The Diggers

The San Francisco Diggers were an underground movement that came out of street theater. Named after the 17th-century Diggers in England, the San Francisco Diggers emerged in 1966 in response to police brutality and the Vietnam War. They were also critical of consumer culture and created a culture of free: free food, free crash pads, free medical care, a free bank, and free stores. Most of their actions and publications were anonymous and they viewed themselves as both the message as well as the medium. They initiated spontaneous events, challenged authority, took drugs, and formed tribes of like-minded people. They also developed their own form of print culture. The exhibition Our commons are free presents this print culture and contextualizes it through news footage, photographs, films, and a multitude of Digger street sheets.

Ben Kinmont is an artist, publisher, and antiquarian bookseller living in Sebastopol, California. His work is concerned with the value structures surrounding an art practice and what happens when that practice is displaced into a non-art space. Since 1988 his work has been project-based with an interest in archiving and blurring the boundaries between artistic production, publishing, and curatorial practices. He is also the founder of the Antinomian Press, a publishing enterprise which supports project art and ephemera (the archive of which is in the collection of drawings and prints at MOMA). The project Our commons are free has already occured in Italy, France, and England, and will be comingto the Fort Mason Center in June of 2025.

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The photograph of the Diggers' feed is by William Gedney and is courtesy of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Duke University.

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