A view from inside SFMOMA | SFMOMA
After two years of closed doors and lots of construction, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is set to reopen in May 2016 with new additions, new exhibits, and beautiful new architecture. With shiny new furnishings and more space for visitors to explore, SFMOMA is now set to become the largest contemporary art museum in the entire country.
The museum’s new wing will create space for 260 of 600 artworks promised to the museum in a century-long loan from the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection. Three of the newly-created galleries will be named after Thom Weisel, who has donated over 200 works of Southwestern Native American art to SFMOMA. Visitors will also be able to peruse works by Richard Serra, Diane Arbus, Jasper Johns, and an exhibit of Ellsworth Kelly pieces, allegedly enough of them to be described as a “museum within a museum.”
A new feature at the museum will be the Pritzker Center for Photography, housed on the third floor, which will be the largest exhibit dedicated solely to photography. This exhibit will likewise include research facilities and gallery space. Even the new Whitney Museum, whose new space boasts an impressive 200,000 square feet in New York City’s Meatpacking District, is neither as large nor as thorough as SFMOMA’s new wings.
Among the other delights the new additions will offer, there will be exhibits and retrospectives featuring great artists like Beat Generation filmmaker Bruce Conner and promising new shows planned several years in advance. 2017 will see a show that pairs Richard Diebenkorn with Henri Matisse. A new “1980s Forward” gallery will include acquisitions from Dana Schutz and Ai Weiwei.
“This expansion enables us to tap more fully into the energy all around us, in a region known for its special creativity and beauty, while greatly increasing the presentations of a collection that includes remarkable concentrations of artworks that can be found nowhere else,” said Neal Benezra, Director of SFMOMA.
But wait, there’s more good news! SFMOMA has also announced that it has raised enough funds to meet a capital campaign goal of $610 million, tripling its endowment.
When the museum reopens later this year, admission will be free for anyone under 18.