This summer, FOR-SITE presents its highly anticipated new project Black Gold: Stories Untold. This innovative exhibition invites more than fifteen contemporary artists 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). Black Gold: Stories Untold will be presented at Fort Point National Historic Site, the only extant Civil War-era fort on the West Coast of the United States, and will be on view from June 6 to November 2, 2025.

Through a selection of recent artworks and nearly a dozen new commissions, Black Gold: Stories Untold highlights important but little-known figures and narratives from California’s history. Works in the exhibition explore 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, the exhibition illuminates the role that Black communities played in the cultural, social, and political environs of the time. Artists include Akea Brionne, Demetri Broxton, Adrian L. Burrell, 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, Hank Willis Thomas, and the artists of Creativity Explored.

“Black Gold: Stories Untold is a collaborative effort that brings together the work of an array of artists, thinkers, and community leaders to reveal narratives that are historically significant and continue to resonate today,” said Cheryl Haines, FOR-SITE’s Founding Executive Director & Chief Curator. “I am thrilled to shed light on this important part of California’s story.” Black Gold: Stories Untold 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.

Press Release (PDF)