The Haight Street Art Center is marking its 10th anniversary by celebrating one of San Francisco’s most beloved rock bands.
The exhibition “Forever Grateful,” slated to open Friday, July 3, features art, instruments and other memorabilia from the Grateful Dead’s history from 1965 to 1995. The show is the first of a two-part exhibition about the rock, blues and psychedelic jam band in the city this year.
In a statement, Trixie Garcia, daughter of lead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia, praised the opening of the exhibition in the city of the group’s 1965 founding.
“My family is pleased to know that the Haight Street Art Center will be featuring a Grateful Dead exhibition this summer,” she said. “What originated here in the ’60s and the resulting cultural shift felt across the world will never be forgotten. There’s nowhere like San Francisco and there’s nothing like the Grateful Dead!”
As part of the show’s opening, Grahame Lesh, the son of bass guitarist and vocalist Phil Lesh, will host a free performance on July 4 with his band, Grahame Lesh & Friends, featuring Alex Jordan, Jason Crosby, Burt Lewis, Danny Luehring.
Among the poster art on view at the Haight Street Art Center “Forever Grateful” is this 1966 Wes Wilson design for the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore Audtorium. (Haight Street Art Center)
The Grateful Dead were formed in 1965 with founding members Garcia, Lesh, Bob Weir on rhythm guitar and vocals, Bill Kreutzmann on drums and Ron “Pigpen” McKernan on keyboards, harmonica, and vocals. The band continued after McKernan’s death in 1973 but split after the passing of Garcia in 1995. The band’s honors include being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and a recording of their performance at Cornell University’s Barton Hall being added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2012. Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann and Hart were recognized at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2024.
The Haight Street Art Center show, which encompasses both floors of the center, is curated by Ben Marks, with advisors Dennis McNally, a Grateful Dead historian and Susana Millman, a photographer known for her images of the band. “Forever Grateful” displays more than 400 items, from photos to records and visual art. The show also highlights the poster creators who helped shape the band’s visual identity, including San Francisco’s “Big Five” rock-poster artists Wes Wilson, Stanley Mouse, Alton Kelley, Victor Moscoso and Rick Griffin.
The largest gallery space features a one-to-four scale replica of the band’s famous “Wall of Sound” audio installation. The immersive recreation of the speaker system used in concerts plays the band’s live recordings, offering visitors a chance to experience something close to a concert’s sound. The installation was designed and built by Anthony Coscia of instrument and cabinet builder Coscia Guitar and includes 500 speakers.
Alton Kelley and Stanley Mouse’s “Bertha,” 1967, is on view in “Forever Grateful” at the Haight Street Art Center. (Haight Street Art Center)
“The thing that really set the Grateful Dead apart from everyone else was its sound,” said Marks. “It wasn’t merely a technical achievement – the lack of distortion in the band’s live sound allowed you to fully experience the music.”
More Information
“Forever Grateful”: 12-6 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. July 3-Sept. 20. Free. Haight Street Art Center, 215 Haight St., S.F. 415-900-4106. www.haightstreetart.org
“Grahame Lesh & Friends”: 2 p.m. July 4. Free. Haight Street Art Center, 215 Haight St., S.F. 415-900-4106. www.haightstreetart.org
Although the band only had only one Top 40 single in its 30-year career, with the 1987 song “Touch of Grey,” it was among the highest-grossing American touring acts for decades.
Part of the intent of “Forever Grateful” is to also recognize the Deadhead community, from the first fan club founded by Palo Alto classmates of Weir to the generations of tie-dye wearing devotees since.
“Forever Grateful,” Haight Street Art Center board chair Roger McNamee said in a statement, was “created by Dead Heads for Dead Heads.”
“It serves as both a museum exhibition and a gathering space for visitors to enjoy music, art, photography, and artifacts of the band that defies description and its equally indescribable community,” he said.
The second exhibition, “Forever Grateful, Golden Gate Park,” is slated to open Sept. 5 at the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park.
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This article originally published at Grateful Dead exhibition set to open at San Francisco’s Haight Street Art Center.