>> as the city of san francisco has grown, there are a number of cultural organizations that have grown with it. the san francisco symphony, the ballet, and ensure we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the san francisco museum of modern art's. one of the things many of our viewers may not understand about museums is the way they grow and evolve is really about a broad. his patient and support from many individuals who give their collections -- and broad support from many individuals who give their collections to the museum. this year it will be celebrating and abolishing those individuals through exhibition

-- and acknowledging those individuals throughout asia. joining me is janet bishop, the curator. i understand you have been with the museum quite a number of years. you remember its original home on van ness. now you are part of that transition to the center, the civic center, and of course your museum has been really the anchor of cultural tenants that has helped us transform this area of the city. >> to my mind, it is wonderful to be part of such a rich cultural community. when visitors come to this area, that have so many different options. >> let's talk about the anniversary show, which will be a phenomenal opportunity for san franciscans and all visitors of the city to get a real sense of how the city has grown and the

importance of culture. >> we focus on moments where it was involved in pushing the dialogue about contemporary art forward. the jackson pollock exhibition in 1945 is a perfect example of that. our founding director was deeply interested in abstraction and was engaged in dialogue with the guggenheim about bringing the jackson pollack showed to the west coast. the original price for the painting, $750. are directors thought that was too much of a stretch before the board of trustees, so she convinced them to reduce the price to firefighter dollars. it was just -- to $500. it was what was needed to persuade the board. it is a very subjective history of art. it has been very much shaped by the individuals involved with the museum over the years.

in 1935, would start with the gallery with works that came in through albert bender, one of our founding trusties. when we opened our doors in 1935, 181 of the 186 pieces in our permanent collection had been gifted. >> what are the names that pop out as the museum evolved? >> we have another gallery that looks at the theories that the museum has since the late 1980's. we focus on a particular aspect of that program that developed under one of art curators. he arrived in 1989 and was especially interested in artists. >> are some of the highlights?

>> one of the aspects of the museum program that i have been especially involved with have been the exhibitions that stand for society for the encouragement of contemporary art. it is encouraged to honor exceptional bay area artists during their careers. for instance, an early worked who showed here in 1996. for this exhibition, he has extended an updated it to 2010 with the addition of photographs and other frameworks. >> thank you for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> as we examine the 75th anniversary, we cannot overlook its important role as an educational institution and how it brings public program to all of our citizens in the bay area. try me now to talk about that

is dominick, the curator of education and public programs. you are vested with a multifaceted responsibility, with education and also multimedia. could you explain that? >> there are three main areas. we produce education activities for all ages, k-12, and adults, and we also produce a lot of educational media, a lot of interviews with artists, stuff that we published online, and other galleries. there's also a public program, which include some educational activities, but also live cultural programming for the artists projects. >> what are all the ways that the museum reaches out? >> the latest platform for

educational media is launching right now with his anniversary. we have gotten to the point where we could put a lot of the content about artists, the stories behind artists we have had on line, but those on to the ipod touch. >> could you talk about the education role that the museum plays in the city of san francisco? >> we are in the middle of a new initiative to provide more resources and programs for families and the locality. we are benefiting from a grant from the wallace foundation, and in the last two years many more bay area families have come to the museum, participated in the programs, most of which take place on sundays. we will see more and more different offerings rolled out

in the coming months. >> thank you, dominic, for being part of "culture wire." >> the museums are almost like a team sport. there is a tremendous amount of talented staff that puts together patrons to help support the institutions, but they all need a coach. the coach is the director. neal, could you let the viewers know, you have been director how long? >> we are working on eight years. >> now you have the 75th anniversary. how does that feel? >> we opened this building in 1995. it was bought at that time as a move from the civic center and the veterans building 2 third street, into our new building, a much expanded space, better space.

it will be wonderful for the museum for decades to come. and 15 short years we have been amazed by we have outgrown the building. the collection has grown to 26,000 works. >> was a challenging to decide what was going to be put on display during the anniversary year? >> 3 people on our staff spent 2 1/2 years of going through archives, the storage vaults, honor think all kinds of works that we have not seen -- uncovering lot of works that we have not seen but also history we uncovered about how we presented a television show produced by the museum, in the museum, in 1950. a lot of great stories that the presentation tells. >> the most recent news was the incredible decision on the part of donna morris fisher to give

their collection to sfmoma. >> think it is commonly understood that the fischer collection was 1100 works by some of the great contemporary works, one of the great collections in the world. in fact, the collection has not been seen. it has been largely stored at the headquarters, there has never been a publication or exhibition. >> but fischer collection and the additional expansion over the next 50 years, what in the next 25 years will the museum be doing? >> we are very committed to expanding the museum, expanding the collection, the overall growth of the museum. that is one of the things that is very important to us. we are about to enter a strategic planning process.

the fundamental question we want to address is, how wil sfmoma growth and enhanced its engagement with the community? it is not enough that the museum has great works in its collection, has great exhibitions, wonderful education programs, it is how does the institution grow and enhance its relationship with the community. it is very important to us. >> on behalf of the residents of san francisco, we thank you for shepherding this institution through this incredible growth phase, and thank you for being part of "culture wire." >> my pleasure, thank you. >> the museum has exciting anni

tenant issues and renter issues are very important in district 6. about 80% of district 6 residents are renters. and so i think that's the highest rate of any district in the city. after the vietnam war, a lot of people found a point of entry in the tenderloin. and so there's an extremely vibrant southeast community in the tenderloin. it was great to get to know more people down here and realize that there were so many artists and musicians and really creative people live in this area and that there are families. i like the semi-industrial character and because it's convenient and also i dj around here and i like the clubs and bars and that sort of thing. we hope that all three areas complement each other and that mid-market is not the dividing

line between north and south. jennifer low: welcome back to district sf on sfgtv. this month we're at the asian art museum in the center of san francisco and the center of district 6. it's a wide area in the city, one that many people just drive through, with locked doors. but when we go inside mid-market, the tenderloin, and south of market, you'll see the reality is different from the reputation. we met district 6's supervisor, chris daly, while he was visiting residents of an sro hotel now managed by the city. the success at the mission hotel is one example, of halting decades of decline, in the very heart of san francisco. the story of what is now district 6, is just the most current chapter of center city's long history. charles fracchia: districts began in the gold rush and were pretty much a part of all the

19th century. with a few exceptions, you've cobbled together e bunch of neighborhoods, and so districts are largely pretty much disparate areas. they take in a whole variety of different kinds of neighborhoods. in district 6, you've got part of the embarcadero, art of the old wharf area, which was always a very distinctive part of san francisco. and then you've got the rincon hill, which is pretty much gone. and then you've got that corridor all the way down to the mission, which is what we call mixed use place. so you've got that. you go down into the inner mission, which is one of the old historic areas of san francisco as well, centered around mission dolores. which was historically, in the 1930, 20th century, a tremendously ethnically mixed area. you had scandinavians, you had lots of germans in that area.

people forget about that. then you go into the tenderloin area. when i was growing up in the city, one of the features of the tenderloin was it held mainly couples or single individuals who worked downtown or in the union square area. that's obviously now changed. chris daly: the tenderloin has a bad rap you know in terms of, some people think it's dirty and it's intersection of a lot of social ills. but i see the tenderloin as one of the vibrant neighborhoods in san francisco. in terms of the activity in the tenderloin, the diversity in the tenderloin, the community initiatives and efforts that happen in the tenderloin. and a rich history the neighborhood and it's identity against a backdrop of an encroaching hospitality district and financial district. jerry jai: those stereotypes were in my mind when i first

started, when my experience with the tenderloin started. there were other aspects that attracted me to the neighborhood and that over time i've grown to understand better and appreciate. those are the sort of more hidden aspects of the neighborhood that i think are really interesting and important that people don't hear about as much. jerry: the 2004 census found that there are 30,000 people in the tenderloin. that's 5% almost, almost 5% of the city population. it's an extremely dense neighborhood. there are a lot of people living in the tenderloin. and it's primarily a residential neighborhood. that's one of the things that a lot of people may not see. the neighborhood is almost entirely ground floor retail, so as you're walking through or driving through the neighborhood, you see a lot of businesses and storefronts, a lot of which are empty.

although that's been improving a lot over the last 10 years. you see kind of a commercial neighborhood and what really isn't seen is that there are 30,000 people living in these about 35 square blocks. chris: one neat thing that's happened in the tenderloin in the past couple of decades is little saigon. the development of the vietnamese community in the tenderloin's western part, mainly along larkin st. there's an increasing number of vietnamese families and businesses. one of the strengths of the tenderloin is the tenderloin community school, developed 6 or 7 years ago. it's a great school. and there's a lot of kids that go there and that's not something that's thought about. jerry: i think the neighborhood is improving but at the same time we're still facing the same issues as 10 or 15 years ago or longer.

there was a neighborhood planning study, the tenderloin 2000 plan published in the early 1990's that identified 5 basic goals for the neighborhood. and 15 years later, those goals... i think a lot of people would regard them as the primary goals for the neighborhood. they include: public safety, affordable housing or housing in general, economic development, the public general environment and social services. and 15 years later a lot of those concerns are the same ones that people have now. chris: new social issues do come up in this country, like the rise of crack cocaine in the early 1980s. but really, other than those sorts of things, there aren't a lot of new issues in the tenderloin.

it's a very old neighborhood that's been dealing with a lot of issues for a lot of years. st. anthony's, st. boniface go back many years. glide is now an older institution. there are long term institutions in the tenderloin trying to meet the needs of it's residents. jerry: over the history of the tenderloin it's been a place where service providers come and provide human services for people who need them. so people with hiv and aids- there are resources here for those people. substance abuse, mental illness- there are a lot of resources in the tenderloin for those people. and it's a place where people who have special needs such as those can live their lives. you know there was a time, not so long ago, there was a time

where there was discrimination against people with hiv and aids, so the tenderloin was a place where people could find housing instead of other parts of the city. chris: the tenderloin development corporation a community development corporation, is i think one of the biggest in san francisco. they have retrofitted a large number of buildings in the tenderloin. their mission is to provide housing to tenderloin residents. the model of community development has been popular for decades in san francisco. this is largely in response in this city and many other cities across the country to the failed plans of the 1960's and 1970's and top-down approach where cities said we know better than