Free First Thursdays at Berkeley Art Museum | East Bay

The UC Berkeley Art Museum is the visual arts center of the University of California, Berkeley. Through art and film programs, collections, and research resources, the University aspires to be locally connected and globally relevant, engaging audiences from the campus, community, and beyond.

Normally $18, the museum offers free admission to the art galleries and public programs on the first Thursday of every month (PFA Theater programs excluded).

Berkeley Art Museum Gallery Admission

Gallery admission includes access to scheduled tours, lectures, readings, and other programs unless otherwise noted in the program description.

• $18 General admission
• $12 Discounted admission
  • Senior citizens (65+)
  • Visitors with disabilities*
  • College students (non-UC Berkeley)
  • UC Berkeley alumni and retirees
  • All UC faculty and staff (UC Berkeley faculty and staff are always free!)

  $9 Discounted admission

  • Adult groups (Advance reservations required. See Group Visits and Tours)

  $5 Discounted admission

  • Youth ages 14-18

  Free Admission

  • BAMPFA Members
  • UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff
  • Children ages 0–13**
  • SNAP participants via Museums for All
  • Reciprocal programs participants***
  • Hofmann Circle, Leadership Board, Director’s Cabinet, and Curator’s Circle members
  • MATRIX artists and BAMPFA Collection artists
  • Galleries are free for all on the first Thursday of each month

About BAMPFA

One of the nation’s leading university museums, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is a forum for cultural experiences that transform individuals and advance the local, national, and global discourse on art and film. As the premier visual arts venue at the top U.S. public research university, BAMPFA is uniquely dedicated to art and film in equal measure. Its annual program encompasses exhibitions, screenings, and public programs that connect visitors from campus, across the Bay Area, and beyond with the leading artists and filmmakers of our time.

BAMPFA takes a contemporary and critical perspective on its wide-ranging collections. The museum’s holdings of more than 25,000 works of art include particular strengths in 20th- and 21st-century work, including Abstract Expressionist painting, contemporary photography, conceptual art, and African American quilts, along with focused historical collections of 19th-century American folk art and early American painting, Italian Baroque painting, Old Master works on paper, and East Asian paintings. BAMPFA’s collection also includes more than 18,000 films and videos, representing the largest collection of Japanese cinema outside of Japan and impressive holdings of Soviet cinema, West Coast avant-garde film, and seminal video art, as well as hundreds of thousands of articles, reviews, posters, and other ephemera related to the history of film.

Founded as the University Art Museum in 1970 and initially housed in a Brutalist structure designed by Mario Ciampi, BAMPFA relocated in 2016 to a new facility designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in the heart of downtown Berkeley, where it has become an anchor for the city’s flourishing arts district. The museum’s curatorial strategies reflect the rich diversity of the UC Berkeley campus and the greater Bay Area through programming that is interdisciplinary, intergenerational, and international in scope. A locally connected, globally relevant institution, BAMPFA is deeply dedicated to its role as an educational space for UC Berkeley scholars and the general public. It fulfills this mission with three distinguished study centers—the James Cahill Asian Art Study Center, the Film Library and Study Center, and the Florence Helzel Works on Paper Study Center—as well as a range of collaborations with the university’s academic departments and student organizations.

BAMPFA — Current & Upcoming Exhibitions

2026 Exhibitions

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings
January 24 – April 19, 2026
The first retrospective in 25 years of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s work, featuring over 100 artworks and archival materials. Highlights Cha’s inventive, playful, and meditative methods and situates her work alongside influential artists past and present.

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Lee ShinJa: Drawing with Thread
August 6, 2025 – February 1, 2026
The first North American survey of Korean artist Lee ShinJa, spanning five decades. Showcases 40 monumental textile works, woven maquettes, and preparatory sketches, highlighting her innovations in fiber art.

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Art Wall / Stephanie Syjuco: Present Tense (Roll Call)
August 13, 2025 – June 28, 2026
Stephanie Syjuco presents her largest wall installation, exploring radical pedagogy and the politics of education. The exhibition interrogates how photography, archives, and classroom routines shape racialized narratives of being and belonging.

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Object Oriented: Abstraction and Design in the BAMPFA Collection
September 10, 2025 – July 12, 2026
Explores how artists represent, reshape, and reimagine familiar objects, emphasizing the role of design in everyday life.

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Atrium Projects / Sarah Cain: To—you know—you
October 30, 2025 – June 6, 2027
Site-specific installation by Sarah Cain, continuing her intuitive painting practice. The work engages directly with BAMPFA’s atrium space, improvising in real time to create a dynamic, immersive experience.

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MATRIX 289 / Zeinab Saleh: Signs of a Softer World
December 10, 2025 – April 19, 2026
Zeinab Saleh debuts a meditative new body of work for her first U.S. solo museum exhibition. The paintings offer a contemplative space amidst a chaotic world.

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Maren Hassinger: Living Moving Growing
June 6 – November 29, 2026
A major retrospective of Maren Hassinger’s work across sculpture, performance, video, and installation. Explores themes of interconnectedness, ephemerality, and human-nature relationships, emphasizing care, connection, and shared experience.

– Updated 1/8/26