San Francisco Art Institute Archives Survive Closure with SFMOMA Exhibit and CASA Revival

When the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) shuttered its doors in 2022, the campus emptied—turtles in the courtyard pond included. But far below the streets of the city, two archivists are fighting to keep more than 150 years of radical art history from vanishing into the ether.

In a cramped 1,500-square-foot basement on Hawthorne Street, librarian Becky Alexander and archivist Jeff Gunderson guard the fragile remnants of a storied institution. Rows of metal cabinets and packed cardboard boxes hold everything from student artworks to letters with Diego Rivera, the Mexican muralist whose iconic fresco still anchors the school’s legacy.

“It’s all in here,” Alexander says, gesturing to the archive’s trove. “We didn’t get rid of anything.”

Now, a new exhibit at SFMOMA, “People Make This Place: SFAI Stories,” opens July 26, showcasing over 50 alumni and faculty across five rooms. It celebrates a legacy that includes tattoo artist Ed Hardy, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. But behind the celebration lies uncertainty—federal arts funding cuts under the Trump administration recently wiped out a $234,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant that kept the archive afloat.

“It’s a marvelous opportunity to toot our own horn and advocate for much-needed funding,” Gunderson says.

The archive’s survival was no small feat. As the school closed, Alexander and Gunderson, with last-minute alumni fundraising, secured the basement space. They worked in near isolation, sometimes accompanied only by campus coyotes.

But the story doesn’t end with preservation. San Francisco is fighting back. The California Academy of Studio Arts (CASA), founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, bought the vacant SFAI campus for $32 million, planning to nurture a new generation of artists with tuition-free residencies and renewed creative energy.

Meanwhile, the Community Arts Stabilization Trust is transforming Pier 29 into the city’s largest open studio hub, opening early next year.

For archivist Holly Scheld, a graduate student and recent addition to the team, the fight to save SFAI’s stories is personal and urgent.

“Funding archives and the people who run them is the baseline support for making sure materials and the stories they tell don’t disappear,” she says. “Being young in this field can be discouraging, but the recognition of our work keeps the fire alive.”

In a time when arts funding feels precarious and cultural institutions face political headwinds, the SFAI Legacy Foundation + Archive stands as a beacon of resilience—a reminder that history, creativity, and identity are worth fighting for.

“It’s going to be a fight,” Scheld admits. But one worth every ounce of energy.

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