Past Exhibits

Much has been written about the archive and its role in defining history. Photography as a medium has been used to document and archive boundless topics, from the microscopic to the macroscopic. Many artists use the photography of others as the source material of their work. Some photographers create new work through organizing and documenting existing non-photographic collections and archives. Both ways of interacting with the archive deepen the viewer’s insight into the formal organization...

Victor Arnautoff (1896-1979) was a leading artist in San Francisco in the 1930s, whose best known work is the mural "City Life" located at Coit Tower. Victor Arnautoff and The Politics of Art looks at Arnautoff's "art for the people" – works executed in an easily reproduced format and accessible to the general public that were intended to move and stimulate thinking. Like his mentor, Diego Rivera (1886-1957), Arnautoff saw art as "a weapon of ideas in the struggle for a new society." This...

Blanche Wilson Ellsworth (1902-1997) was a professor of English at San Francisco State from 1926 to 1966. President Archibald Anderson appointed her to the English Department in 1926, where she taught half of the courses and earned $1,800.00 per year. At the time of her retirement, Ellsworth had served the longest tenure and shaped the visual identity of the campus for a period of forty years.

Ellsworth produced booklets for all of the College departments. Her work expanded so much...

Extra-Illustration: From Marginalia to Scrapbooks highlights alternative uses for books by individuals interested in the interactive practice of extra-illustration.  Colloquially referred to as “Grangerizing”—named for the British publisher, James Granger, who promoted the activity in the late 18th-century—examples of visually and textually altered publications can be found among the earliest manuscripts, printed texts, and scrapbook collections  in prominent libraries, archives, and museums...