Like Your Art on Canvas or Skin? There's a Museum for You!

It will be awfully difficult to peruse a roster of the museums in San Francisco and not find one or more that piques your interest. Some, such as the renowned de Young Museum of Art and the Legion of Honor, are a long-established part of the city's tradition; others are as singular as the city itself.

Does a museum devoted to Jewish, Asian, or African art and history appeal to you? How about one specializing in crafts and modern design? If your hometown doesn't have a museum displaying the finest in cartoon art or tattoo art, San Francisco gives you the opportunity to immerse yourself in those genres. And those are just for starters!

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, known to locals as SFMOMA—boasting more than 26,000 works—is a short walk from the Moscone Center. Though approaching its 75th anniversary, the opening of its architecturally stunning new building in 1995 was a major driver behind the transformation of the city's South of Market district. Special exhibits that will be open during the annual meeting include “Austere,” which features photography, architecture, and design works “that gather around a sense of reduced form and sober purposes.” A second show will highlight the works of South African artist William Kentridge whose subjects include apartheid and other aspects of life in his native country. Another exhibit will focus on photographer Robert Frank, a Swiss Jewish immigrant to the United States, and his acclaimed 1958 book The Americans in which he documented what he saw as the nation's uniqueness, both good and bad.

Those seeking to satisfy their art craving with more traditional nourishment can head to the jewel of San Francisco's museums, the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Reopened in 2005 after years of rebuilding, the de Young's extensive collections span the centuries and the continents. Modern-art aficionados may want to visit the de Young early in their annual meeting stay to see an exhibit titled “Warhol Live,” which closes on May 17. The exhibit, according to the museum's Web site, is the“ first comprehensive exploration of Andy Warhol's work as seen through the lens of music.... [It] will provide a visual and aural score to Warhol's extraordinary work and life.” Not only did Warhol illustrate 51 album covers ranging from recordings of “Swan Lake” to those of the Velvet Underground, he also produced music videos, and music was a crucial element of his films.

The Legion of Honor is another San Francisco museum that doubles as an architectural gem—it's a three-quarter-scale replica of a Parisian palace—and enjoys an enviable location on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. The pride of its collections consists of works covering 4,000 years of ancient and European art. During the annual meeting there will an exhibit that brings together for the first time in 109 years the “artistic luxury” shown in the works of designers Peter Carl Fabergé, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and René Lalique. It will include seven of the ornate Easter eggs by Fabergé, art-nouveau vases and lamps by Tiffany, and jewelry and glass, also exemplars of art nouveau design, by Lalique.

The Contemporary Jewish Museum, whose new building designed by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind incorporates a 1907 vintage power station, reflects the museum's mission, which is “to celebrate Jewish culture, history, art, and ideas within the context of 21st-century perspectives.” A museum highlight is its StoryCorps StoryBooth, a year-long oral-history project that began last October. It brings people together “to share their life stories, history, and hopes.” Bay Area residents are encouraged to interview important people in their lives, and some of the interviews are aired on National Public Radio's “Morning Edition.”

Exhibits of note that will be running during the APA annual meeting include“ Jews on Vinyl,” based on the book And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Our Vinyl: The Jewish Past as Told by the Records We Have Loved and Lost, and “Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater, 1919-1949.”

The Asian Art Museum emphasizes that it is more than an art museum—it is “your ticket to Asia.” Its collection of more than 15,000 pieces, of which more than 2,000 are on display at any one time, covers art and objects reaching back 6,000 years from seven Asian regions. Highlights include “South Asian stone sculptures, luminous Chinese jades, vibrant Korean paintings, mystical Tibetan thangkas, serene Cambodian Buddhas, richly decorated Islamic manuscripts, and subtle Japanese ceramics.”

The Museum of the African Diaspora, just a short walk from the Moscone Center, works with other international museums to mount exhibits of art and cultural artifacts and uses them as “catalysts to tell the story of the African diaspora past and present.” With the latest media technology, the museum considers itself “a virtual crossroads for people around the globe.”

What would San Francisco be without its cable cars and, of course, a museum featuring them? The Cable Car Barn, Powerhouse, and Museum, which is one of the few museums that charges no admission in San Francisco, is appropriately located in the Washington/Mason cable car barn and powerhouse on Nob Hill. Antique cable cars are on view, and visitors can see the enormous engines and wheels that pull the cables. Lots of cable-car memorabilia is available in the museum's store.

The Cartoon Art Museum is predicated on the belief that these drawings are more than ephemeral, light-hearted diversions. Themed exhibits focus on topical political cartoons, for example, or cartoons by particular artists or from different regions. The museum's mission is a serious one—to use cartoon art to “communicate cultural diversity in the community and the importance of self expression.”

Among the city's smaller museums are the aforementioned Tattoo Art Museum; the Beat Museum, which provides a window into a counterculture movement of the 1950s including a mockup of a “beat pad” from the city's once-bohemian North Beach area; the Museum of Craft and Folk Art; the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum; and the Wells Fargo History Museum.