A once-in-a-generation chance
to shape history.
The Gallery at Harvey Milk Plaza will be one of the most significant LGBTQ+ cultural spaces in the country — an immersive exhibition where the stories behind the movement are told, at the place where so much of it happened.
It is the only element of the plaza renovation that remains unfunded. And with groundbreaking approaching late this year, the window for your gift to shape what this place becomes is now.
The decisions being made today will determine what the Gallery becomes — not just what it looks like, but what it says, whose stories it tells, and how millions of future visitors encounter this history. This is the moment when a gift does more than fund a project. It shapes a place. It ensures that the Castro’s LGBTQ+ history — in all its depth, diversity, and defiance — is told with the care and ambition it deserves.
Gifts made now, at this early stage of the campaign, carry special weight. They signal confidence in the project, build momentum, and help unlock additional support. They are the gifts that make everything else possible.
Gallery Timeline
Gallery Budget: $3 million
Private investment brings
the Gallery to life.
Public dollars will deliver the Plaza’s infrastructure and transit improvements. Private philanthropy funds everything that makes the Gallery what it is:
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A reserve for unknowns and bid/field variability: scope gaps, site conditions, coordination issues, price volatility, and fabrication and installation adjustments.
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Maintenance to keep the Gallery visitor-ready: cleaning, minor repairs, and appropriate security and ambassador coverage through 2030.
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The costs of running the fundraising effort: staffing, donor materials, events, communications, and related campaign operations.
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Administrative oversight and compliance: accounting, reporting, audit, and other back-office services.
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Defining the visitor experience and turning it into buildable documents: plans, elevations, renderings, vandal-resistant material concepts, specs, graphics, and production files.
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Community engagement, archival research, and expert consultation to shape interpretive themes and narrative; drafting and finalizing content through stakeholder approvals, including licensing and accessibility review.
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Scoping, designing, and producing digital and A/V elements: touchscreen approach, interactive software development, screen media, and sound components.
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Procuring, building, and installing all exhibit and media elements: fabricator selection, fabrication and graphics production, installation, integration and testing, and opening readiness.
Your gift will be part of this place permanently.
Donors who make leadership gifts to the Gallery will be recognized as part of Harvey Milk Plaza, at one of the most visited LGBTQ+ landmarks in the world.
To learn about recognition opportunities, contact Deb Stallings, Capital Campaign Director.
People leading this campaign.
The Gallery campaign is guided by a Campaign Cabinet of civic leaders, community advocates, and longtime supporters of Harvey Milk Plaza — individuals who have committed their time, relationships, and energy to making the Gallery a reality.
Robin Abad Ocubillo
Andrea Aiello
Alan Billingsley
Jim Chappell
Ben Chavez Gilliam
Bevan Dufty
Rob Evans
Linda Harrison
Cleve Jones
Taylor Jordan
Tom LeNoble
Lynn Luckow
Terry Micheau
Amber Shipley
Be a part of what this place becomes.
The Gallery at Harvey Milk Plaza will stand at the heart of the Castro for generations. It will be the place where the story of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement is told — with honesty, with depth, and with the community’s own voice at the center.
Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza invites you to make a leadership gift to complete the Gallery and ensure this landmark carries the movement forward.