The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a major modern art
museum and San Francisco landmark.
It opened in 1935 under founding director Dr. Grace Morley (Grace L.
McCann Morley, Director from 1935–1958) as the San Francisco Museum of
Art, the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century
art.
The museum has in its collection important works by Jackson Pollock,
Richard Diebenkorn, Paul Klee, Marcel Duchamp and Ansel Adams, among
others.
The famous cinema series Art in Cinema was started at SFMOMA in 1946 by
filmmaker Frank Stauffacher.
151 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Telephone: 415.357.4000
Fax: 415.357.4037 View Map
California Academy of
Sciences
The California Academy of Sciences is one of the ten largest natural
history museums in the world, and one of the oldest in the United
States of America.
It is located in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The Steinhart
Aquarium and the Morrison Planetarium are housed within its walls.
The Academy began life in 1853 as a learned society and still carries
out a large amount of original research, with public exhibits and
education becoming significant endeavours in the 20th century.
55 Music Concourse Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 379-8000 View Map
California Palace of the
Legion of Honor
AKA "Legion of Honor"
The
name is used both for the museum collection and for the building in
which it is housed. The Legion of Honor was the gift of Alma de
Bretteville Spreckels.
The building is a three-quarters scale imitation of the Palais de la
Légion d'Honneur in Paris.
The Legion of Honor's permanent collection of European paintings
includes masterworks from the 14th through the 20th centuries.
Paintings on display include works by Fra Angelico, El Greco, Rubens,
Rembrandt, Watteau, Gainsborough, Monet, Bouguereau, Matisse, and
Picasso.
legionofhonor.famsf.org
The museum building occupies an elevated site in Lincoln
Park with views over the Golden Gate Bridge.
The plaza and fountain in front of the Palace of the Legion of Honor is
the western terminus of the Lincoln Highway, the first road across
America.
The terminus marker and an interpretive plaque are located in the
southwest corner of the plaza and fountain, just to the left of the
Palace.
34th Avenue & Clement Street
San Francisco, CA 94121
www.famsf.org/legion/index.asp View Map
The Treasure Island Museum
Once
upon a time, in San Francisco Bay, there lived a marvelous museum, with
Bay Area "treasures" from Treasure Island's rich history of the
military, the World's Fair and Pan Am Clipper flights.
The Treasure Island Museum Association nurtured this unique jewel for
over 20 years, until it was closed in 1997.Now, the Association works
to preserve and share the history of Treasure Island, and eventually
reestablish the Museum in Building One, TREASURE ISLAND
Building One, Treasure Island, Room 111
One Avenue of the Palms
San Francisco, CA 94130-1806
415-413-8462 View Map
The Exploratorium
The
Exploratorium is a public science museum, located in the Marina
District at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, California. It is
one of San Francisco's most popular museums, drawing over 500,000
people each year.
Founded in 1969 by the physicist Dr. Frank Oppenheimer, the
Exploratorium is dedicated to teaching science through hands-on
exhibits. Many of its exhibits are created by visual and performing
artists as well as scientists and educators.
Exhibit designs that have been created at the Exploratorium often are
duplicated for other science museums worldwide. Some exhibits, of
course, can't be duplicated, such as the off-site Wave Organ, a unique
sonic experience located on a nearby point of land jutting into San
Francisco Bay.
The Exploratorium, located in the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, also
features the Tactile Dome, a three-dimensional pitch-black labyrinth
that visitors must navigate using the sense of touch.
www.exploratorium.edu/index.html
Palace of Fine Arts Theatre
It
was designed by Bernard Maybeck, who took his inspiration from Roman
and Greek architecture.
The sculptured frieze and allegorical figures representing
Contemplation, Wonderment and Meditation were created by Ulric
Ellerhusen.
It was one of only three buildings from the exposition not to be
demolished. The lagoon was intended to echo those found in classical
settings in Europe, where the expanse of water provides a mirror
surface to reflect the grand buildings and an undisturbed vista to
appreciate them from a distance. wikipedia.org
Many famous films & movies have been shot here and there are
replicas in several Disney films and in Disney's California Adventure.
3601 Lyon Street
San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) EXP-LORE View Map
Zeum
Zeum is an interactive children's art and technology museum
located at the Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco, California. It
aims to "foster creativity in young people of all ages, backgrounds and
learning styles by providing a hands-on environment for
self-expression".
It is mostly known for its exhibits which allow children to create
their own media using modern technologies.
221 Fourth Street
(@ Howard Street)
San Francisco, CA 94103
415.820.3320 View Map
Yerba Buena Center for the
Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) programs year-round in two
landmark buildings—the Galleries and
Forum by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki and Theater by American
architect James Stewart Polshek.
Located
in Yerba Buena Gardens, features visual art, performance, and
film/video that celebrates local, national, and international artists
and the Bay Area's diverse communities.
wikipedia.org
701 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 978-2787 View Map
The Contemporary Jewish
Museum
Since
its founding in 1984, the Contemporary Jewish Museum has engaged
audiences of all ages and backgrounds through dynamic exhibitions and
programs that explore contemporary perspectives on Jewish culture,
history, art, and ideas.
Throughout its history, the Museum has distinguished itself as a
welcoming place where visitors can connect with one another through
dialogue and shared experiences with the arts. www.thecjm.org
736 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 655-7800 View Map
Asian Art Museum
The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco has one of the most
comprehensive collections of Asian art in the world. The collection has
approximately 17,000 works of art and artifacts from all major Asian
countries and traditions, some of which are as much as 6,000 years old.
There are 2,500 works on display in the permanent collection. Major
galleries are devoted to the arts of India, China, western Asia
(including Persia), South-East Asia, Korea and Japan.
200 Larkin St.
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.581.3500 View Map
Cable Car Museum
The Cable Car Museum contains historical and explanatory exhibits on
the San Francisco cable car system,which can itself be regarded as a
working museum.
The museum contains several examples of old cable cars, together with
smaller exhibits and a shop.
Perhaps of more interest are two overlook galleries which allow the
visitor to overlook both the main power house, and also to descend
below the junction of Washington and Mason streets in order to view the
large cavern where the haulage cables are routed out to the street.
1201 Mason Street
San Francisco, CA 94108 View Map
The Haas - Lilienthal House
As
featured on A&E's America's Castles' "Castles by the Bay," this
exuberant Queen Anne-style Victorian was built in 1886.
It is the only intact private home of the period that is open regularly
as a museum, complete with authentic furniture and artifacts.
The House has elaborate wooden gables, a circular corner tower and
luxuriant ornamentation.
A display of photographs in the downstairs supper-room describes the
history of the home and the family that lived here until 1972.
Volunteer docents lead tours through the House and explain the
Victorian architecture of the exterior.
2007 Franklin Street,
(between Washington & Jackson)
San Francisco View Map
The Mexican Museum
The El Museo Mexicano or The Mexican Museum was founded in
1975 by artist Peter Rodríguez. Its mission was "to exhibit the
aesthetic expression of the Mexican and Mexican-American people."
This mission was expanded to reflect Mexican, Chicano, and Latino
artistic experience. Today, the Museum's collection comprises over
12,000 objects.
Fort Mason Center, Building D
Marina Boulevard and Buchanan Street
San Francisco, CA 94123 View Map
Musée Mécanique
The
Musée Mécanique is a collection of penny arcade games and related
artifacts and also contains one of the world's largest privately owned
collections of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique
arcade machines.
Many exhibits are over 100 years old.
Open 365 days a year - Admission is Free
Fisherman's Wharf Pier 45
The end of Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 346-2000 View Map
Cartoon Art Museum
The Cartoon Art Museum (CAM) is an art museum specializing
in the art of comics and cartoons. It is the only museum in the western
United States dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of all forms
of cartoon art.
It holds approximately six thousand pieces—including original animation
cels, comic book pages, and early newspaper comic strips—in its
permanent collection.
Besides its galleries, the museum also operates a research library, a
classroom, and a museum bookstore. It hosts seven major exhibitions per
year, classes for children and adults, and lectures.
The first Tuesday of every calendar month is "Pay What You Wish Day."
Hours: Daily 11:00 - 5:00
Closed Mondays
655 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415)227-8666 View Map
Museum of the African
Diaspora
The Museum of the African Diaspora
(MoAD) is dedicated to the diasporan histories of people of African
origin and their influence and adaptation throughout the world.
Focusing on experience in North America, the Caribbean, and South
America, the museum's exhibits trace the history and legacy of the
slave trade, fights for freedom in the African continent and the New
World, music of African influence or origin, and contemporary
multicultural and multi-ethnic societies.
685 Mission Street
San Francisco, Ca 94105
415.358.7200 View Map
Randall Museum
The
Randall Museum is owned and operated by the City's Recreation and Parks
Department.
It focuses on the arts, crafts, sciences, and natural history. On view
are a number of live native and domestic animals and interactive
displays.
The
Museum is located in Corona Heights Park on a large hill between the
Castro and Haight districts of San Francisco, and boasts stunning views
of the city, downtown financial district and the bay.
The museum charges no admission and offers events, movies, plays,
lectures, exhibits, and classes for ages 3–adult, but is geared mostly
toward children and educational field trips.
The museum also has a theater, classrooms, arts and crafts shops and
studios, a live animal room and gardens overlooking the San Francisco
Bay.
199 Museum Way
San Francisco, CA 94114
(415) 554-9600 View Map