Look, Learn, Create Tours (grades 3–8; length: 1 hour)
Guide-led Look, Learn, Create Tours of SFMOMA’s collection take place in the Floor 2 galleries and highlight selections from Open Ended: SFMOMA’s Collection, 1900 to Now, KLEE + BSS: Paul Klee and Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, Hung Liu: Witness, and Sitting on Chrome: Mario Ayala, rafa esparza, and Guadalupe Rosales.
Guide-led tours of Pacita Abad will take place in the Floor 4 galleries from November 2, 2023–January 25, 2024.
These interactive tours are conducted by Museum Guides who lead small groups of students through the museum’s galleries. Students are invited to look, discover, question, and explore modern and contemporary art through lively discussions, careful observation, and activities that get them thinking like artists. Tours address Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (ELA), encouraging critical thinking, evidentiary reasoning, and an appreciation for diverse perspectives, while developing content knowledge.
Teen Tours (grades: 9−12; length: 1 hour)
Guide-led Teen Tours of SFMOMA’s collection take place in the Floor 2 galleries and highlight selections from Open Ended: SFMOMA’s Collection, 1900 to Now, KLEE + BSS: Paul Klee and Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, Hung Liu: Witness, and Sitting on Chrome: Mario Ayala, rafa esparza, and Guadalupe Rosales.
Guide-led tours of Sea Change: Photographs from the Collection will take place in the Floor 3 galleries from October 10, 2023–February 16, 2024.
Interactive Teen Tours of SFMOMA’s exhibitions are led by Museum Guides and can be tailored to complement high school curriculum in the arts and humanities. Tours focus on specific exhibitions and are organized
around a theme so that students can focus on an individual artist, time period, artistic practice, or movement.
Self-Guided Visits
SFMOMA encourages teachers who would like to guide students through the museum on their own to reserve a Self-Guided Visit, which includes free admission for students and chaperones.
Please note: due to capacity limitations in Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Love, we are unable to schedule school groups for this exhibition. All tickets for this exhibition, including for students and teachers, can be booked through tickets.sfmoma.org starting September 12, 2023.
See our Teachers Resources section or indicate on your application if you want resources to help prepare for your Self-Guided Visit.
Floor 2 Exhibitions:
Available for self-guided visits at 1 p.m. or later.
Open Ended: Painting and Sculpture, 1900 to Now
(ongoing)
KLEE + BSS: Paul Klee and Barbara Stauffacher Solomon
(Through January 1, 2024)
Sitting on Chrome: Mario Ayala, rafa esparza, and Guadalupe Rosales
(Through February 19, 2024)
Hung Liu: Witness
(Through December 10, 2023)
Floors 1 and 3–7 Exhibitions:
Available for self-guided tours at all times.
Sea Change: Photographs from the Collection
(Through February 18, 2024)
Kinship: Photography and Connection
(Through November 5, 2023)
Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors
(Through Summer 2024)
Corporeal
(Through July 14, 2024)
Diego Rivera – Pan American Unity Mural
(closes Summer 2024)
What Matters: A Proposition in Eight Rooms
(Ongoing)
Approaching American Abstraction
(ongoing)
German Art after 1960
(ongoing)
Bay Area Walls
(ongoing)
Stage and Screen Programs
(grades K–12, length: various)
SFMOMA offers opportunities for school groups to experience a special selection of films, media art works and live performances. Admission to the museum’s galleries, excluding surcharge exhibitions, is included with all Stage & Screen programs.
Las Muralistas: Our Walls, Our Stories
Las Muralistas: Our Walls, Our Stories (2022) is a 25-minute documentary directed by Javier Briones and edited by Claudia Escobar, in partnership with SFMOMA. The film features women muralists whose works cover the walls of San Francisco’s Mission District. The muralism movement that emerged in the 1970s in the Mission District marked the beginning of a tradition of activism, expression, and community building through public art. Hear from artists Juana Alicia, Smokie Arce, Susan Cervantes, Elaine Chu, Priya Handa, Yolanda López, Consuelo Méndez, Irene Pérez, Patricia Rodriguez, and more on their experiences, the impact of femmes in the movement, and the effort to make space for future muralistas.
Screening dates and times
October 13, 2023 2 @ 11:00 a.m.
October 27, 2023 @ 11:00 a.m.
December 5, 2023 @ 11:00 a.m.
December 8, 2023 @ 11:00 a.m.
January 9, 2024 @ 11:00 a.m.
January 26, 2024 @ 11:00 a.m.
To the Stars
Nicole Miller’s To the Stars is an immersive exploration of identity, voice, pain, and possibility. Commissioned by SFMOMA and designed specifically for the museum’s Phyllis Wattis Theater, this work combines video and sound elements with a dynamic laser-light display.
Miller is a conceptual artist known for her inventive uses of video, often incorporating documentary-style methods into evocative mixed-media installations that deal with self-representation and the experience of looking. To create this work, Miller filmed interviews, performance rehearsals, and behind-the-scenes moments with prominent figures of color in the arts and sciences, including choreographer Alonzo King, opera singer J’Nai Bridges, violinist Jessica McJunkins, and NASA astronaut Yvonne Cagle, as well as youth in local schools.
Screening dates and times
October 17, 2023 @ 11:00 a.m.
December 12, 2023 @ 11:00 am
January 23, 2024 @ 11:00 a.m.
Run time for To the Stars is approximately one hour.
Generous support for Nicole Miller’s To the Stars is provided by Marjory Graue and Martin Bloes.
Meaningful support is provided by Wayee Chu and Ethan Beard.
Photo: Opera singer J’Nai Bridges filmed by Nicole Miller for this commission.
Nicole Miller, To the Stars, 2019 (still); commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; image: courtesy the artist.
SFFILM Education at SFMOMA
SFMOMA is pleased to partner with SFFILM Education to host free weekday matinees of curated film programs for K-12 grade students and educators. Classes attending Screenings for Schools at Doc Stories or Schools at the Festival screenings at SFMOMA may also visit the museum galleries at no cost to continue with their arts themed field trip.
SFFILM Education programs introduce students ages 6 to 18 to international film and the art of filmmaking, while promoting media literacy, deepening insights into other cultures, enhancing foreign language aptitude, developing critical thinking skills, and inspiring a lifelong appreciation of cinema.
For more information, please contact education@sffilm.org.
COLORFORMS with SF Ballet and SFMOMA
SFMOMA is pleased to partner with San Francisco Ballet to present free educational screenings of the dance film COLORFORMS. The film exposes students to dance, music, media and visual art forms in a hands-on, interactive, and integrated setting. COLORFORMS was created by choreographer Myles Thatcher and filmed at SFMOMA, Golden Gate Park, Yerba Buena Gardens, and the SF War Memorial Opera House. It features professional dancers from SF Ballet with music composed by Steve Reich and performed by members of the SF Ballet Orchestra.
The 60-minute screening includes an introduction from the choreographer, interactive standards-based dance education activities led by SF Ballet teaching artists, and post-screening Q&A. School groups should also submit a separate SFMOMA Self-Guided School Visit Application to visit the museum galleries on the same day to see the artworks featured in the film, before or after the screening. Recommended for grades 2-12.
COLORFORMS experience screening dates
November 27, 2023
November 28, 2023
December 1, 2023
May 13, 2024
May 14, 2024
May 17, 2024
To make a reservation, please complete this form from the SF Ballet.
Please contact education@sfballet.org for questions about the COLORFORMS screening and other field trip logistics.
Higher Education
SFMOMA provides a variety of tailored experiences for higher education groups, from interactive tours of exhibitions at the museum to object study sessions at our Collections Center.
