San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The
city’s stylish home for 20th-century European and American art and
contemporary multimedia works is a sparkling cultural hub in the South
of Market area. Its collections span the whole modern spectrum, from
proto-Impressionists to cutting-edge digital installations . California Academy of Sciences This
newly transformed science museum re-opened in September 2008 with
sustainable features that blend architecture with the park’s natural
surroundings. The museum covers virtually every aspect of the natural
world . Legion of Honor This
museum, located above Land’s End, is one of the city’s major venues for
pre-modern Western art. It is also a beautiful building in a gorgeous
natural setting, so well worth the time it takes to get to. It contains
mostly European works, including masterpieces by Rubens, Rembrandt,
Georges de la Tour, Degas, Rodin, and Monet. Lincoln Park34th Ave & Clement St 415 863 3330 Open 9:30am–5pm Tue–Sun Dis. access Adm
www.thinker.org
The Shades by Auguste Rodin, the Legion of Honor
de Young The
old de Young was too damaged in the 1989 earthquake to be saved, but a
new state-of-the-art facility opened in 2005. The museum’s extensive
collection includes 19th-century and contemporary American art, and
pre-Columbian-American, African, and Oceanic works. 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, Golden Gate Park 415 863 3330 Open 9:30am–5pm Tue–Sun, until 8:45pm Fri; closed major public hols Dis. access Adm
www.thinker.org
de Young
Asian Art Museum The
new Asian Art Museum is set in the entirely restructured and
seismically retrofitted old Main Library in the Civic Center. The vast
and important collection of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Himalayan, and
Southeast Asian works is displayed according to their country of origin.
But the layout also demonstrates the flow and transformation of
Buddhist art from India and outward into the entire Far East. Included
is the fabulous Avery Brundage collection of Oriental jade. San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design Established
in 2004, this one-of-a-kind museum, housed in an elegant building
fronted by a charming courtyard, celebrates and promotes contemporary
craft and design through innovative exhibitions and educational
programs. They organize lots of lectures, special events, and programs
for children. There is also a great museum store with many original
pieces for sale. Cable Car Museum This
brick, warehouse-like structure houses the nuts and bolts machinery
that keeps the entire cable car system operating. Don’t miss a look
downstairs at the giant, spool-like sheaves winding the fat cables round
and round .
Cable Car Museum
Musée Mechanique and Holographic Museum A
quaint, time-warp experience awaits you here. As you approach the lower
level, you’ll be greeted by the loud guffaws of Laughing Sal, the
enormous, buxom figure that is a relic of the old Playland at the Beach.
There are also many other often ingenious mechanical devices that once
crowded the arcade. Don’t miss the recreation in miniature of a Chinese
opium den. In addition, there is a small collection devoted to the art
of holography. Seymour Pioneer Museum This
museum has fascinating historical exhibits of 19th- and 20th-century
California. The upstairs gallery displays furniture, sculpture, and
paintings. Wells Fargo History Museum The
Wells Fargo stagecoaches are the stuff of legends, above all for the
tales of their stalwart drivers and the robbers who held them up.
Visitors can hear how it must have been to sit on little more than a
buckboard for days by listening to the recorded diary of one Francis
Brocklehurst. Other exhibits include Pony Express mail, gold nuggets,
and photos, and Emperor Norton’s currency .
Bronze stagecoach (1984), Wells Fargo History Museum
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