San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art

San Francisco : San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a major modern art museum and San Francisco landmark.

It opened in 1935 under founding director Dr. Grace Morley (Grace L. McCann Morley, Director from 1935–1958) as the San Francisco Museum of Art, the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art. 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 a major transformation and expansion, in 1995 the museum moved to its current location, 151 Third Street, adjacent to Yerba Buena Gardens in the SOMA district and its iconic architectural showpiece facility designed by Mario Botta. Inviting comparison to the preeminent MOMA in New York City, the museum re-branded itself "SFMOMA".

In 2008, the museum began construction on a Rooftop Garden, adding 14,400 square feet. The outdoor garden is designed to be a gallery without a ceiling and is expected to open in Spring of 2009. Annually, the museum hosts more than twenty exhibitions and over three hundred educational programs.

The museum has in its collection important works by Jackson Pollock, Richard Diebenkorn, Paul Klee, Marcel Duchamp and Ansel Adams, among others. The famous cinema series Art in Cinema was started at SFMOMA in 1946 by filmmaker Frank Stauffacher.

Recently, the museum has undergone changes in their web presence, adding a blog where visitors and staff can discuss the goings on at the museum or art in general. Also available on-line is a digital library so that the permanent collection can be accessed and seen from anywhere in the world.

The St. Regis Museum Tower, W Hotel San Francisco and the PacBell Building rise right next to the museum.

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