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Using Our Archival Collections

The San Francisco Art Institute Archives is an institutional collection that documents the history of SFAI, its curriculum, administration, students, faculty, exhibitions and events, as well as the history of some closely-affiliated organizations such as the San Francisco Art Association and the San Francisco Museum of Art (precursor to SFMOMA).

We welcome research questions and visits from researchers! The collections overview below should give you a sense of the types of material available in our archives, but it is not meant to be a comprehensive list. If you’re not sure whether we have what you’re looking for, just ask!

Email us at archive@sfailegacyarchive.org with research questions or to make an appointment.

Online Exhibition

Orbits of Known and Unknown Objects: SFAI Histories/Matrix 277 is is an archives-based exhibition created as part of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive's Matrix exhibition series. The exhibition–a collaboration between SFAI archivists and alumni–is organized as a collection of browsable objects, each of which serves as a jumping-off point from which to explore a unique piece of SFAI history.

Collection Guides

As we generate finding aids for our archival collections, they will be made available on the SFAI LF+A collections page of the Online Archives of California.

Creating these guides is an in-process, ongoing project–lack of a guide on a particular subject does not mean that the archives does not have material on that subject.

Digital Collections

While most of the archival collections are not currently available in digital form, certain collections have been selectively digitized (and there are more to come!). The following are available online:

San Francisco Art Association (SFAA) Bulletins are available here (with thanks to California Revealed).
A growing collection of Lecture and Symposia Recordings are available here (with thanks to the Council on Library and Information Resources).

Collections Overview

The following is a general (but far from comprehensive!) list of our archival collections:

Exhibition Records: Documentation of exhibitions that took place at SFAI throughout its history, including exhibition catalogs, announcements, installation photographs, press clippings, correspondence, etc.
Artist Files: Files of manuscript material, press clippings, and other ephemera pertaining to significant SFAI-affiliated artists such as Carlos Villa, Jay De Feo, George Kuchar, John Collier, Jr., Joan Brown, Sargent Johnson, Jim Pomeroy, and Louise Dahl-Wolfe, among many others.
Documentation of Institutional Governance, including Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws for the San Francisco Art Association and San Francisco Art Institute.

Departmental Records: Documentation of SFAI’s academic programs, including groundbreaking programs such as the 1945 founding of its Fine Arts Photography Department by Ansel Adams; the establishment of the Isaac Walter Ceramics Department in the 1930s; the experimental Filmmaking Department founded by Sidney Peterson as Workshop 20; and the 1979 founding of the Performance/Video Department (Later New Genres).
Founding and Development of the San Francisco Museum of Art: Material about the Palace of Fine Arts and the establishment of the San Francisco Museum of Art (now known as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art–SFMOMA) by the San Francisco Art Association. (Portions of this collection are also available on microfilm through the Archives of American Art.)
Diego Rivera Collection: A collection of material pertaining to Diego Rivera’s The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City mural which he painted at the school in 1931. (See Finding Aid for this collection.)

Subject Files: Subject-specific files related to moments and wide-ranging topics in SFAI’s history. (Ghosts, murals, music, sports, cartoonists, etc. etc.)
Historical Photographs: A collection of photographs documenting the school’s history, including its students, faculty, buildings, exhibitions, and events.
Publications: Newsletters, calendars, promotional material, and other publications generated by the school and its students.
Student Publication: student newspapers, newsletters, literary magazines, and compilations of student work. (See finding aid for this collection.)
Film and Video Collections: Audiovisual collections including 16mm films, VHS tapes, and ¾ inch video tapes of student and faculty work, class projects, Performance-Video/New Genres Department Spring Shows, and other related experimental film and video work.

Public Programs: Recordings, transcripts, announcements, and other ephemera documenting lectures by visiting artists and scholars.
SFAI-sponsored Symposia (See Finding Aid for this collection), including the symposia organized by faculty member Carlos Villa around racial and cultural inclusivity in art; the long-running annual symposium on art criticism organized by Bill Berkson and Mark Van Proyen; and documentation of the 1949 Western Roundtable on Modern Art organized by Douglas MacAgy with participants that included Gregory Bateson, Kenneth Burke, Frank Lloyd Wright, Marcel Duchamp, George Boas, Mark Tobey, Darius Milhaud, Robert Goldwater, Andrew Ritchie, and Alfred Frankenstein. (A large portion of the Western Roundtable collection is also available on microfilm through the Archives of American Art.)
Administrator Papers: The papers of school administrators, including Lee Randolph (Director, 1917-1941), Douglas MacAgy (Director, 1945–1950), Ernest Mundt (Director, 1950-1955), Gurdon Woods (Director, 1955-1965), Fred Martin (Director 1965-1975, Dean 1983-1992).

Poster Collection: Posters created for events and exhibitions. Posters of the San Francisco Poster Syndicate.
Board Minutes: Minutes of the Board of Trustees, Faculty and Student Senate Minutes.
Grants and Fellowships: Documentation of grant and fellowship programs, including the Albert M. Bender Grants-In-Aid Program (1941-1953) (see finding aid for this collection) and the Abraham Rosenberg Travelling Fellowship (1928-1854)
Buildings and Grounds: Blueprints, construction schedules and plans, correspondence, and photographic documentation for 1926 the Arthur Brown-designed building at 800 Chestnut Street, and the 1969 Paffard Keatinge-Clay-designed addition.
Marketing materials produced by the school over its history, including photographs and publications.
Published monographs and serials related to the history of SFAI, SFAI-affiliated artists, and the art of Northern California.

Imogen Cunningham and Ruth Asawa, USA In Your Heart exhibition, 1969

A Note for Researchers on SFAI’s Name Changes

SFAI’s various name and location changes can be confusing to keep straight. The following are the name and related location changes the school underwent from its founding through 1961 when it became SFAI:

In 1871 the San Francisco Art Association (SFAA) was founded by local artists and supporters to promote art in the city. In 1874 the SFAA founded the California School of Design (CSD) and began offering classes. This was SFAI in its earliest incarnation.
In 1893, the former home of railroad magnate Mark Hopkins was gifted to the University of California for use by the SFAA and its art school. Consequently, the California School of Design moved into the Hopkins mansion on Nob Hill, which was renamed the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art.
The earthquake and fire of 1906 burnt the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art to the ground. A temporary building was constructed in its place, which was called the San Francisco Institute of Art. It continued to house the California School of Design.
In 1916, the California School of Design was renamed the California School of Fine Arts.
In 1926, the building was sold and the proceeds used to build a new building to house the California School of Fine Arts at 800 Chestnut Street.
In 1961, the California School of Fine Arts was renamed the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI). This renaming reflected a merging of the San Francisco Art Association with the school it had previously overseen. In time, the SFAA faded out of existence, fully absorbed into SFAI.

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