Tenderloin Museum Holds New Fundraiser to Continue Ambitious Expansion

The Tenderloin Museum — a hub for all things arts and history in the neighborhood — is asking for donations in order to complete the first phase of an ambitious expansion plan that would see the museum triple in size.

“For 10 years, the Tenderloin Museum has celebrated and preserved the history of one of San Francisco’s most vibrant and misunderstood neighborhoods,” the fundraiser page states. “This expansion will … allow us to bring more of the Tenderloin community’s stories, voices, and creativity to life.”

The museum is hoping to raise $50,000 before the end of the year in order to complete new construction and host pop-up exhibits in 2026. One of those shows will be a collection of large-scale artworks by Michelle “Meng” Nguyen that explore the history of the Tenderloin’s Vietnamese community.

“Those three or four high-impact temporary exhibitions will inform the future permanent exhibition,” explains Katie Conry, the museum’s executive director. “We want to start utilizing the space now, and not just wait for years to raise all the money we need. We want our community to be in there, learning and enjoying the space now as opposed to later. Let’s have events in there and build toward the full new vision.”

Extra fundraising for the museum expansion became necessary this year after federal funding for the arts was upended by the Trump administration.

“A lot of the grants available for exhibitions are federal,” Conry explains. “We intended to be able to get a significant amount of funding from the NEH and the NEA. That funding doesn’t exist currently for an institution like ours that promotes history about immigration and LGBTQ issues and trans people.”

Situated on the corner of Leavenworth and Eddy, the Tenderloin Museum has long grappled with limited gallery space for art exhibits and community events.

“We host a lot of community events but occasionally have to turn away different groups because of space constraints,” Conry says. With the museum expansion, “we’re going to be able to host a lot more fundraisers, appreciation parties and tours with organizations in the neighborhood.”

The Tenderloin Museum has been planning to expand since 2021, when it hatched plans to transform part of the basement of the Cadillac Hotel into a neon sign museum. Two years into that planning, the museum pivoted once more when a serendipitous opportunity arose. The childcare center next door to the museum closed down, making a much larger part of the building available.

That space, beautifully lit under an expansive skylight, isn’t just perfect for a new gallery, it’s also historically significant. Between 1924 and 1992, the rooms belonged to Newman’s Gym, where boxers Muhammad Ali, Jack Dempsey, George Foreman and Sugar Ray Robinson all trained or competed. The Tenderloin Museum now has an exhibition about the gym planned for summer 2026.

At the time of its official opening in late 2027 or early 2028, the expanded museum will house a bigger permanent collection (including more oral histories and personal stories from locals), a large art gallery, a neon sign gallery, a special exhibition room dedicated to local Indian American history, and a room devoted to youth-focused shows.

“I think having space for more oral histories is going to have a big impact on people feeling like they’re represented in the museum and in the community,” Conry says. “We also think the neon gallery is really going to put the Tenderloin on the map as a major international destination. It will bring a lot of new people into the neighborhood to have a positive experience that will also support the [local] economy.”

Conry says that the museum needs to eventually find another million dollars in order to complete these goals fully. The first phase of construction was supported by money from a California state budget surplus that Conry says was secured for the Tenderloin Museum by Scott Wiener. Funding for the second phase of the museum’s expansion remains up in the air.

The Tenderloin Museum’s online fundraiser is currently active.