Museo Italo Americano Planning Move To Northeast Waterfront

Museo Italo Americano Planning Move To Northeast WaterfrontPaola Bagnatori. Photos: Geri Koeppel/Hoodline
Geri Koeppel
Published on June 02, 2015

Museo Italo Americano, dedicated to Italian and Italian American art and culture, plans to move from Fort Mason, where it has rented space for the past 30 years of its 37 years in existence, to 940 Battery St. in the northeast waterfront area of the FiDi.

It owns its future building outright via a donation, and the move could happen as early as 2017 – if they get permits and can raise the funds. 

The problem is, the building needs about $14 million in renovations, which would include creating office space on the third floor so rents from that can help fund the work and ongoing maintenance. (If you are interested in donating or becoming a member, you can contact them via their site.)

The museum has already partnered with Oliver & Company, a developer that has a private fund to help nonprofits, and hopes to get approvals from the Planning Commission. Company owner Stephen H. Oliver, formerly the chair of SFMOMA's board of trustees, started the fund in the first dot-com boom in 1999 "to help nonprofits stabilize their real estate holdings," he told us.

In the meantime, the Battery location is open from 1pm to 4pm Wednesdays and Fridays, where it houses works from the Italian American Museum's permanent collection on the first floor and exhibits on the second floor. 


Museo Italo Americano managing director Paola Bagnatori said when benefactor Jerome Cocuzza left the museum the 1917 building in his trust when he died in 2010, they weren't sure it was the best location. "But this neighborhood is becoming gold," she said. "First of all, there is the Exploratorium, which is two blocks, the cruise terminal, which is two blocks, and then all around here there are architects, video, a very creative neighborhood." The building is also near busy Levi's Plaza. Foot traffic at Fort Mason is dropping off, Bagnatori added, now that the arts center shifted to Yerba Buena. 

Guiliana Nardelli Haight founded the Museo Italo Americano in a small room above Caffe Malvina coffee shop in North Beach in 1978. "Especially for Italians used to the Vatican Museum and the Uffizi in Florence, it was funny," said Bagnatori, who started as a volunteer in 1979. After that, the museum moved to the third floor of 678 Green St. in the same building as Beach Blanket Babylon before heading to Fort Mason in 1985.


The museum took title of 940 Battery in 2012 and will be housed at what it's calling the Jerome Cocuzza Center for Art and Culture, in honor of the benefactor. Currently, the museum has 5,000 square feet of space, and the new building has three floors of 7,000 square feet each, plus a basement for storage. The first floor will house works from the permanent collection, and the second floor will house rotating exhibits.

Bagnatori said the permanent collection includes mostly contemporary works from both Italian and Italian-American artists, roughly half and half. Exhibits cover fun subjects such as the history of Italian-American baseball players and they're working on one about Italian-American filmmakers, like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola.


And, it's the only true Italian American museum in the country, Bagnatori says. "The definition of a museum is, first of all, it's mainly concerned with art, and it has a permanent collection," she told us. Other museums in Los Angeles and New York, she said, have historic photographs, but no real art. 

While it works on the funding, the Museo Italo Americano is open at 2 Marina Blvd., Building C, Fort Mason from noon–4pm Tuesday through Sunday and at 940 Battery St. from 1pm to 4pm Wednesday and Friday. It offers language classes, lectures, children's programs, events, tours to Italy, a historical archive project and volunteer opportunities.