San Francisco’s Mexican Museum just turned 35 years old but new chief executive officer Jonathan Yorba said it’s more like a “rebirth.”
This year, there is much to celebrate–including the acquisition of new collections and plans for new museum. But if there is one thing Yorba wants everyone to know–it’s that museum is open and ready for visitors.
The Mexican Museum, located in Fort Mason Center, is now open Thursday through Sunday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Before Nov. 4, it had been limited to weekend hours and for a long time, it was not open at all. After years of financial and organizational challenges, the museum will soon have it’s new permanent home in the Yerba Buena Arts District.
“I want to see it in its rightful place among the museums and cultural institutions of Yerba Buena’s Cultural District,” Yorba said. “With all the parties involved, it will happen.”
Yorba was an interim curator for the museum during the 90s, but has now returned as its chief executive officer. He started Sept. 16th of this year, and has since hit the ground running. Along with the new leadership including board members Nora Wagner and Mario Diaz, the museum is being established as new start-up. He equates this new movement on the museum’s 35th anniversary to a “re-constitution.”
There is much work ahead. The project plans need to be turned in Planning Department before the end of this year. Yorba is working closely with the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency and Millennium Partners–the developers responsible for building the proposed condominium tower on 3rd Street and Mission where the new museum will be located on the base level.
The new site, will be anywhere from 35,000 to 40,000 square feet, which is more than three time the amount the museum presently has at Fort Mason. This size will allow them to display all of the 12,000 pieces in the collection–which the current space cannot. It will also put Mexican Museum close to San Francisco’s other world-class museums, including SF MOMA and the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
The project may be realized until 2013 or 2014, but Yorba is working hard on getting plans for the design and funding to make sure everything is in place.
“We have to be shovel ready,” he said. “ What are the problems that need to be solved? We have to have a good grasp in understanding the operation’s needs as it moves form it’s the current location.”
On Saturday, Nov. 20, the 35th anniversary was marked by a huge gala event celebrating the Mexican Museum, which was originally opened in the Mission District by Peter Rodriguez to highlight Mexican and Mexican-American Art. Now however, the collection includes art from all over Latin America. The museum moved to it’s current location in Fort Mason in 1982.
The event also honored distinguished donors Thomas and Adriana Williams for their Rosa and Miguel Covarrubias collection, and Anna Rockefeller Roberts for the extensive collection of Mexican folk art previously donated to the museum.