SFMOMA’s Final Free Days for 2021

SFMOMA has announced another batch of dates or free access to the museum for Bay Area locals for upcoming Thursday evenings in 2021 along with a series of free events throughout the fall

First Thursdays at SFMOMA: Free Admission for Bay Area Residents

All residents of the nine Bay Area counties are invited to spend an evening at the museum on us! From 4–8 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month, Bay Area residents can enjoy SFMOMA’s galleries filled with lively and inspiring art — for free.

Free Tickets:
Tickets are free and reserving online is highly encouraged. Tickets go online two weeks in advance.

Limit two adult tickets per reservation. Children 18 and younger always get into SFMOMA free. Due to social distancing requirements, some exhibitions have limited capacity and use a virtual waiting list. We suggest checking in early at the exhibition to add your party to the list.

SFMOMA’s Upcoming Free “First Thursday” Dates
Tickets available two weeks in advance

• Thursday, October 7, 2021 – 4–8 p.m. – Visit the Joan Mitchell exhibition and join us for poetry and music on the rooftop terrace.
• Thursday, November 4, 2021 – 4–8 p.m. – Visit the exhibition Tatiana Bilbao Estudio: Architecture From Outside In and hear from Bilbao in conversation with Ron Rael of Rael San Fratello.
• Thursday, December 2, 2021 – 4–8 p.m.

Tickets are limited to residents of qualifying counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma. 

Sold out online? A limited number of additional tickets are available onsite daily. These tickets are first come, first served.

Free SFMOMA Family Day

If you’re not local, or want to attend with your family on a Sunday, the SFMOMA has an upcoming “free family day” which is good for anyone as long as they are accompanied by a child or teen 18 or younger

• Sunday, September 12, 2021, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. – Get Tickets – RSVPs open in early September

Enjoy a day of art and family fun at SFMOMA. Celebrate the fifth anniversary of SFMOMA’s expansion as you explore the museum with self-guided materials for the whole family.

Admission is free for up to four adults accompanying one child or teen (eighteen and younger).

Please note that for “family days” coming with a child is required. If you arrive unaccompanied by someone 18 and younger, you’ll need to purchase tickets.”

Other Free Events for Fall 2021

Thinking Together: The Idea of Pan-Americanism

Thursday, Sep 9, 2021
4–5 p.m. PST
Virtual and free with RSVP
Related Exhibition: Diego Rivera’s Pan American Unity

Part of the public program series New Territory: Beyond the U.S.-Mexico Border 

SFMOMA hosts an online panel conversation reflecting on Diego Rivera’s Pan American Unity mural and his vision of cooperation across borders in the Americas. Moderated by Maria Castro, Assistant Curator of Painting and Sculpture, this talk brings together four speakers — Juana Alicia, Eamon Ore-Giron, Jonathan Cordero and Claire F. Fox — to think together about Rivera’s work, while offering contemporary perspectives on the idea of Pan Americanism and cross-cultural solidarity. For more information and to register visit: sfmoma.org/event/thinking-together-the-idea-of-pan-americanism/.

This public program is the first in the series New Territory: Beyond the U.S.-Mexico Border, which considers the relationship between art, design, and the U.S. and Mexico border.

Afterlude/Prelude: Artists Respond to Nam June Paik

Webcast + onsite performance premiere of Paik’s DO IT YOURSELF
Friday, Sep 17, 2021
3–9 p.m. PST
Related Exhibition: Nam June Paik

Inspired by Nam June Paik’s transnational art practice and experimentations in global satellite broadcast — as well as the present impact of the pandemic on remote communication — Afterlude/Prelude: Artists Respond to Nam June Paik brings together contemporary artists from around the world through webcast. Hosted by artist Julia Scher and SFMOMA Curator of Media Arts Rudolf Frieling, the multiple-hour presentation will feature over twenty artists responding to Paik’s thinking and writing through readings, performances, music, video and more. The event will conclude with a global piano performance of Paik’s DO IT YOURSELF (1961/62) — the world premiere performance of this score — by musicians in Shanghai and on-site at SFMOMA in San Francisco.

Afterlude/Prelude: Artists Respond to Nam June Paik is jointly organized by SFMOMA and the National Gallery Singapore. The performance DO IT YOURSELF is presented in collaboration with Chronus Art Center.

For more information about the webcast, visit https://www.sfmoma.org/event/webcast-of-afterlude-prelude-artists-respond-to-nam-june-paik/

To RSVP for the on-site performance, visit: https://www.sfmoma.org/event/afterlude-prelude-do-it-yourself-performance-premiere/

Artist Talk: Rafael Lozano-Hemmer

Thursday, Sep 30, 2021
6 p.m. PST
Related Exhibition Rafael Lozano Hemmer: Unstable Presence
Part of the public program series New Territory: Beyond the U.S.-Mexico Border 

Working between architecture, technology and performance, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer creates large-scale, participatory installations that he calls “anti-monuments.” Focusing on the political dimensions of his work in public space, Lozano-Hemmer will discuss his works such as Voz Alta (Loud Voice) and Border Tuner / Sintonizador Fronterizo.

For more information, visit: https://www.sfmoma.org/event/artist-talk-rafael-lozano-hemmer/

Compositions: Music and Poetry for Joan Mitchell

Featuring local poets and jazz musicians
Thursday, Oct 7, 2021
5–8 p.m. PST
Floor 5 Jean and James Douglas Family Sculpture Garden
Related Exhibition: Joan Mitchell

SFMOMA presents Compositions: Music and Poetry for Joan Mitchell, an evening featuring local musicians and poets organized in partnership with San Francisco’s Bird & Beckett Books & Records and Oakland’s Round Weather Gallery. Music and poetry played an important role in Mitchell’s life, and she developed collaborative relationships with writers and musicians on both sides of the Atlantic.

Compositions is part of SFMOMA’s First Thursdays, when Bay Area residents can enjoy SFMOMA’s galleries filled with lively and inspiring art — for free — on the first Thursday of every month.

On Edge: Architectural Conditions at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Tatiana Bilbao and Ronald Rael in conversation with Ersela Kripa
Thursday, Nov 4, 2021
6 p.m. PST
Related exhibitions: Tatiana Bilbao Estudio: Architecture from Outside In and Drawing the Line: Rael San Fratello at the U.S.-Mexico Border

Part of the public program series New Territory: Beyond the U.S.-Mexico Border 

Tatiana Bilbao and Ronald Rael — whose works are currently on view in two SFMOMA exhibitions, respectively — will be joined in conversation with architect Ersela Kripa. Together, they will discuss the cultural, psychological, and sociological conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border, and what can be learned from the architectural complexities in contested regions.

For information on future events, visit sfmoma.org/events.

WHERE:
SFMOMA, 151 Third St, San Francisco, CA 94103

MORE:
For more information about Free Days, visit SFMOMA.org/free-days

To learn about current exhibitions, visit SFMOMA.org/exhibitions