First Weekend Dates & Times:
Saturday, September 11, 2021 10 AM - 8:30 PM
Sunday, September 12, 2021 10 AM - 8:00 PM
Join San Francisco Neon and the Tenderloin Museum for the fourth annual Neon Speaks Festival & Symposium, a *virtual* gathering of neon enthusiasts, preservationists, and artisans that educates and advocates for the artistic legacy of historic neon signs: a living archive of design, craft, and city history.
Neon Speaks features over a dozen events: virtual walking tours of neon-rich neighborhoods in San Francisco and New York, behind-the-scenes explorations of neon museums in Las Vegas, Vancouver and Tucson, historical lectures on neon’s role in advertising and small business iconography, in-depth analysis of sign design and aesthetics, surveys in meta-illumination through neon’s appearances in classic cinema, as well as a crash course on the historical origins and science behind neon, plus much more!
Explore the full schedule and register for a “passport” at neonspeaks.org (free before Sept 1, or with a $10-$40 suggested donation)
About Neon Speaks:
Neon Speaks is a not-for-profit program, hosted and produced by Al Barna and Randall Ann Homan of SF Neon and presented in proud partnership with the group’s fiscal sponsor, the Tenderloin Museum, as well as with SF Heritage, the American Sign Museum, and the Museum of Neon Art. This year, presenters and participants attend from around the continent and from as far away as Spain! Some are frequent SF Neon collaborators, like authors of Neon: A Light History, Dydia DeLyser and Paul Greenstein, and cinematic neon whiz Jim Van Buskirk; others will zoom in from far afield, like Randy Dixon, who will present on the neon movement in Pocatello, Idaho, and Morgan Crook and Daniel James, who discuss the marquee restoration of The Echo Theater in Laurens, SC, once the infamous Red Neck museum that was purchased by a Black Baptist minister and is being transformed into a center for racial harmony.
Local highlights include a collaboration with SF Heritage that explores the legacy businesses behind some of San Francisco’s most recognizable neon signs like Sam Wo, HA-RA, Verdi Club, and Tommy’s Joynt. The Richmond district’ shines on a tour of the Outsideland’s best neon with the Western Neighborhoods Project. Whether you have been curious about the noble gas from witnessing neon’s singular glow in the city’s characteristic fog, or you are a preservationist ready to go hands-on in a restoration project, Neon Speaks has an illuminating program for you that will bring you into deeper into the fold of the (inter)national neon community.