Steps Coffee Community Art Shows
SFMOMA presents a series of rotating art installations at Steps Coffee in collaboration with local community organizations. Located on Floor 2, Steps Coffee is a vibrant gathering place open to all, with no ticket required.
This ongoing program is designed to support organizations actively engaged in Bay Area communities, provide a platform for diverse voices, and cultivate meaningful connections. In most cases, the artworks are accompanied by the artists’ stories, told in their own words.
Big and Vast and Full of Wonders
May 1–October 21, 2025
Big and Vast and Full of Wonders was presented by the students from Independence High School, located in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset neighborhood. For the students, these artworks were artifacts of their process to voice, heal, reimagine, find belonging, and build community.
Fan Art: Bay Area Sports
October 10, 2024–April 15, 2025
In conjunction with the exhibition Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture, SFMOMA put out a call for original fan-made artworks that celebrated the people and culture of Bay Area sports. On Sep 1, 2024, artists and sports fans were invited to bring in artworks for a one-day display in SFMOMA’s Koret Education Center. Artist David Huffman then selected 29 works as finalists to be displayed for this installation in Steps Coffee.
We Exist Too, Periodt
May 16–October 1, 2024
We Exist Too, Periodt, presented by the Black Student Union of Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts (SOTA), shared the stories and experiences of Black students navigating a predominantly white educational and artistic space. Through a variety of mediums, including world dance, theatrical arts, visual arts, and creative writing, this installation explored themes of belonging, self-esteem, and the strength and resilience of the collective, and affirmed the extraordinary creativity of these young Black artists.
Home Away from Home
October 20, 2023–April 2, 2024
Through the work of three Filipina American artists, this installation, presented by Balay Kreative Studios, explored the complex emotions, histories, and relationships that shape both the Filipino diaspora at large and the Filipino American experience in the Bay Area. The artworks on view poignantly reflected the search for identity, belonging, and cultural preservation in a foreign land, while paying homage to the resilient spirit of the Filipino community in creating a “home away from home.”
Pet Portraits
February 15–May 10, 2023
In celebration of the Joan Brown retrospective, SFMOMA partnered with the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) for Pet Portraits Day on February 4, 2023. Fifty Bay Area artists took part, creating over 200 portraits based on pet photos submitted by museum visitors. This installation included a selection of the artworks created on this day as well as SPCA artist-in-residence Nora Aoyagi’s watercolors of adoptable animals Cowboy and Zee.