As we continue to reckon with the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, and far too many other Black lives taken by violence, we must once again contend with the harrowing reality that America is a place where racial injustice and inequality are lethal forces. I write in support of, and in solidarity with, those who are suffering, those who are living in fear, those who are exhausted, and those who are expressing their anger and frustration at this time. As I listen to the pain of those around me, and as I grapple with my own heartache, I know that we all must do our utmost to hold one another up and to do the hard work, as individuals and as a community that is required to effect substantive change.

What role should museums play? One answer has to be that we must engage with the issues of the day, head on and honestly. This is what we at the Fine Arts Museums are trying to do through our acquisitions and programs. As I write this, members of our exhibitions staff are at the de Young, restarting the deinstallation of Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963–1983, a process that was halted in mid-March by the City of San Francisco’s shelter-in-place order. Soul of a Nation documents the artists whose transformative visions and voices contributed to the Black Power movement by promoting personal and cultural pride, collective solidarity and empowerment, and political and social activism. Their extraordinary works retain their power as proud declarations of selfhood, brotherhood, sisterhood, and nationhood. Truly, they represent the soul of a nation. The de Young had the privilege and honor of presenting this exhibition from November 2019 through early March 2020, and the response from the local community was overwhelming. It is now urgent that we ensure this exhibition’s safe delivery to its next venue at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, so that audiences there can experience its poignancy and power. As Bridget R. Cooks, associate professor of African American studies at the University of California, Irvine, noted regarding Soul of a Nation: “I have good news and I have bad news—this exhibition has never been more relevant.”

As this exhibition departs for Houston, we continue to think critically about our own ongoing practices and how we might foster change. Internally, our Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Committee has already played a key role in providing space for our staff to grieve together. Externally, we are seeking to act on and participate in the heavy and necessary conversations that must take place in the coming days, months, and years to quash systemic racism in this country. As museums that serve our city and region, our focus is especially on how we can amplify the voices and experiences of artists of color, both contemporary and historic. We must also interrogate our exhibitions and holdings, not to censor but to use centuries of art as a window to examine, question, and expose the roots of racism, sexism, and inequality. I look forward to working closely with our curatorial, education, and related teams on these endeavors.

In a small and immediate gesture in honor of those we have lost to violence, and in service of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s mission “To connect our visitors with local and global art in order to promote their knowledge and curiosity about the past, deepen their engagement with the art and ideas of today, and stimulate their creative agency in their own futures,” I would like to raise up voices of strength from our collection—voices of Black American artists Elizabeth Catlett, Thornton Dial, Aaron Douglas, Leonardo Drew, Lonnie Holley, Jacob Lawrence, Joe Minter, Horace Pippin, and Purvis Young.

The voices and visions of the artists whose work is featured below—icons in our collection, and each significant in their own right—must be elevated at this time, as witnesses to the Black experience in our country and poignant proclamations that Black Lives Matter, a truth that we at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco believe unequivocally.

In solidarity,
Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO