San Francisco, CA (October 27, 2026)—The family of late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia has announced plans to create the Jerry Garcia Music Arts Center, a venue and multi-discipline arts hub, to be located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The family’s organization, Jerry Garcia Music Arts, will partner with archival media management platform Starchive to create a site that will serve as a concert and film venue, museum, creative hub, research library, preservation facility and more.
• Discover more great stories—get a free Mix SmartBrief subscription!
While much of the site will be centered around an open-to-the public research library and physical archive, the facility will also use galleries to “highlight landmark technological innovations pioneered by Garcia and his collaborators, notably historical innovations in live concert sound design,” according to the Center’s official announcement.
That statement likely alludes to the Grateful Dead’s famed Wall of Sound P.A. from the early 1970s. Funded by the band, the extravagant concert sound system was an actual physical wall of speakers—a collection of six separate P.A.s, ground-stacked and placed onstage behind the band to act as a simultaneous house and monitor system. At its largest, the Wall of Sound stood roughly 98 feet across and 36 feet high, traveled in four semis and required 21 people and an entire day to load-in.
Appropriately, the site includes plans for a performance center and screening room for live music and film presentations. Adjacent galleries will highlight different aspects of Garcia’s artistic output and influence, including his musical catalog, fine art and more. Fan-contributed materials will be incorporated into the archives as well.
In a statement, Manasha Garcia, Jerry’s wife and co-founder of Jerry Garcia Music Arts, noted, “Music and art naturally build community. In welcoming fan contributions and building an accessible archive, we honor the vibrant community that grew around my husband’s commitment to creative freedom, live sound innovation, and planetary stewardship.”
• David Bowie Concert Film to Tour Arenas with Full Production
No timeline or location for the Center has been given, but the organization plans to make additional announcements regarding architectural design, programming and more as the project progresses.
