After shutting down in January with no staff, no funding and only one board member, the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts is beginning a comeback, with plans to reopen the building, offer summer classes and host events like Cinco de Mayo and Día de los Muertos.
Leaders say the return will happen in phases, beginning with archival work in May and limited programming by June.
“Our goal is to resume operations at a smaller scale by June,” said Susana Rojas, MCCLA’s technical advisor, addressing a crowd at the center’s monthly community meeting Tuesday. Applause broke out when she announced that archival work will resume inside the building in May.
The center’s main funder and landlord, the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC), is waiting for MCCLA’s fiscal documents before extending a large grant expected in May.
The revival follows a financial collapse earlier this year, when the nearly 50-year-old arts institution ran out of operating funds and shuttered its doors indefinitely. Nearly all staff had resigned or been laid off weeks earlier, leaving the organization insolvent and in violation of its lease with the San Francisco Arts Commission, which owns the building.
At the time, internal communications described a dire financial crisis: the organization was losing roughly $50,000 a month and warned it would collapse within days without emergency funding.
Despite that instability, the nonprofit retained its 501(c)(3) status, allowing it to remain eligible for city funding, its saving grace for a potential return.
In what community leaders described as a major breakthrough, the Arts Commission agreed to give the struggling organization time to rebuild rather than terminate its agreements.
This opens a pathway for the center to access critical funding, including a $122,500 grant to safeguard its historic poster archive and a larger operating grant expected in June.
“I want to emphasize these points above are all HUGE wins for the community,” wrote Jen Ferrigno, legislative aide to Supervisor Jackie Fielder, in a March letter to community members.
“[The Mayor’s Office and Arts Commission] have changed their posture and are now, in my opinion, bending over backwards to support MCCLA and its future and have said so publicly on several occasions,” Ferrigno said.
She suggested the city chose not to terminate its agreements despite the organization’s insolvency because of community outcry following its closure.
More than 300 artists, residents and organizers packed the center in early February to begin charting a path forward, launching working groups focused on governance, finances and protecting the center’s archives.
That same month, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution affirming that the building at 2868 Mission St. would remain a dedicated Latino arts and culture space, even as the nonprofit itself struggled to survive.
Now, a broad coalition of residents, artists, nonprofits and city agencies is working to bring the institution back to life.
“There’s so much good news to report,” said Susana Rojas, executive director of Calle 24 and a key organizer and technical advisor in the effort.
“We’re working to get them back in the building,” said Coma Te, communications director for the Arts Commission. “We never kicked them out, they just need the staff to maintain the building.”
The city has been maintaining the four-story building with volunteer support and has covered costs including insurance and electricity.
Under current plans, MCCLA could remain in its Mission Street home until January, when the building is expected to close for a city-led seismic retrofit through March 2028.
In the meantime, the focus is on stabilization.
Te said the grant — approved by the Board of Supervisors on April 6 — will help preserve the center’s poster archives. To access the funds, MCCLA is partnering with the San Francisco Study Center as a fiscal sponsor.
“Now MCCLA can start rebuilding,” Rojas said, adding that an emergency interim board is working to get the organization back on track.
Board members Bob Sánchez, Marta Estrella, Ulises Ramírez, Ivan Lozano and Sam Ruiz have stepped in with a commitment to restore governance and compliance. They held their second meeting in mid-March.
“We can’t be a random, undisciplined board,” said Sánchez. “We have to follow the rules and regulations and everybody is informed, because we’re going to do things right.”
Meanwhile, community-led working groups are shaping the future of the center, including a more representative board structure, transparent elections and stronger inclusion of working artists.
The groups still have a number of decisions ahead, Rojas said.
“We need to figure out our priorities,” she said, “so that when we are making decisions, they make sense for the needs of the community.”
The grassroots effort includes a GoFundMe launched at Tuesday’s community meeting to cover expenses not supported by grants.
Even amid logistical work — including tax filings, compliance requirements and preparations for next year’s relocation — leaders say they are focused on restoring the center’s cultural role in the Mission.
“We still want to do Día de los Muertos this year,” Sánchez said. “We want to do Cinco de Mayo.”
At its peak, the center served thousands of students each year and housed a vast archive of posters documenting decades of political, cultural and artistic life in the Mission District.
“This was due to the efforts of all of us,” wrote Ferrigno, citing collaboration between city leaders, arts organizations and community advocates. “To protect the building, the assets/archives, historical legacy AND the long-term center for Latino arts and culture at this site.”
