🖼️ Art & museums

A purpose-built modern jazz cathedral with steep, intimate sightlines and world-class acoustics.

The first stand-alone museum of queer history in the U.S., with Harvey Milk's personal artifacts.

One of the few US museums devoted entirely to the preservation and exhibition of cartoon art.

A shrine to the Beat Generation with Kerouac's manuscripts, Ginsberg relics, and the car from the film of On the Road.

A blue-chip gallery established in 1970 dealing 20th-century and contemporary masters.

A legendary fine-art etching publisher and printer running monthly gallery exhibitions since 1962.

A world-renowned photography gallery anchoring the historic 49 Geary gallery building.

A pioneering gallery since 1991, the only SF gallery with a dedicated room for video art.

One of the world's largest collections of working coin-operated antique arcade machines, still playable.

A free museum inside the working powerhouse where giant wheels pull the cables for the whole system.

A seven-story powerhouse of modern and contemporary art with one of the largest collections in the US.

A contemporary art museum celebrating Black cultures through the global lens of the African diaspora.

The first stand-alone LGBTQ history museum in the US, in the heart of the Castro.

The country's oldest organization documenting Chinese American history, housed in a landmark Julia Morgan building.

A gallery founded in 1996 spotlighting international contemporary artists and 20th-century masters.

A longstanding contemporary gallery in the 49 Geary building showing established and emerging artists.

Seven floors of modern and contemporary art behind that rippling white facade. Do the living wall and the rooftop sculpture terrace even if you only have an hour.

The densest concentration of murals in the city, decades of Latino political and cultural art down one Mission alley. Quieter than Clarion, deeper.

Far more moving than it sounds: the life of Walt himself, told beautifully in a Presidio barracks. The hand-drawn early animation will get you.

A grand 1922 vaudeville-era theater on Market, now a midsize concert hall. Ornate ceilings, big shows, a little gritty at the doors. Classic SF venue.

An ornate former bordello turned intimate music hall, balconies and gilt and a great sightline from anywhere. One of the best rooms in the country for a show.

The legendary music hall, psychedelic posters and chandeliers, where the SF sound was born. Free apples and a poster on the way out. See anything here.

One block, decades of ever-changing political murals. Slow walk, phone out, the Mission's open-air conscience.

A 1922 movie palace with a Wurlitzer that rises before screenings. Sing-alongs, premieres, and the beating heart of the Castro.

A neo-Gothic cathedral with two labyrinths to walk and occasional yoga under the rose window. Free to enter, quietly moving.

The Beat-era bookstore Ferlinghetti built, still independent, still essential. Climb to the poetry room upstairs and lose an hour.

Hands-on science as play, sprawling along the waterfront. Come on an adults-only After Dark night and rediscover being a curious kid.

Rainforest dome, planetarium, aquarium, and a living roof under one Renzo Piano roof. Thursday NightLife turns it into a 21+ party.

One of the largest collections of Asian art in the West, in a grand old Beaux-Arts library off Civic Center. Quiet, vast, underrated.

A neoclassical museum on the cliffs with a Rodin Thinker out front and the Pacific behind it. Worth the trek for the building alone.

A faux-Roman rotunda and lagoon left over from the 1915 world's fair. Swans, columns, and the most photographed engagement backdrop in the city.

Copper-clad museum in the middle of the park. The art is the draw, but ride up to the observation tower for a free 360 of the city, it's one of SF's best-kept views.