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The First Years at Fort Mason
The Mexican Museum is proud to present a series of articles that address significant aspects of the Museum's 25-year history. The first article in this series focused on Peter Rodríguez and his founding of the Museum. The second article examined the Museum's first seven years at its original location in San Francisco's Mission District. In this issue, we highlight the growth and changes which the Museum experienced upon its move to its current Fort Mason Center location.
In 1982, The Mexican Museum moved from its two-room quarters on Folsom Street to its current 10,000 square-foot location in Fort Mason Center. It was a transition that exponentially expanded the Museum’s possibilities. By allowing for greatly increased gallery space, a professional collection holding area, more administrative offices, increased educational facilities and a larger gift shop, the Fort Mason location made possible new acquisitions, new programs and a revitalized vision.
The move was made feasible by the late Barbara Storke, then a Museum Trustee, who paid the first year’s rent at Fort Mason. "She told us ‘if you want to survive, you have to move,’" said Gloria Jaramillo, who was Curator of Collections at the time. "The new space was originally an old mechanic’s garage. But many coats of paint later, we had a good space. It felt great. Going to Fort Mason strengthened the core and structure of the Museum."
With the installation of professional collection storage funded by the S.H. Cowell Foundation, staff members were able to begin cataloging the collection and making condition reports. "It was a recognition of our staff’s professionalism," said Marilyn Sode Smith, a Trustee from 1984 to 1989. "I loved taking people to see these brand new, gleaming cupboards. You could twirl the locking dial with one finger and it would swing open. We were so proud."
That state-of-the-art equipment was almost certainly a factor in Ann Rockefeller Roberts’ decision to donate the Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection of Mexican Folk Art—the Museum’s first major acquisition of a private collection since that of founder Peter Rodríguez. "That donation acknowledged that we were able to be on a par, on a smaller scale, with established museums in other parts of the country, " said Sode Smith, "It was a recognition of our existence as a real museum." The donation of the Rockefeller Collection in turn was a catalyst for the donation of the Andy Williams Collection of Pre-Hispanic Art and the Cohn Collection of Pre-Hispanic Art, as well as numerous other donations.
In conjunction with the acquisition and exhibition of the Rockefeller Collection, the Museum presented a three-day symposium in February 1987 titled From the Inside Out: Mexican Folk Art in a Contemporary Context, which was organized by Karana Hattersley-Drayton. Holly Barnet-Sanchez, who later served as the Museum’s first curator from 1991 to 1992, attended the ground-breaking event. "The symposium was amazing because of the combination of scholars speaking about folk [popular] art and Chicano artists speaking about Chicano art," said Barnet-Sanchez. "You saw the connection between the two. It was very clear that Chicano art was something else, not just Mexican art being made across the border, but something altogether different. It was a metamorphosis of Mexican art into another phenomenon by a whole other generation of artists."
The Museum went on to produce and host numerous important exhibitions, including solo exhibitions on the work of Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Robert Gonzales, Francisco Zuñiga and Rufino Tamayo. Exhibitions at the Museum were key to the careers of newly emerging artists such as Carmen Lomas Garza, Gustavo Rivera and Rupert Garcia. "A lot of the artists we exhibited are now internationally known because our shows benefited people who weren’t getting the right exposure," said Museum Founder Peter Rodríguez.
During its first decade at Fort Mason, The Mexican Museum was one of several culturally based arts institutions that were developing in major metropolitan areas across the nation. "The Museum was part of a very interesting development of art and cultural organizations," said David de la Torre, who was Executive Director of The Mexican Museum from 1984 to 1989 and is now Associate Director of the Honolulu Academy of Arts in Hawaii. "What was so exciting for everyone who came in contact with the Museum was the quest for understanding how rich Mexican art is, and sharing that richness with others. The Museum can take pride in the fact that it was one of the first, we were a model for others. It’s a great vehicle for learning, nationally and internationally. It’s like the pebble in the pool—the ripples go out to community, then region, then country, then Mexico and beyond."
In addition to making more extensive exhibitions possible, the larger Fort Mason quarters allowed for additional space for La Tienda, the Museum’s gift shop. La Tienda was expanded by former Trustee and Store Manager Ann Barrios to its present level of quality and depth of merchandise, and now draws visitors as a destination in its own right. As its spectrum of wares from the Americas broadened over the years, La Tienda began serving as another important educational vehicle.
If the Museum has inspired hundreds of thousands of visitors, it has also inspired dozens of staff members. "For me, the Museum was unique because it covered Mexico from the pre-Conquest to the present, and then walked across the border and dealt with Mexican-American and Chicano artists," said Barnet-Sanchez. "It was such a small place when I was there, and everyone was so fiercely dedicated. And it made such an impact."
That impact was reflected in an experience noted by Gloria Jaramillo in 1993, her last year as a Museum staff member. "I was walking through the gift store and I heard a young woman say ‘I remember coming here when I was a little kid.’ I thought wow! There’s a place for people to come and see their heritage. The lineage is there."
With the continued support of our members, that lineage which Jaramillo glimpsed back in 1993 will stretch on for generations to come.
Article by Eva Guralnick
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