Forever Grateful, Golden Gate Park

Haight Street Art Center is thrilled to present Forever Grateful/Golden Gate Park, an exhibition opening Saturday, September 5th at the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. The exhibition is the second and culminating chapter of Forever Grateful, the organization's two-part tribute to the enduring legacy of the Grateful Dead. Opening September 5th, 2026: Forever Grateful, Golden Gate Park comes to the County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park. The culminating second chapter of Haight Street Art Center's two-part tribute to the Grateful Dead's enduring artistic, musical, and cultural legacy. See two iconic artifacts making their first-ever public appearance: Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters' original Furthur bus and Jerry Garcia's BMW. Experience an immersive, multi-sensory journey through Grateful Dead history, counterculture, art, music, and community. Discover historic objects, rare ephemera, installation art, visual surprises, puppetry, performance, and contemplative moments. Featuring experiential production and performances by Third Rail Projects with local dance and theater artists, plus Mad Alchemy Analog Liquid Light Show and Brave Design. Visit the companion Forever Grateful exhibition at Haight Street Art Center through September 20, featuring more than 400 works and artifacts spanning the Grateful Dead's 1965–1995 history. Together, the two exhibitions offer a rare opportunity to explore six decades of art, music, and counterculture in the San Francisco places that helped shape the story. "At Haight Street Art Center, we believe art has the power to preserve history and inspire connections across generations," said Kelly Harris, Executive Director of Haight Street Art Center. "Our second Forever Grateful exhibition carries that mission to Golden Gate Park — one of San Francisco's most iconic public spaces, and a homecoming for this story. The exhibition brings visitors to where so much of the Grateful Dead's history actually happened." Anchored by two artifacts never before on public display — Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters' original Furthur bus and Jerry Garcia's BMW — the exhibition unfolds as a journey. Featuring the production work of artists including Third Rail Projects, one of the world's foremost creators of site-specific and experiential performance, working with an ensemble of local dance/theater artists, as well as Lance Gordon of Mad Alchemy Analog Liquid Light Show, and Brian Scharf of Portland-based Brave Design, the exhibition alternates between multiple registers, from the historic to the communal and the deeply personal. Forever Grateful, Golden Gate Park offers visitors a multi-sensory deep dive into the Grateful Dead with iconic objects and ephemera, installation art, contemplative experiential moments, and unexpected visual surprises including puppetry to performers that recall the wonder of a Grateful Dead show itself. "The way in which the Haight Street Art Center ties the history of counterculture to today, I think is really evidenced in this exhibition. Alongside era-defining icons like the Furthur bus, the Liquid Light Show, and other historic objects and ephemera, artists like us are contributing pieces that offer embodied and experiential ways to engage with these ideas and celebrate the past, while imagining what the countercultures of the future could look like." Zach Morris, Artistic Director, Third Rail Projects. Forever Grateful, Golden Gate Park opens with a full weekend of festivities running through Labor Day, including a free concert by Grahame Lesh & Friends on Monday, September 5th, in Robin Williams Meadow, adjacent to the exhibition space. Notes Grahame Lesh, "There's nothing like free music in San Francisco. It's something the Grateful Dead discovered early on in the '60s, and something I got to witness and be a part of in the 2020s with my dad as a member of Phil Lesh & Friends. Music is for everyone, and I am honored to celebrate the band's legacy and history in San Francisco — in Golden Gate Park — with all of you, the wonderful Deadhead community!" A Two-Part Homecoming Forever Grateful, Golden Gate Park is the second half of a complete arc through the Grateful Dead's world. The first exhibition, Forever Grateful, remains on view at Haight Street Art Center through September 20 and stands among the most extensive showcases of Grateful Dead visual culture ever assembled — more than 400 works, including paintings, original lithographs, pen and ink drawings, photographs, vinyl records, instruments, and rare ephemera, chronicling the band's journey from 1965 to 1995.