San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Tickets & Visitor Guide to SFMOMA

⏱ 2-4 hours👤 All ages$$$

SFMOMA opened in 1935 as the first West Coast museum devoted to modern and contemporary art, and a dramatic 2016 expansion — adding a ten-story building behind the original, wrapped in a rippling white facade inspired by the bay's fog and water — transformed it into one of the largest such museums in the country, with seven floors of galleries.

The collection is broad and deep: 20th-century masters of painting and sculpture, a celebrated photography collection (one of the most significant in any American museum), major contemporary art, and architecture and design. The 2016 expansion was anchored by a long-term loan of the extensive Fisher Collection (built by the founders of a major retailer), which brought in a wealth of postwar and contemporary works. Galleries rotate, and the museum mounts ambitious special exhibitions, so what's on view varies — checking the current program is worthwhile.

Architectural and free-to-enjoy touches include a large living wall of plants on the third-floor sculpture terrace and an atrium with monumental works, parts of which can be seen without admission. It's a big museum — plan to focus on a few floors rather than seeing everything — and its SoMa location puts it near Yerba Buena Gardens and within walking distance of Union Square. Weekday mornings are quietest.