Cheryl Haines, FOR-SITE’s Founding Executive Director and Chief Curator, reflects on how Fort Point has been transformed into a site where contemporary Black narratives and untold histories resonate.
Umar Rashid, By Land. By Sea. By Star., 2025. Mixed-media installation. Courtesy of the artist and commissioned by FOR-SITE.
On June 6, 2025, FOR-SITE opened ‘Black Gold: Stories Untold’ at San Francisco’s historic Fort Point, shedding light on the overlooked contributions and resilience of Black individuals during California’s early statehood. Curated by Cheryl Haines, the exhibition brought together site-specific commissions from artists including Akea Brionne, Demetri Broxton, Adrian L. Burrell, Adam Davis, and Trina Michelle Robinson. Each work engaged directly with the fort’s charged architecture—its stone corridors, officers’ quarters, and holding cells—transforming the site into a living archive where past and present speak to each other. Guided by an advisory council of Black curators, scholars, and artists, ‘Black Gold’ activated Fort Point not as a static historic landmark, but as an active participant in telling untold stories. In this interview, conducted after the exhibition’s opening, Haines reflects on the project’s curatorial process, its dialogue with history, and the ways it invites visitors to engage in deeper acts of remembrance and connection.
ART AFRICA: Fort Point’s layered architectural history, a narrative waiting to be told, seems to echo the silences within dominant historical narratives. How did this ‘unfinished’ quality, this potential for a new narrative, inform your curatorial strategy for ‘Black Gold: Stories Untold’?
Cheryl Haines: The fort provided a striking historical context in which to insert narratives that had been systematically excluded from dominant accounts. What excited me was the tension and dialogue between the space as it was built and the stories we brought into it. We weren’t erasing or overwriting the history of Fort Point; instead, we were adding to it, revealing how much had been left unsaid. In doing so, the architecture itself felt transformed, newly activated by the presence of contemporary voices: a space where the past and present could speak to each other directly.
Hank Willis Thomas, Solidarity, 2023. Patinated bronze, 86 3⁄4 x 24 3⁄4 x 36 3⁄4in. Courtesy of the artist and Pace Gallery and produced by FOR-SITE.
As a curator deeply attuned to site, your ability to facilitate a dialogue between the artists and the fort’s material presence—its stone corridors, surveillance towers, and residual echoes of occupation—during the commissioning process is a testament to your skill. How did you approach this task?
My approach was grounded in the idea that the site itself was an active part of the curatorial conversation. Whenever possible, I invited the artists to spend time together at Fort Point early in the process, not just to scout locations but to absorb the physical and emotional atmosphere of the fort. I didn’t assign spaces immediately. Instead, I wanted to see where the artists gravitated, what spaces spoke to their work. It was essential to create space for the artists to respond on their terms, while also respecting the historical significance of the site with care. In many cases, the site itself shifted how artists conceptualised their projects and its scale, acoustics, and light became collaborators in the work.
Cosmo Whyte, Soldiers, 2025. Steel beaded curtain and paint, 72 x 56in. Courtesy of the artist and commissioned by FOR-SITE. Photo: Jan Sturmann
Several works in the exhibition are installed in spaces with charged histories, such as officers’ quarters and holding cells. How did you encourage artists not only to use these environments as settings, but also to actively engage with them actively, thereby shaping the meaning of the exhibition?
We explored how the site’s history could create meaningful connections. For example, we drew on the legacy of Charles Young and the Buffalo Soldiers, segregated Black regiments who became early stewards of national parks. Their stories felt especially resonant at Fort Point, a military site that was active during their era and is now a National Park. Cosmo Whyte’s Soldiers, a beaded curtain depicting two Black Civil War soldiers with their arms around each other, installed beside historic enlisted men’s bunks, reflects the intimacy and camaraderie within Buffalo Soldier regiments. Adrian Burrell’s film, Gloria, utilises a custom screen shaped to the fort’s arches, making the architecture an integral part of the storytelling and blurring the line between memory and place.
Adrian L. Burrell, Gloria, 2025. Still from single-channel video installation. Courtesy of the artist. Commissioned by FOR-SITE.
You established an advisory council of Black curators, scholars, and artists to guide the development of the exhibition. In what ways did this collective dialogue influence the pairing of artists with specific architectural spaces within the fort?
The advisors were essential collaborators who played a key role in ensuring that our conceptual direction was sound, our artist selections were thoughtful and inclusive, and that our historical assertions were well-researched and responsibly framed. Their input helped us identify gaps, refine our language, and maintain the project’s integrity as we transitioned from idea to implementation. They helped us ask the right questions, and the show would not have been complete without them.
Yinka Shonibare CBE, Man Moving Up, 2022. Fiberglass mannequins, Dutch wax printed cotton textile, bespoke globe, brass, leather, paper, cotton, silk, steel, aluminum, and painted wood, 90 1⁄2 x 141 3⁄4 x 98 1⁄2in. Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery, New York.
Curating within a historic site often entails a negotiation between the integrity of the space and the autonomy of contemporary artistic intervention. How did Black Gold navigate this tension—particularly about scale, medium, and conceptual density?
Curating within a historic site like Fort Point meant navigating physical and conceptual constraints with care. We avoided mounting works directly to walls by designing custom frames and armatures, preserving the site’s historic fabric while allowing artists meaningful intervention. For heavier pieces, we collaborated with engineers and park staff to safely distribute weight and placed more durable works in areas with harsher conditions. On a conceptual level, I’m always looking for work that strikes a balance between intellectual depth and formal accessibility. We want people from all backgrounds to feel like they can step into it and connect with it. That meant choosing pieces that resonate visually, emotionally, and historically while offering space to reflect and see something in a new way.
Tiff Massey, 72 Reasons I’m Not Playin, 2025. Brass, 473.5 x 12 x 12 in. Courtesy of the artist and commissioned by FOR-SITE.
At its core, Black Gold transforms Fort Point from a former site of exclusion into one of remembrance and resonance. How do you see the architecture itself being reactivated through this project—as both witness and participant in the unfolding of untold stories, inspiring hope and a sense of inclusivity?
I see Fort Point not just as a stage, but as a protagonist in this exhibition. Its very stones hold memory, and as a visitor, you can feel in your body the harsh conditions experienced by the regiments stationed there. By embedding contemporary Black narratives into these spaces, the fort becomes less of a relic and more of a participant in the present. Visitors don’t just look at the art, they move with it, often navigating narrow passageways or unexpectedly encountering a voice that shifts their attention. This choreography reshapes how people engage with history: not as distant observers, but as inheritors, with a responsibility to carry these stories forward.
The exhibition will be on view until November 2, 2025. For more information, please visit FOR-SITE.
