June 6 – November 2, 2025
Opening this summer at Fort Point, FOR-SITE’s highly anticipated exhibition Black Gold: Stories Untold invites 17 contemporary artists and collectives to reflect 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). Through newly commissioned and recent artworks, the exhibition highlights important but lesser-known figures and narratives from California’s history, exploring 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, Black Gold illuminates the role that Black communities played in the state’s cultural, social, and political environs of the time.
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. The exhibition is presented in partnership with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.
Artists
Akea Brionne, Demetri Broxton, Adrian L. Burrell, the artists of Creativity Explored, Adam Davis, Cheryl Derricotte, Carla Edwards, Mildred Howard, Sir Isaac Julien CBE, Tiff Massey, Umar Rashid, Trina Michelle Robinson, Alison Saar, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Bryan Keith Thomas, Cosmo Whyte, and Hank Willis Thomas.
Plan Your Visit to Black Gold: Stories Untold at Fort Point National Historic Site
Support Black Gold: Stories Untold. Donations in any amount are deeply appreciated.
FOR-SITE invites you to join our team of volunteer docents for its next exhibition.
Representative Artworks
Bryan Keith Thomas
Daughter, 2021
Demetri Broxton
He Who Stands at the Crossroads, 2024
Yinka Shonibare, CBE
Man Moving Up, 2022
Adam Davis
Jantae Spinks Holding Family Portrait, Los Angeles, CA, 2021
Hank Willis Thomas
Solidarity, 2023
Alison Saar
Lost Boys, 2001
About Fort Point
A former military fortification 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 historic location within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which is managed by the National Park Service. Black Gold: Stories Untold will activate this historic site through contemporary art, connecting the resonances of the past to critical issues of our present. The exhibition marks the sixth collaboration between FOR-SITE, the National Park Service, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, resulting in new models of park visitor engagement through site-specific art presented on public land.
Host Committee
Cecilia Aviles, Janice Barger, Joanna Drake, MJ Elmore, Merrilee Harris, Karla Martin, Lorna Meyer, Meridee Moore, Annie Robinson Woods, Sarah Woodward
Ambassadors
Michelle Branch, Charles Collins, Xavier Cunningham, Drusie Davis, Ted Gioia, Paul Henderson, Maria Jenson, Eve King, George McCalman, Meridee Moore, Ralph Remington, Abby Schnair, Claire Spaht, Cheryl Ward
Advisory Committee
Susan D. Anderson, History Curator and Program Manager, California African American Museum
Dr. Tiffany Barber, Assistant Professor of African American Art, University of California, Los Angeles
Osei Bonsu, Curator, International Art, Tate Modern
Tammerlin Drummond, Principal Communications Strategist, American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California
Dr. Jacqueline Francis, Dean, Humanities & Sciences Division, California College of the Arts
David C. Howse, President, California College of the Arts
Key Jo Lee, Chief of Curatorial Affairs and Public Programs, Museum of the African Diaspora
Claudia Schmuckli, Curator-in-Charge, Contemporary Art and Programming, Fine Art Museums, San Francisco
Dexter Wimberly, Independent Curator