The Asian Art Museum houses one of the most comprehensive collections of Asian art and culture in the world. Located in a Beaux Arts-style library building in the city’s cultural epicenter, it displays 18,000 treasures from Asia’s rich past and dynamic present. 200 Larkin St.
The Cartoon Art Museum has moved its well-curated collection into new Fisherman’s Wharf digs. Enjoy ongoing exhibits of A Treasury of Animation, which showcases original production art following the evolution of animation from the 1920s onward. 781 Beach St.
Its tower rising above the trees in Golden Gate Park, the de Young, along with the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is overseen by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. It offers an outdoor sculpture garden, American art and special exhibitions ranging from the protest art of Keith Haring to crafts by ancient Navajo, Haida and Kwakwaka’wakw artisans. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
One of San Francisco’s most beautiful classically inspired buildings, tucked away in the elevated Sea Cliff neighborhood, the Legion of Honor is home to famed pieces of art like a bronze cast of Rodin’s “The Thinker” and masterworks by Monet and Degas. Its galleries highlight more than 4,000 years of photography, sculpture and painting, and its peaceful cafe offers stunning views of the Pacific Ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge. 100 34th Ave.
The Museum of Craft and Design, which makes its home in the design district of Dogpatch, displays the brash and bold side of craftwork—whether that be wool designs that look like landscapes or vintage glassware given new life in the form of installations. 2569 Third St.
MoAD is one of the only museums in the world that focuses exclusively on the art and rich cultural history that developed following the dispersal of Africans throughout the world. The 2014 $1.3 million renovation done by architect titan Gensler gave the museum a much-needed face-lift and expanded its exhibition space, which features everything from hitherto untold slave narratives to the Caribbean tradition of carnival costumes. 685 Mission St.
With triple the gallery size after a 2016 expansion, SFMOMA is now the largest museum of its kind in North America and features artworks from the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection—including titanic sculptures and paintings almost too big to feature anywhere else, like Julie Mehrety’s 1,728-square-foot “Howl eon (I, II).” 151 Third St.
