San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Established	1935
Location	151 Third Street San Francisco, California, USA
Director	Neal Benezra
Website	www.sfmoma.org

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art museum in San Francisco, California.

It opened in 1935 under director Grace L. McCann Morley as the San Francisco Museum of Art, the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art. Morley was the director until 1958. George D. Culler was the director from 1958 to 1965.

For its first sixty years, the museum occupied upper floors of the War Memorial Veterans Building in the Civic Center. Under director Henry T. Hopkins (1974–1986) the museum added "Modern" to its title in 1975, and established an international reputation.

In 1995 the museum moved to its current location, 151 Third Street, adjacent to Yerba Buena Gardens in the SOMA district and its showpiece facility designed by Mario Botta. Inviting comparison to the preeminent Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, the museum re-branded itself "SFMOMA".

The museum has in its collection important works by Jackson Pollock, Richard Diebenkorn, Paul Klee, Marcel Duchamp and Ansel Adams, among others. The cinema series Art in Cinema was started at SFMOMA in 1946 by filmmaker Frank Stauffacher. Annually, the museum hosts more than twenty exhibitions and over three hundred educational programs.

In mid-2008 the museum hosted a traveling exhibition of paintings by, and photography of, Frida Kahlo. It was the highest attended exhibition in the museum's 73 year history[1]. The museum has announced an exhibition juxtaposing the works of Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams for mid-2009[2].

In 2008, the museum began construction on a rooftop garden, adding 14,400 square feet (1,340 m²). The outdoor garden, designed to be a gallery, opened in May 2009.

Also in 2008, the museum launched a redesigned website, which includes an innovative "visual browsing tool" for viewing the museum's permanent collection (SFMOMA ArtScope). SFMOMA has also recently added a blog where visitors and staff can discuss the goings on at the museum or art in general. Also in 2008, the museum revised its public photography policy to allow non-flash photography of the permanent collection and certain special exhibitions.

See also

• Template:MuseumsWiki
• 49-Mile Scenic Drive

External links

• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• Interactive map of Museum of Modern Art
• Rooftop Garden information and architect's rendering