The Jazz Heritage Center (JHC) is the only permanent cultural and educational complex dedicated to the long history of Jazz in San Francisco and the Fillmore District. Located within the new Fillmore Heritage Center in the heart of the Historic Fillmore Jazz Preservation District, the non-profit Jazz Heritage Center is part jazz museum, part jazz cultural center, and part jazz art gallery.

By showcasing art and historical exhibitions, concerts, films and youth programming, the JHC’s mission is to preserve and promote jazz, an American national treasure, while celebrating its presence as an active, living art form in San Francisco and beyond.

The JHC honors San Francisco’s contributions to jazz through educational vehicles and by providing access to jazz images, artifacts, and music to ensure that the city’s jazz legacy is communicated to today’s visitors and future generations. Visitors to the JHC will have access to the history of jazz in San Francisco, from its earliest origins, to its “Harlem of the West” heyday in the 1940s and 1950s, to today where the new Yoshi’s San Francisco symbolizes the Fillmore’s new jazz era.

As part of its focus on the Fillmore, the JHC will also promote and highlight the contributions of the diverse communities that have called the neighborhood their home, particularly African-Americans, as well as Jewish-Americans and Japanese-Americans.

Spread across 6,000-sq feet, the jazz experience at the JHC includes:

• The Lush Life Art Gallery which specializes in jazz-themed art
• The JHC Public Lobby which presents the history of jazz in the Fillmore and hosts rotating exhibits dedicated to jazz and the cultural history of the Fillmore neighborhood
• The Take Five Gift Shop which sells unique local gifts such as books, t-shirts and cds
• JHC Screening and Presentation Room which will show rare jazz films and host lectures by jazz experts and jazz artists, including those that perform at Yoshi’s San Francisco.

Board
Michael Johnson, Board President; President EmJohnson Interest
Peter Fitzsimmons, Executive Director, Jazz Heritage Center
Linda Parker Pennington, Board Vice Chairman; Google, Inc.
Susan Hinchman, Assistant Vice President, Wells Fargo
Bob McDonald, Principal, R.A. McDonald Co.
John Hudson, CFO, Em Johnson Interest
Astrid Davis, Board Secretary; Em Johnson Interest

Advisory Board- Coming soon!

Staff
Peter Fitzsimmons, Executive Director, Jazz Heritage Center

Community Partners
Handful of Players
Buchanan Street YMCA
WestBay Community Center
Yoshi’s
Cultural Odyssey