Luggage Store Gallery

A dandelion pushing through cracks in the sidewalk, this plucky nonprofit gallery has brought signs of life to one of the toughest blocks in the Tenderloin for more than 20 years. The art that sprawls out across the spacious 2nd-floor gallery rises above the street without losing sight of it – this space was the launching pad for renowned graffiti satirists. Two Luggage Store regulars you might recognize around town are Rigo, who did the ‘One Tree’ mural that looks like a one-way sign by the 101 Fwy on-ramp in SoMa, and Brazilian duo Ogemeos, who did the mural of a defiant kid holding a lit firecracker atop the gallery building. With such oddly touching works, poetry nights and monthly performing-arts events, this place puts the tender in the Tenderloin.