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Mexican Museum

Speaker Pelosi at the museum groundbreaking ceremony, 2016.
Location within California
Former name	El Museo Mexicano
Established	1975; 49 years ago (1975)
Location	706 Mission Street, San Francisco, California, U.S.
Type	Art museum
Founder	Peter Rodríguez
Website	www.mexicanmuseum.org

The Mexican Museum (or El Museo Mexicano) is a museum created to exhibit the aesthetic expression of the Latino, Chicano, Mexican, and Mexican-American people, located in San Francisco, California, United States. As of 2022, their exhibition space was permanently closed at Fort Mason Center; and they are still in the process of moving to a new space at 706 Mission Street in Yerba Buena Gardens.

History

The Mexican Museum of San Francisco was founded by San Francisco artist Peter Rodríguez in 1975. He was inspired to create this museum in order to fill a void in the public's access to Mexican and Chicano art. The museum was originally located in San Francisco's Mission District on Folsom Street in 1975.

The museum's new location was planned starting in 2015 to be built at 706 Mission Street across from Yerba Buena Gardens, as part the 53-story Yerba Buena Tower project, which will consist mostly of luxury condominiums. The entire relocation project was envisaged to cost $500 million ($30 million of which was for the museum), and was scheduled to open in 2020, however this was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a lack of funds. The city of San Francisco has granted the Mexican Museum a 66-year lease for its future use of the site, renewable for 33 years.

About

The museum holds a permanent collection of over 16,000 objects including Pre-Hispanic, Colonial, Popular, Mexican and Latino Modern, and Mexican, Latino, and Chicano Contemporary art. It has one of the largest collection of Mexican, Chicano and Latino art in the United States.

Authenticity of artifacts

In 2017, archaeologist Dr. Eduardo Perez De Heredi wrote a report which stated that 96% of the museum's 2,000 pre-Columbian artifacts may not be authentic and could only be classed as "decorative"; thus only 83 pieces of 2,000, or just over four percent could be certified as “museum-quality.”

Perez De Heredia, said the rest of the pieces are still being studied, and may turn out to be real or not. “This is just the process . . . We have two years to finish examining the collection,” said Dr. Perez De Heredi. He points out that U.S. museums often receive high-end forgeries as donations and the authentication process is meant to sort those out.

See also

• Acción Latina
• Galería de la Raza
• Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
• Precita Eyes
• Self Help Graphics & Art

References

1. ^ Janiak, Lily (November 10, 2022). "Real estate developer's unlikely partner: a ballet school". Datebook, The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
2. ^ "Peter Rodriguez (1926–2016)". Artforum.com. August 5, 2016. Retrieved 2021-07-13.
3. Hamlin, Jesse (2008-01-27). "Mexican Museum still searching for a home". SFGate. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
4. Hotchkiss, Sarah (2024-03-29). "What's Going on at San Francisco's Mexican Museum?". KQED. Retrieved 2024-03-31.
5. ^ Spotswood, Beth (2015-06-30). "Mexican Museum founder still fighting for art at 89". SFGate. Retrieved 2021-07-13.
6. Gaura, Maria Alicia (1995-11-20). "Turmoil as Mexican Museum Turns 20". SFGate. Retrieved 2021-07-13.
7. ^ Dineen, J.K. (March 10, 2015). "SoMa condos poised to be S.F.'s most expensive ever". The San Francisco Chronicle. ISSN 1932-8672.
8. Waxmann, Laura (May 22, 2024). "After scathing audit, S.F. grants Mexican Museum more time to launch its downtown space". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2024-05-23.
9. ^ Baker, Kenneth (March 13, 2015). "Cultures entwine in vivid forms in Mexican Museum exhibition". The San Francisco Chronicle. ISSN 1932-8672.
10. "San Francisco museum to have largest US collection of Mexican and Latino art". The Guardian. 2016-07-18. Retrieved 2021-07-13.
11. Kinsella, Eileen (July 7, 2017). "A Staggering 96% of the Artifacts in San Francisco's Mexican Museum May Be Fake, The report found that only 83 of 2,000—or just over four percent—of the museum's pre-Columbian artifacts could be authenticated". ArtNet.com. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
12. ^ "San Francisco's Mexican Museum Looks To Clarify Recent Study". KPIX-5 CBS. CBS Broadcasting Inc. July 13, 2017.

Further reading

• Davalos, Karen Mary (2010). The Mexican Museum of San Francisco Papers, 1971-2006. volume 3 of Chicano archives. UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press. ISBN 9780895511225.

External links

• Official Mexican Museum Website
• "Mexican Museum still searching for a home", San Francisco Chronicle, January 27, 2008
• Mexican Museum of San Francisco papers, 1971-2006 (approx. 150 linear feet) is housed at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center

37°48′24″N 122°25′51″W / 37.8068°N 122.4308°W / 37.8068; -122.4308

• Hispanic and Latino American culture in San Francisco
• Art museums and galleries in San Francisco
• Art in the San Francisco Bay Area
• Mexican-American culture in California
• Ethnic museums in California
• Art museums and galleries established in 1975
• 1975 establishments in California
• Latino museums in the United States