser is inspired by the neighborhood’s long and storied history of gambling, and supports our ongoing diverse and dynamic programming. Come for the drag, stay for the party, and hopefully leave lucky! If luck be your lady, you will be going home with some fabulous prizes ranging from the experiential to the material!
On June 20th, architectural historian and preservation activist Shayne Watson will lead a walking tour through the TL focused on LGBTQ-sites and the discussion of how best to honor a crucial, intangible legacy in physical (but often altered) locations. This special walking tour is a rare opportunity to explore one of the earliest and most historic LGBTQ enclaves in San Francisco with an expert in the field.
Using photography and portraiture as sites for exploring transgender and gender nonconforming identity, this project aims to bring wider visibility and validation to trans lives, and to showcase the wide spectrum of the transgender experience.
Join us for an evening with award-winning scholar and filmmaker Susan Stryker as she presents on the newest edition of her book, Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution (Seal Press 2008, 2017), with particular emphasis on San Francisco's rich transgender history, from the 19th century to the present.
Join us as be bid farewell to the neon art exhibition "Neon Family by Roxy Rose"
Artist Roxy will be on-site this evening for a tube bending demonstration!
June 6
6p-9p
FREE
The event on May 23rd is an educational presentation by Chris Carlsson about San Francisco’s 1934 General Strike, the single more important even in California labor history.
7p-9p
$5-$10 suggested donation; no one turned away for lack of funds
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This event is part of a larger month-long project dedicated to the History of the US Labor Movement. The Tenderloin Museum and Democratic Socialists of America - San Francisco (DSA-SF) are proud to contribute to the oral history of the US labor movement with an exciting new program focused on the past, present, and future of working people.
The Tenderloin has long been a home for the working class. The neighborhood's small, affordable apartments have drawn blue collar workers for generations -- from bartenders and waitresses, to sex workers and union organizers.
The event on May 16th is a presentation on the labor history being made today by the workers and organizers fighting for it. We'll be joined at this "Future of Labor" panel by workers from Anchor Brewing, joined by organizers from TWU and TWC -- all everyday workers and activists engaging in what local labor historian Fred Glass calls the "oral culture of unionism...[the culture of] workers journeying from isolation and powerlessness to community, strength, and hope."
7-9p
$5-$10 suggested donation; no one turned away for lack of funds
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This event is part of a larger month-long project dedicated to the History of the US Labor Movement. The Tenderloin Museum and Democratic Socialists of America - San Francisco (DSA-SF) are proud to contribute to the oral history of the US labor movement with an exciting new program focused on the past, present, and future of working people.
The Tenderloin has long been a home for the working class. The neighborhood's small, affordable apartments have drawn blue collar workers for generations -- from bartenders and waitresses, to sex workers and union organizers.
Don’t miss our 4th Annual Community Day Celebration with a full day of free events featuring performances and exhibitions by Larkin Street Youth Services, Skywatchers, Singers of the Street, Au Co Vietnamese Cultural Center, 826 Valencia Tenderloin Center, and the San Francisco Rock Project!
The Tenderloin Museum would love to toast YOU at our 4th Anniversary Fundraiser!
Join us for a celebration of the Tenderloin Museum, and its years of empowering, supporting, and engaging the Tenderloin community. You’re invited on May 7th to the the iconic mid-century Phoenix Hotel for a swanky evening of nibbles, libations, and mingling. Join the Tenderloin Museum staff and our board members for poolside hors d'oeuvres and frivolity in the most beautiful mid-century hotel in town.
The Tenderloin Museum and SFAI invite you on May 3rd at 3pm to witness an outdoor performance by renowned dance and movement artist Maya Stovall.
Maya Stovall makes art through small encounters in everyday life. Theorem, no.1, her new performance commission, unfolds in the streets and sidewalks — spaces fraught and celebrated — where that life takes place. Spinning a score that the artist refers to as “The Anti-Pop Up” or “The Anti-Flash Mob,” Theorem, no.1 gathers artists and collaborators to weigh the distances between neighbors, public spaces, and art worlds. Led by the movement of Seycon-Nadia Chea, Bana Kabalan, and Mohamed Soumah and the soundscapes of Todd Stovall, a group of 15 interconnected souls take actions from reading, eating, crying, sucking, thinking, kissing, writing, and praying. Together, they weave us into a procession of urban research, wonder, grit, and feeling.
Join us at TLM on May 2nd to catch Roxy Rose's neon art exhibition, "Neon Family." We are holding these special evening hours (6pm-9pm) so you can bask in the glow of this special neon art!
Be sure to make us a stop on your SF First Thursday Art Walk.
Part art exhibit, part science fair. Drop in to see amazing neon artifacts presented by a roomful of experts. Satisfy your neon curiosity!
The Neon Curiosity Lounge is part of the 2nd Annual Neon Speaks Festival and Symposium (April 26, 27 and 28). Neon Speaks, founded and produced by Al Barna and Randall Ann Homan of SF Neon (fiscally sponsored by Tenderloin Museum), brings together a wide array of people who celebrate vintage neon signs and want to save them as community landmarks. Local designers, architects, historians, preservationists, tube benders, urbanists, photographers, authors, and their contemporaries from across the United States will gather to share case studies and how-to knowledge on preservation efforts from coast to coast.
Tix to Neon Curiosity Lounge here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/neon-curiosity-lounge-tickets-56603449441
The event on April 23rd is a presentation that explores the history of May Day, the original workers' holiday. Fred Glass, author of From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Movement, will examine the events which led up to May Day, including the struggle for the 8-hour day, general strikes, and the socialist politics which shaped these actions.
7-9p
$5-$10 suggested donation; no one turned away for lack of funds
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This event is part of a larger month-long project dedicated to the History of the US Labor Movement. The Tenderloin Museum and Democratic Socialists of America - San Francisco (DSA-SF) are proud to contribute to the oral history of the US labor movement with an exciting new program focused on the past, present, and future of working people.
The Tenderloin has long been a home for the working class. The neighborhood's small, affordable apartments have drawn blue collar workers for generations -- from bartenders and waitresses, to sex workers and union organizers.
Opening Reception for the art exhibition "Neon Family: A Tribute by Roxy Rose"
April 4, 6-9pm
FREE
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The pieces in Neon Family: A Tribute by Roxy Rose have each been created as expressions of loving memory of Roxy’s father, Rio Score II, who passed away in February 2019, and in tribute to their four-generation family neon business, Alert-Lite Neon, which closed in November 2018. Each work was completely created by Roxy—from cutting and shaping the metal, to painting it, to bending and pumping the neon tubing—to reflect on Rio Score II’s life, revealing also a piece of Roxy’s own biography, all through the glow of neon.
On display in the Tenderloin Museum art gallery April 4th - 28th
Join us on March 28th 6-9pm to celebrate the magic that is ephemera with our closing of the Tenderloin Historic Ephemera Project! This event is your last chance to see our temporary ephemera exhibit and the matchbook art exhibition, Close Cover Before Striking: Alexander von Wolff. Artist von Wolff and ephemera collector and enthusiast, Glenn Koch, will be on hand to happily discuss their work and research.
As we bid adieu to the ephemera project, we invite neighboring institutions and individuals to showcase their own ephemera collections for this one night only closing event. Bring your own ephemera from San Francisco's past, especially the Tenderloin! We are so excited to explore the neighborhood’s collective memory as told through your mementos.
Email info@tenderloinmuseum.org to let us know what you plan to bring (we're welcoming any ephemera from San Francisco, Tenderloin preferred). These small, seemingly ordinary objects beautifully encapsulate the city and the neighborhood's colorful, vibrant past. Join us and travel back in time through the neighborhood's material culture.
As San Francisco’s roaring vice district, the Tenderloin of the early 20th century figures greatly into the development of cocktail culture. Many of the bars, restaurants, and hotels represented in The Match Book: Tenderloin Historical Ephemera Project played a role in San Francisco cocktail history. Join us for a survey of the neighborhood's historic bar culture and recipes from the innovators who shaped the modern cocktail landscape through a historical discussion, guided tasting, and hands-on class led by Shana Farrell, author of Bay Area Cocktails: A History of Culture, Community and Craft. In collaboration with the California Historical Society.
Doors at 6:30pm, Program 7pm
The visual language of the matchbooks broadcasts a rich local dialect, which took root in the Tenderloin’s many restaurants, bars, hotels, and social clubs. Aesthetically evocative examples of this lingo abound, conjuring a rich, nuanced vision of Tenderloins past. As physical artifacts, they provide a historical record of a business or particular address. But what’s more, these mass produced and widely distributed tokens touched myriad individual narratives, belonging to people who walked the same streets and lived in the same buildings as the present Tenderloin community. On March 14th walk these same streets with a Tenderloin Museum Historian, Al Barna and Randall Ann Homan of SF Neon, and typography expert Shelley Gruendler, and see the present day sites of the historic businesses featured in The Match Book: Vintage Matchbooks from San Francisco’s Tenderloin and The Matchbook Map Exhibit. You’ll be mesmerized both by how much has changed, and how much has stayed the same. Let your historical imagination run wild!
Doors at 6pm, Tour leaves promptly at 6:30pm
Tickets can be purchased here
Become a member of the Tenderloin Museum before March 7th and receive an invitation to our exclusive Member Appreciation Party at the historic UC Hastings’ Sky Room, an art deco-style lounge with breathtaking views of the San Francisco skyline.
Doors at 6:30pm
Screening at 7pm
Followed by a panel discussion
*Director Robert Zagone will be in attendance and available for Q&A*
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Join GLIDE and the Tenderloin Museum for a film screening of the “Reach Out and Touch,” a documentary about the legendary Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church. A post-film discussion, facilitated by Paul Harkin, will talk about best practices in harm reduction and how Cecil’s philosophy of radical inclusion and love still permeates and informs Glide’s present-day programs.
San Francisco History Association leads you through this city's colorful history with talks and slide shows given by guest speakers selected from the Bay Area's diverse arts and literary community. For this event, TLM Executive Director Katie Conry has been invited to speak about the Tenderloin!
Doors open at 7 p.m. with refreshments and a historical book sale; presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. sharp. There is a $10 admission for nonmembers.
Tickets available at the door, or purchase in advance here
Join the Tenderloin Museum for an exploration of the typography used on the matchbooks featured in our new book The Match Book: Vintage Matchbooks from San Francisco’s Tenderloin and The Matchbook Map Exhibit, with typography expert Shelley Gruendler. Randall Homan and Al Barna from San Francisco Neon will discuss neon signs associated with the historic businesses represented by the matchbooks. Just like matchbooks, historic neon signs are a fascinating synecdoche of the small businesses they represent, and a window to the past explored through material culture.
6:30pm Doors, 7pm Program
Join author Peter Field for a public presentation at the release party for the book, The Tenderloin District of San Francisco Through Time, which is a brief history of a neighborhood known to early San Franciscans as St. Ann's Valley. The story of this once-placid piece of real estate provides us with a fascinating microcosm of urban history as we follow its turbulent passage from an outlying village of Gold Rush pioneers to prosperous but quiet residential respectability; its development into a hotel, entertainment, and vice district; its gradual decay into decades of mean and homeless streets; and its on-going efforts towards economic rehabilitation. Numerous photographs and images offer glimpses of its successive worlds of early settlers in the sand dunes; houses, churches, schools and mansions in a respectable middle- and upper-class neighborhood; fancy and not-so-fancy hotels and restaurants and saloons and theaters; ward politicians and political bosses, labor unions, gamblers, entertainers, high-class brothels, and petty criminals; bars, strip clubs, burlesque, and poker joints; and the politics of a decaying central city neighborhood trying to save itself.
The Tenderloin neighborhood is a virtual museum of historic neon signs. These one-of-kind works of sign art are waiting to be illuminated. Join us for a journey into the behind-the-scenes neon renaissance movement in San Francisco to give neon signs their due as hand-made works of art. The Tenderloin Museum and San Francisco Neon co-founders present treasures of lost neon landscapes in rare film footage and photographs. You’ll learn the history of neon through historic images from the San Francisco History Center and the American Sign Museum that show the before and after glow of the America’s neon landscape. Take home a copy of “Neon Icons” a photographic study in past and present neon signs that represent the artistic and spirit and the history of small businesses of San Francisco.
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This event is part of the 2019 California Association of Museums (CAM) conference "Changing the Narrative"
About the Theme:
People and communities use narrative–stories built around core values–to understand the world and their place in it. As narratives become more inclusive and encompass a broader range of perspectives, museums are looking for ways to deliver these new stories to provide a narrative that represents as many voices as possible. Museums are working to change the narrative around their collections in order to fulfill their responsibility to better serve the public.
Photo by Ava Porter
Alexander Von Wolff creates artwork from vintage matchbooks representing a variety of local institutions past and present. Join us for an opening of his art show at the Tenderloin Museum, which includes a few pieces inspired by matchbooks from our book The Match Book: Vintage Matchbooks from San Francisco’s Tenderloin. For Wolff, matchbooks are “more than mere advertising campaigns...the matchbook symbolizes a collective consciousness of leisure, served as keepsakes for a wealth of anonymous design creativity, and were enjoyed by individuals who attached meaning to them through experience and memories.”
Wolff has captured this historical memory with his art, recreating artistic relics of the past and giving them new life in the form of large scale printed images. “Now this form is not just a miniature memory in a box, or a remnant left on the mantle; it is a piece of art that will allure and transport you to a time gone by,” says Wolff. On display at the Tenderloin Museum until March 31st.
The Tenderloin Museum is pleased to announce its 4th annual Volunteer Fair. This gathering is intended for first time volunteers and seasoned civil servants to meet and connect with representatives from several of the Tenderloin’s vital service nonprofits. Come learn about the many ways one can serve those in need and build meaningful community in the heart of San Francisco.
The Volunteer Fair begins with an opening reception at 6:30 pm, followed by short presentations at 7 pm from over a half dozen local organizations.
102 Years Since America's First Sex Worker Rights Protest
Prostitution has always been a hot-button issue in San Francisco, but how often do we hear from sex workers themselves? On Thursday, January 24th, join the Tenderloin Museum and St. James Infirmary to celebrate the 102nd anniversary of San Francisco's 1917 sex worker march.
Help us set the tone for the new year in celebrating this vital piece of Bay Area history. Authors Ivy Anderson and Devon Angus, co-editors of Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute, will give a talk examining the history of sex work in San Francisco from 1849-1917. Afterwards, representatives from St. James Infirmary will address where we are at 100 years later in the continuing fight for sex workers’ rights.
$10 suggested donation, no one turned away for lack of funds. Half of door proceeds will go directly to support St. James Infirmary.
Historic neon signs represent small businesses and neighborhood gathering places where generations have met to watch movies, drink martinis, buy groceries, and park cars. The surviving neon signs that glow brightly throughout the California landscape permeate almost all cultures and lifestyles. They are not disposable advertising, but a bridge between the past and present. They have become iconic community landmarks. But what are the best practices to protect and restore these neighborhood icons? Join Randall Ann Woman and Al Barna of San Francisco Neon to take a look at some iconic neon signs in California, learn the fascinating stories behind them, explore the struggles and the payoffs in saving them, and the neon best practices that may, or may not, be part of the plan. The Tenderloin neighborhood in San Francisco has more than 100 surviving neon signs, and a recent initiative called Tenderloin Neon A-Z (a collaboration between the Tenderloin Museum, SF Neon, and San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development [OEWD]), aims to restore a cluster of neon signs every year in an effort to illuminate this historic neighborhood.
Katie Conry, Executive Director of the Tenderloin Museum, will profile the Tenderloin and the positive impacts of restoring the neon glow to the streets. The talk will close with a screening of Lost Neon Landscapes, neon-focused footage from the Prelinger Archive. This 15-minute film includes clips of home movies and short films that reveal San Francisco’s lost neon landscape from Market Street to Playland.
Join the Tenderloin Museum for the opening reception of The Matchbook Map Exhibit, featuring a searchable, interactive touchscreen map that connects matchbook imagery to historical info on the associated business and address. Th is new permanent exhibit will be presented in conjunction with a new temporary exhibit, The Tenderloin Ephemera Exhibition, featuring historical Tenderloin ephemera from the 1920’s-1950’s including glassware, postcards, menus, matchbooks et al. The Tenderloin Ephemera Exhibition would not be possible without Glenn Koch, who lent his collection to the Tenderloin Museum. Koch is one of the Bay Area's preeminent collectors of San Francisco historic ephemera and author of San Francisco Golden Age Postcards & Memorabilia, 1900-1940. Koch will be in attendance at the opening (January 10th 6-9pm) to speak about his collection and answer any questions.
To celebrate the magic that is ephemera we’re inviting neighboring institutions and individuals to showcase their ephemera collections for one night only at our opening event. Bring your own ephemera from San Francisco's past, especially the Tenderloin! We are so excited to explore the neighborhood’s collective memory as told through your mementos. Email info@tenderloinmuseum.org to let us know what you plan to bring (we're welcoming any ephemera from San Francisco, Tenderloin preferred). These small, seemingly ordinary objects beautifully encapsulate the city and the neighborhood's colorful, vibrant past. Join us and travel back in time through the neighborhood's material culture.
