Haight-Ashbury Museum of Psychedelic Art and History Could Become San Francisco's First Psychedelic Museum (VIDEO)

They say if you can remember the 1960s, you weren't really there. Now some San Franciscans are hoping to create something that will do much of that remembering for you.

A local group is hoping to establish the Haight-Ashbury Museum of Psychedelic Art and History--a physical repository of artifacts and exhibits celebrating the golden age of hippiedom.

(SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS, VIDEO)

Approximately 16 million tourists flock to San Francisco every year, many of whom are attracted by the city's rich counter-cultural history. However, not only is there no museum in the city solely dedicated to that history, there's likely no such institution anywhere in the world.

As SFist noted, the museum is hoping to raise $30,000 to build the museum, which will be entirely supported by donations from the public without any government support.

"Something magical was happening in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, a grand sociology experiment was underway," explained legendary activist Peter Coyote in a video promoting the project. "A diverse bunch of bold, inventive and daring idealists were experimenting with new ways of interacting and living with each other and, in the process, these free-thinkers--with their ideals of love, freedom, peace and creativity--attracted international attention and radically impacted and shaped the united states and the world forever."

The group explained its intentions on an IndieGoGo fundraising page:

A non-profit community supported museum will permanently cement San Francisco as the home of psychedelia. Our intention is for the museum to become an attraction in and of itself that will educate and inspire visitors for generations to come to reinvent the world according to how they want to live.

At present, the museum group has only raised a little over $1,000 toward its goal, so it's clearly going to be a long, strange trip before it has adequate funds to turn this vision into a reality.

Check out this slideshow of some classic pictures from the Haight-Ashbury's hippie heyday:

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Comments

[whyus]

11:13 PM on 03/05/2012

San Francisco was cool, edgy, and bohemian before the "summer of love" happened and all those kids came from Michigan, Indiana and other places and inundated it. The City got more crowded and dirty.

[desertdweller]

06:57 PM on 02/22/2012

It's pretty well summed up in a song by the Sons of Champlin called "Papa Can Play"

Papa was lookin' for a hobby,
Then he went to see B.B. King.
Drank some apple juice in the lobby,
Now Papa's doin' a whole new thing........

[Debbie Hock Wright]

04:04 PM on 02/22/2012

I will forever be grateful to my brothers who lead the way and gave me my first taste of the Haight 1979, lived in a flat on Masonic and Haight. I learned so much from them Michael Larry David and so many others. May have only been there for three years, but was the best years of my 20's - Now have my 1980 Haight Ashbury Street Fair poster proudly framed and hung in my home.

[Brain Surgeon]

02:35 AM on 02/21/2012

and here I thought that's what the entire town of Fairfax was.

[360Dunk]

10:37 AM on 03/03/2012

It was....till the partypooping feds closed our dispensary down.

[RT Castleberry]

02:19 AM on 02/20/2012

I think it was already established. Don't the Grateful Dead still have a website?

[victorvelasco]

12:52 AM on 02/20/2012

The Haight-Ashbury district already has a hippie museum. It's called 'the Haight-Ashbury district'.

[Politidelic]

01:39 PM on 02/20/2012

Hahaha! Yeah! It's a living museum...

[KayoFrisco]

10:36 PM on 02/19/2012

I was born around the corner from The Haight on Stanyan St and lived across The Panhandle on Lyon among other places in the City. To my young friends: Learn from the mistakes of The Human Be In. If you have a cool local artistic or bohemian scene in or near your town, don't invite the world and destroy it with another Summer of Love. Keep it small, peaceful, and local.
Don't be fooled by 60's nostalgia. That was a more affluent time when it was easier drop out and live off the fat of the land. Your good old days and good times are now. Enjoy the excitement of youth and discovery today.

[360Dunk]

10:49 AM on 02/20/2012

How did the Summer of Love destroy The Haight? If anything, it helped spread the message of rock and roll, anti-Vietnam war, sexual liberty, and psychedelia. The Haight became a global symbol of civil freedom. Yes, with it eventually came hard drugs, crime, and homelessness. But most of the people who flocked to the Haight left after the summer. Drugs and crime are in every major city these days.

[KayoFrisco]

10:32 AM on 02/21/2012

360, what would happen to your town if tens of thousands of kids suddenly arrived without food, money, or shelter? Though it created a critical mass that exploded when the kids went back home, back to the land, or wherever, The Summer of Love destroyed the local scene. I am not too concerned about the symbolic importance of someone urinating on the sidewalk or shooting up in the neighborhood playground. I know, I just sound like a grumpy old local.
Yes, the cultural changes were important. Jump starting a larger environmental and organic food movements were good. To paraphrase Crosby, "we were right about Civil Rights, right about The Vietnam War, but wrong about dope". Laughing over "Reefer Madness" or Sonny Bono's anti-pot propaganda didn't mean that smack, crank, or coke weren't harmful.
Homelessness in The Bay Area really didn't grow to become the large and permanent underclass problem until Reagan in the early '80's.

[mudshark12]

07:13 PM on 02/19/2012

This museum is definitely needed. We sure had some great stuff back then. That video caused me to remember a lot of good times in my youth.

[The Truthsayer]

01:20 PM on 02/19/2012

I certainly hope the Haight-Ashbury Museum will include a movie theater to show film works of, by, and about the Psychedelic/Hippie movement. As well as 1960's film preservation. Just as important as the Psychedelic Graphic Art movement, is the reaction to it. Even the wonderfully hilarious exploitation films of the era. I highly recommend Roger Corman's "The Trip" starring Peter Fonda, (there's a great Double Feature dvd The Trip/Psych-Out another wonderfully dated hippie movie starring Jack Nicholson as a pony-tailed hipster guitarist named "Stoney!". As well as the great 1960's hippie documentaries at somethingweirdvideo.com. "Mondo Mod / The Hippie Revolt " will have you both longing for the day, and laughing at the dated presentation. Not to be missed too is the insanely hilarious "Alice In Acidland" a soft-core adult film from the era that pretends to be a scare film for parents to know whats going on "with the drug culture youth of today". These films are also part of the movement, and I hope the museum realizes their importance as well. By the way, I just made a contribution at http://haightashburymuseum.com/ and I challenge you to do the same. Give whatever you can, even if it's just a $20, $10, or a buck. They take cards and Paypal and it's super easy.

[Marchant2]

11:37 AM on 02/19/2012

I may be going out on a limb by saying this, but in my opinion, hippies were the best example of Americans that America had ever offered throughout her history.

[corwin]

11:27 PM on 02/20/2012

Well,everyone has an opinion.And,a rectum

[oneyippie]

11:14 AM on 02/19/2012

Finally! Peter Coyote acknowledges the truth and impact of the Hippies!
He has given voice, in the past, to documentaries that demean the hippie movement.
He did the voice over on the History Channel of the documentary "Hippies" which tried over and over to tie the hippies to Charles Manson (3 different segements on Manson).

I will gladly add some artifacts as I manage the Hippie Archives and have written extensively on the subject.

Now I'd love to see Peter Coyote donate his voice-over fee for that derogatory hippie documentary towards this museum. I'm sure that would cover what they need. Remember when you had nothing Peter? And handed out everything for Free to others as one of the Diggers? Let's see you do the right thing... (the voice over of the video above is a start!)

I look forward to the creation of this museum and will do what I can to help. This will be a big tourist attraction for the city (if done right)...

[360Dunk]

11:02 AM on 02/20/2012

You could find a more appropriate voice than Coyote's. Unfortunately, Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman (your pic) died too young and Tom Hayden kind of disappeared, other than his animal rights work.

Maybe there's audio somewhere of Timothy Leary's "turn on, tune in, drop out" speech at the Human Be-In at Golden Gate Park that could be used.

Good luck in your endeavor.

[desertdweller]

06:44 PM on 02/22/2012

Guess you don't know much about Peter Coyote and his role in that scene.

[U Ragazzu]

11:10 AM on 02/19/2012

Attention photo editor: the hippie with the guitar is walking along Taylor at Jefferson in Fisherman's Wharf.

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

09:13 AM on 02/19/2012

Far out, man. Right On! Peace.

(funny how the hippie philosophy still applies today - how it's badly needed today)

[TheWanderer]

10:08 PM on 02/18/2012

"George Harrison, a member of the British pop group, the Beatles..." The "British pop group?" When was this headline written - 1962?"

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

09:13 AM on 02/19/2012

LOL.

[Pectin]

10:35 AM on 02/19/2012

They were a British pop group, what's the problem?

[TheWanderer]

10:04 PM on 02/18/2012

"Carrying a loaf of bread, a guitar and a knapsack, a hippie walks down the street away from the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, Oct. 16, 1967." This is a photo of Fisherman's wharf, several miles and many steep hills away from the Haight. Quite a walk. Who said hippies were lazy?

[360Dunk]

11:05 AM on 02/20/2012

There are no limits for us hippies when it comes to mingling with tourists and paying top dollar for a taste of crab and sourdough from a sidewalk vendor.