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San Francisco Museum Exhibits - March 2009
Listings updated annually.
March exhibits at San Francisco museums. Museums outside of the city are listed at the end.
** Note: Museums not listed are either temporarily closed or do not have special exhibitions this month.
The Guide to San Francisco Museums has a more extensive list with full address and location information. The San Francisco Museum Map shows locations of museums within the city.
See the guide to Free Museum Days in San Francisco for monthly freebies.
11. Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD)
© Ingrid Taylar
Location: SoMa/South of Market - (SoMa Information)
Profile of the Museum of the African Diaspora
See also: San Francisco Museum Map and Guide to SF Museums
Decoding Identity: I Do it For My People
To Mar 22, 2009
The works of 20 diverse artists challenge cultural and ethnic prejudices and question issues of religion, sexuality, race, and gender. Ultimately, Decoding Identity heals the dynamic tension between individual and collective identities.
12. Museum of Craft and Folk Art
© Ingrid Taylar
Location: SoMa/South of Market - (SoMa Information)
MOCFA Website
See also: San Francisco Museum Map and Guide to SF Museums
Inside/Outside: Artist Environments
March 6 to May 24, 2009
Examines the artist environment builders who generally transform their homes, yards, or other aspects of their personal surroundings into multifaceted works of art that embody and express the locale—time, era, place—in which each of them live and work.
13. Presidio Officers' Club
Location: Presidio
San Francisco Presidio Information
See the Presidio on a San Francisco Neighborhood Map
Water+Color: California Watercolor Association 40th Annual National Exhibition
Mar 18 to May 24
Features 100 paintings selected from a pool of entries submitted by artists from around the world.
Goldsworthy at the Presidio
To May 3
Preparatory drawings, color photographs by the artist of spires he has created at other sites, and a 10 foot model of the Presidio spire will provide an informative context for this sculpture
See also "Sunset at Spire" and "A Day at the Spire" on March 7 (Presidio calendar page).
14. San Francisco Museum of Craft & Design
Location: Union Square
Museum of Craft + Design Website
See also: San Francisco Museum Map and Guide to SF Museums
San Francisco Graphic Design
To Apr 26, 2009
Exhibition is composed of twelve mini-exhibitions featuring fresh, bigger-than-life designs by each studio. This cross-disciplinary work showcases print, packaging, exhibit, and website design produced in San Francisco.
15. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SF MOMA)
© Ingrid Taylar
Location: SoMa - (SoMa Information)
Profile of SF MOMA
See also: San Francisco Museum Map and Guide to SF Museums
Face of Our Time
To Apr 26, 2009
Presents the work of four artists aligned for their shared interest in making pictures about the current condition of our world.
The 1000 Journals Project
To Apr 5, 2009
Celebrates The 1000 Journals Project, an ongoing collaborative and participatory experiment that follows 1,000 blank journals as they journey around the world.
One on One: Curator Talks
Thursdays, ongoing
Each Thursday evening, one of SFMOMA's curators shares a perspective on a single artwork on view. Talks last 20 minutes and take place in the galleries.
See the SF MOMA's upcoming exhibitions for more events.
16. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
© Ingrid Taylar
Location: SoMa - (SoMa Information)
See also: San Francisco Museum Map and Guide to SF Museums
transPOP: Korea Vietnam Remix
To Mar 15
Cutting-edge contemporary art by critically acclaimed artists from three countries whose works explore representations of modernity and popular culture
Irreverent: Contemporary Nordic Craft Art
To Apr 12
Featuring a new generation of craft artists from Scandinavia. Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish artists challenge the aesthetics and principles of Scandinavian Modernism.
Nick Cave: Meet Me at the Center of the Earth
Mar 28 to Jul 5
Featuring 50 of Cave's "soundsuits"—multi-layered mixed-media, wearable sculptures.
Additional exhibit information at ybca.org
17. Oakland Museum of California (Downtown Oakland)
Location: Downtown Oakland
Oakland Museum Website
L.A. PAINT
To Mar 8, 2009
A selective look at the vast and vibrant Southern California art scene via 11 influential artists.
Future of Sequoias: Sustaining Parklands in the 21st Century
Feb 7 to Aug 23, 2009
Features photographs by Jeff Jones and prose by retired National Park Interpretative Ranger William C. Tweed. Their shared respect and concern for the parks, and their heartfelt tribute is a call for environmental action.
18. Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive
2626 Bancroft Way in Berkeley, CA
See also: Map of Berkeley and Guide to SF/Bay Area Museums
See additional exhibits at the museum website
Bending the Word/MATRIX 226
To Feb 8, 2009
Brings together four artists—Martha Colburn, Patricia Esquivias, Olivia Plender, and Tris Vonna-Michell — whose work mingles fact and fiction, reshaping our views of the world through storytelling.
Taking Refuge: Buddhist Art From the Land of White Clouds
To May 3
A selection of rare and beautiful objects from Tibet, Nepal, and northern India.
Galaxy: A Hundred or So Stars Visible to the Naked Eye
To Aug 30
Creates new constellation of works from the Berkeley Art Museum's eclectic collection, including pieces from Rembrandt, Pollock and Warhol.
19. Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology (Berkeley)
Berkeley - Kroeber Hall on Bancroft Way at College Avenue
See also: Map of Berkeley and Guide to SF/Bay Area Museums
Traje de la Vida: Maya Textiles of Guatemala
From Sep 25, 2008
From the Maker's Hand: Selections from the Permanent Collection
Ongoing
Visitors will see the living and historical cultures of China and Africa in one section.
Native Californian Cultures Gallery
Ongoing
Dedicated exclusively to displays drawn from the Museum's permanent collections from California, the world's largest and most comprehensive devoted to this region.
20. Marin History Museum (Marin/San Rafael)
Location: San Rafael
Marin History Museum Website
Growing the Future: Farming Families of Marin
Feb 13 to Jan 2010
Exhibition will engage visitors in the history of farming in Marin as well as connect them to the contemporary stories of farmers today.
21. Cantor Arts Center (Stanford/Palo Alto)
Location: Stanford Campus - Palo Alto
Profile of the Cantor Arts Center
Timbuktu to Cape Town
To Mar 22, 2009
Celebrates the complexity and variety of African art from across the continent, with an array of the most important African works acquired by the Center over the past 10 years.
Rodin! The Complete Stanford Collection
Opens Feb 18 then Ongoing
The Center's entire collection of works in bronze, plaster, ceramic, stone, and wax by renowned French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) reopens to the public and continues on view indefinitely.
See a photos of nearby Stanford Campus.
22. San Jose Museum of Art
Location: 110 South Market Street in San Jose
Songs of the Earth: Landscapes by Jack Stuppin
To Apr 5
Exhibition of works by Sonoma-based painter Jack Stuppin.
The Prints of Andy Warhol
To May 31
This exhibition, culled from the extensive collection of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, provides an overview of the artist’s career through more than sixty lithographs and screen prints dating from the 1960s through the 1980s.
Culture of Spontaneity: San Francisco Abstract Expressionism from the Permanent Collection
To July 8
Features artists only now being recognized as pioneers of this movement, including Elmer Bischoff, Ernest Briggs, Edward Corbett, and others.
See a photos of nearby Stanford Campus.