Fort Point Historic Site Offers Stunning Locale For Contemporary Art

The most striking temporary venue for contemporary art in America this summer can be found in San Francisco. Fort Point National Historic Site. The only extant Civil War-era fort on the West Coast. Right on the Bay. In the literal shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge.

The best views inside and out.

Inside, visitors find “Black Gold: Stories Untold,” an exhibition featuring nearly a dozen new commissions plus recent works by contemporary artists from the Bay Area and around the world reflecting on the resilience, struggles, and triumphs of African Americans who lived in California from the Gold Rush to the Reconstruction period following the Civil War (c. 1849–1877). Prominent figures in contemporary art: Tiff Massey, Alison Saar, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Hank Willis Thomas.

Works on view explore the presence of slavery and the struggle for legal rights within this “free” state, the successes of Black entrepreneurs, and the experiences of African American Army regiments known as the Buffalo Soldiers. More broadly, the exhibition illuminates the role Black communities played in the cultural, social, and political atmosphere of the time.

“(Black people) weren’t peripheral to what was happening here, they were central to all of this,” exhibition curator Cheryl Haines told Forbes.com. “There were a number of people who became very successful. They became synonymous with the opportunities for prosperity and innovation here in the Bay Area; entrepreneurs, extraordinarily gifted military figures, artists, musicians, whaling ship captains.”

William T. Shorey (1859–1919) was the whaling ship captain. Oakland artist Demetri Broxton (b. 1979) honors him and his family at Fort Point through dazzling beaded portraits, embellished with cowrie shells of a type once used for protection by the Yoruba people of Nigeria and for the purchase of humans during the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Trina M. Robinson’s (b. 1975) newly commissioned 16mm film plays inside the Fort, telling the story of Brigadier General Charles Young (1864–1922). He was born enslaved and went on to lead a company of Buffalo Soldiers in San Francisco’s Presidio before becoming the first Black U.S. National Park Superintendent.

Akea Brionne (b. 1996) presents an intricate tapestry of abolitionist and entrepreneur Mary Ellen Pleasant (1814–1904), commemorating the legacy of one of the most influential and overlooked figures in US history. “Perhaps the most powerful Black woman in Gold Rush-era San Francisco,” according to the National Park Service.

The exhibition marks the sixth collaboration between FOR-SITE, the National Park Service, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, a partnership that has resulted in new models of park visitor engagement through site-specific art presented on public land.

Established over 20 years ago by “Black Gold” curator Haines, FOR-SITE is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the idea that art can inspire fresh thinking and important dialogue about our natural and cultural environments. Through exhibitions, commissions, artist residencies, and educational programs, FOR-SITE supports the creation and presentation of art about place.

“There is a niche for this kind of work because not everybody will go to a museum. Maybe people can’t afford to take their whole family to a museum–museums are very expensive now–or maybe they’re not going to go up five flights to an art gallery, but if we can take these art projects and meet people where they stand, I think it’s much more powerful because it’s a joint discovery,” Haines said. Admission to Fort Point and the exhibition is free. “I carefully select artists that have a very conceptual practice, who are grounded in what they’re doing, but can be accessible to a general audience.”

Contemporary art. Yes. Conceptual. Yes. But approachable and understandable without an MFA degree, too.

Hank Willis Thomas’ (b. 1976) monumental bronze raised arm and clenched fist doesn’t require 500 words of wall text to interpret.

“Black Gold” has provided a team of docents positioned throughout the venue offering background on the artworks and the history of Fort Point.

Fort Point

Located beneath the south anchorage of the Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point National Historic Site was constructed to protect San Francisco’s harbor from potential naval threats as the region became rich with the discovery of gold. The fort was completed in 1859, but never saw active military engagement. Today, it is an important location within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is managed by the National Park Service.

“Fort Point is a remarkable structure whether you’re a history buff or you’re interested in architecture and history about place,” Haines said. “It’s not been renovated. It’s in its original state by and large–no elevators, there’s no running water. It’s a location that’s very easy to imagine oneself in a different moment in time.”

That’s part of the magic staging contemporary art in historic structures provides that museums simply can’t.

“You’re already in the mindset of what was it like to live in the 1860s; how did people deal with the punishing cold and the winds, how were the soldiers surviving in that situation? These (Civil War era) forts were never fired upon, the harshest opponent was the weather, and it continues to be,” Haines explained. “It’s very punishing there, so it makes you really kind of bundle up and go inside a bit and think about the lives of these people and all the challenges. The weather is a symbolic part of thinking about the challenges that they had in their lives.”

It’s summer, yes, but also summer in San Francisco, recalling the famous Mark Twain quote that never was.

As much as the artwork adds intrigue and context to the location, the reverse is also true. The stories being shared come alive inside Fort Point. Contemporary art and 19^th century construction working together connecting the past to critical concerns of our present.

Contemporary art reaching out and achieving what traditional history–documentary films, books–can’t always.

“These artists can illuminate these stories in a way that is non-judgmental, that is not dictatorial. They present a position, but it’s really more about asking us to question, especially the artists that we work with, they’re not providing answers,” Haines said. “They’re just hoping to open viewers mind to question what it is that they’re seeing around them.”

“Black Gold” was inspired in part by Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California, a public education campaign produced by the ACLU of Northern California, one of FOR-SITE’s community partners. Haines further worked with an advisory committee of historians, academics, and fellow curators to make sure the presentation struck all the right chords historically and artistically.

“Black Gold” can be seen through November 2, 2025.

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