Western Neighborhoods Project is proud to debut HER(E), a new exhibition that carves out public space along Great Highway for eight vibrant women found in the OpenSFHistory photo archive.

Presented in partnership with The Great Highway gallery and Friends of Great Highway Park, HER(E) reflects a deeply personal journey by Executive Director Nicole Meldahl, whose curation focused on women who felt like family. Her emotional connection to these women, “met” while working with the OpenSFHistory archive, has rooted her within a feminine legacy in San Francisco and helped her feel at home here. Yet this connection also made Meldahl sad that more women who have lived largely private lives–like her mother and grandmother–have been lost to Time.

By making these eight women visible on large banners installed on street lamps along Great Highway, we hope someone recognizes them and gives them back their names. The exhibition also helps to correct a city-acknowledged gender imbalance in San Francisco’s public art. Most significantly, it provides WNP an opportunity to talk about gender bias in archival practices and address gaps within our own collection.

Join us on Saturday, August 24th from 11-2pm on Judah and Great Highway to celebrate these women as well as the women in your lives! WNP will be hosting a Memory Station where we can scan photos and capture stories about women you think deserve to hold a more prominent place in the historical record. We’ll also have new postcards available so you can send loved ones a note from HER(E), music, light snacks from Butter Love, and a refreshments table featuring all-ages mocktails crafted by The Royal Cuckoo.

RSVP not required but appreciated. See link below.