If you don’t understand your history, how can you embrace your future?” FOR-SITE curator and founder Cheryl Haines posited this question to me as we wrapped up our discussion on FOR-SITE’s new project, a multi-artist, park-wide installation at Fort Point National Historic Site titled "Black Gold: Stories Untold." Pointing itself towards history, each installation will reflect upon a remarkable African-American historical figure who lived in California from the Gold Rush to the Reconstruction period following the Civil War. As I began to speak with several of the 17 artists contributing works to this massive public art experience, it became clear to me that this question of history as central to futurity is crucial to understanding the exhibit's thesis. How can we, as Californians, look to the hidden parts of our past to better shape our future?

Adam Davis "Jantae Spinks Holding Family Portrait, Los Angeles, CA (2021)." Tintype on lacquered aluminum, 5 x 4 in. Courtesy of the artist and FOR-SITE, San Francisco

In developing "Black Gold," Haines first turned her attention to the location. Built at the height of the gold rush, Fort Point was originally a military base created to protect San Francisco from naval threats. It served the city’s harbor continuously through the Civil War and again in World War II until ultimately transforming into a National Park Site in 1970. Though the site’s proximity to the Bay creates a harsh environment of wind and fog, Haines and selected artists thoroughly welcomed and embraced the challenge of navigating the natural and cultural resources of the space. Oakland-born participating artist Demetri Broxton noted that he typically uses silver-plated brass in his practice, and “it’ll be interesting to see if [the artworks] are tarnished by time, by seawater in the air. San Francisco is like a character in a lot of these stories. I want the environment to change the work.” A site inundated in historic fabric, Fort Point functions as the perfect backdrop for Black Gold and its myriad of works exploring stories of California that might have been lost to the past.

Given the importance of its historical content, the development of "Black Gold" relied heavily upon a research-based approach. Each selected artist or collective was given an abundant research packet filled with information on distinct African-American individuals from California’s past. The research was sourced primarily from renowned historian and researcher Susan Anderson, a team of consulting researchers, and "Gold Chains: The Hidden History of Slavery in California," a public education campaign produced by the ACLU of Northern California. Of the 17 artists included ­— Akea Brionne (cover art), Demetri Broxton, Adrian L. Burrell, Adam Davis, Cheryl Derricotte, Carla Edwards, Mildred Howard, Sir Isaac Julien CBE, Tiff Massey, Umar Rashid, Trina M. Robinson, Alison Saar, Yinka Shonibare CBE, Bryan Keith Thomas, Cosmo Whyte, Hank Willis Thomas, and the artists of Creativity Explored — 14 created newly commissioned works to meet the brief of engaging storytelling of the past. The challenge of the environment, fertile groundwork of research, and new creation called for the work of distinct artists with rigorous conceptual practices.

One of these featured artists is glass worker and textile artist Cheryl Dericotte. She focused her installation on the historical figure Mary Ellen Pleasant, the wealthiest African-American woman in California during the gold rush. Her installation, "The Best Table in San Francisco" (2025) will be an immersive dining room featuring kiln-formed glass plates, whiskey sippers from a local glass-blower, and hand-printed napkins featuring Eucalyptus leaves, a nod to Pleasant’s boarding house along the corner of Octavia and Bush Street in San Francisco which was lined with Eucalyptus trees. With this installation, Dericotte hopes “people will be transported back in time. I want them to understand Pleasant as a person and understand the force she was.” As an extra component, Dericotte placed a bottle of Macallan atop the dining table, a reference to Pleasant’s business partner, a Scottish financier. It is attention to minor details such as this one which allow "Black Gold" visitors to truly immerse themselves in the worlds of the historical figures they are learning about.

Another artist hoping to transfer viewers back in time through their installation is multidisciplinary visual artist Trina Michelle Robinson. Her work turns its attention to Brigadier General Charles Young, a pioneering African American military leader within the Buffalo Soldiers and a prolific composer. Casting an actor to play the role of Young, Robison exposes viewers to dreamlike scenes of the military leader‘s early life in Kentucky and service at San Francisco’s Presidio shot on 16mm film. As the film plays on, a curation of Young’s compositions immerse the viewer in an audio-visual experience that seamlessly blends historical nuance and creative abstraction. Much like Robinson, filmmaker Adrian Burrell also imbues his film installation with elements of memory and critical fabulation in the hopes of nudging viewers towards “exploring erasures, exploring silence, and understanding our archives.” Burrell’s film, "Gloria," intersperses a narrative of a contemporary Black woman preparing for a protest as her grandmother recounts stories of the family’s past with scenes of a female ancestor disguising herself as a man to fight in the U.S. Civil War, an occurrence of which there are three documented accounts. Both filmmakers invite meditative encounters with their works, a way for each viewer to truly reflect on history and the inner lives of the figures they might be encountering for the first time.

One of the most compelling elements of the overall project is its prominent educational element. While each installation creatively interprets the life and experiences of particular figures, visitors will also be provided with informational signage and educational material to best understand and interpret the historical context of the individuals they are learning about. There will also be a broadspanning volunteer docent program in which viewers will be guided through installations by educators knowledgeable on the historical contexts of the works. FOR-SITE has also partnered with MoAD and will have a landmark busing program to bring Bay Area students to Fort Point to experience the exhibition.

A deft exploration of the storied lives of African-American Californians of the past, "Black Gold: Stories Untold" transports visitors to moments in history that demand our time and attention simply by the fact of their existence. Resilience, struggle, and power sit at the center of the narratives shared by the 17 artists included in this groundbreaking exhibition. As artist Cheryl Dericotte noted in her discussion of the significance of FOR-SITE as an organization and its undertaking of this project, "This show will yet again put San Francisco on the map as a place of very serious, large-scale installation art.”

→ "Black Gold: Stories Untold" runs from June 6 - Nov. 2. More info at for-site.org

Main image: © Akea Brionne; "Mary Ellen Pleasant," 2025; Courtesy of the artist and Library Street Collective, Detroit; Commissioned by FOR-SITE