A Visit to SFMOMA

San Francisco is a city with fantastic museums, and yesterday I spent the day at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).  Housed in a striking marble-clad building, SFMOMA's collection encompasses more than 7,000 pieces dated from 1900 to the present including pieces by Henri Matisse, William de Kooning, and Georges Braque as well as Jasper Johns, Frida Kahlo, and Jackson Pollock.  The collection is diverse and thought-provoking.


This year marks the SFMOMA's 75th year, and to celebrate the museum is mounting a variety of exhibits marking the museum's origins and contributions to the city of San Francisco.  As I wandered the five floors, I was particularly taken by The View from Here, an exhibit of photography.  I am a fan of historic photography, and I was thrilled to take in images of Yosemite from the 1800's and panoramas of pre-earthquake San Francisco hung in the same room.  Work by Dorthea Lange, Carrie Mae Weems, and Ansel Adams hung amidst that of their contemporaries forming an exhibit with accessible bite. 

The Gypsy’s Essentials

  • Location: on Third Street between Mission and Howard
  • Price: $15 per person; students and seniors get discounted tickets for $9 with ID; children under 12 are free
  • Who will love it?: photographers, architects and anyone interested in cool-looking buildings filled with modern art;
  • Notes: SFMOMA has great resources for visiting families. Stop by the Koret Visitor Education Center on the 2nd floor for handouts and child-centered activities to enrich a family visit to the museum.  SFMOMA also currently offers two iPhone tours -- apps that offer a guided tour through parts of the museum's collection: the Rooftop Garden iPhone Tour and the Making Sense of Modern Art Mobile Tour. Visit the iPhone app store for more details. 
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street
San Francisco, California 94103
Phone: 415.357.4000
http://www.sfmoma.org
@SFMOMA

Getting there:
The museum has a reasonably-priced parking garage if you are planning to drive.  I parked for nearly four hours for $9 (yes, that's reasonable in San Francisco).  The cheaper, greener alternative, however, is mass transit.  SFMOMA is accessible via bus and BART lines.  Check the museum website for more details.

* Bonus Points if you can find Waldo while visiting SFMOMA! 

Welcome to all of you who are joining me from DeliciousBaby.com's Photo Friday. 


Update
A note of congratulations!  This week the SFMOMA announced that they have raised $250 million so far in their expansion campaign.  When they reach their goal, $480 million, the museum will build a large addition offering more exhibition space and will house the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection.
Read more: SF MOMA Raises $250 million in 6 months

O, Juliet is Published

Congratulations to Robin Maxwell, author of O, Juliet which debuted today in bookstores in the US! I interviewed Maxwell last week about her books and her writing life last week: Eight Questions for Robin Maxwell.


Robin is the author of eight works of historical fiction all of which feature strong heroines in remarkable situations. I first encountered her work when I picked up Signora Da Vinci in a bookstore last fall. Signora Da Vinci is an imagined look at Leonardo da Vinci's life through the eyes of his mother. Maxwell fabricates a fantastical life for the mother of the genius -- a woman who we know almost nothing about in actuality. What results is a fun read!

I received an advance copy of O, Juliet which I read over the Christmas holidays. Again, Maxwell has taken on a familiar story -- this time Romeo and Juliet. But she has made it her own. Set in Florence (not "fair Verona"), Juliet and Romeo are not only "star-crossed lovers" but they are also poetry fans, obsessed with Dante. She presents a full, tantalizing take on a familiar story in clear prose. Poetry fanatics beware: Maxwell's Romeo and Juliet write their own poetry, too, which is stylistically anachronistic. But that's the beauty of historical fiction: the voices of another era can speak in today's cadence and be relevant to another generation.

Links:  
Both O, Juliet and Signora Da Vinci, as well as all of Robin Maxwell's books, are available in The Gypsy's Store. A small portion of your purchase price helps to keep this blog going. 

5 Reasons to Follow a Museum Today

Today is Follow a Museum Day on Twitter!  Not on Twitter? Check out my post about Twitter to get started: I Heart Twitter

There are hundreds of museums on Twitter including huge museums like:
  • @MetMuseum (New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art) 
  • @NMNH (the Smithsonian's National Museum of National History)
  • @MuseodelPrado (the Museo Nacional del Prado in Spain)
  • @V_and_A (the Victoria and Albert Museum in London)  
But there are also tons of smaller, regional museums tweeting including:
Why follow museums on Twitter?  
Well, here are my 5 Reasons to Follow a Museum Today:
  1. Tweeps like @Exploratorium tweet great water cooler trivia and fun images to perk up your day. Check out this one from @NatHistoryWhale: http://bit.ly/4ZHKmO
  2. @Tate and other museums often do giveaways in conjunction with their current exhibitions.  @iheartsam recently gave away copies of my book + tix to their Michelangelo exhibit in a tweet-to-win contest!
  3. Hear about special events, concerts, and speakers. Today @HolocaustMuseum is tweeting about a talk by Professor Susan Suleiman coming up next week.
  4. Stay up-to-date on current exhibits, acquisitions, and museum news.  That's how I heard that @KimbellArt bought a Michelangelo and that the King Tut Exhibit was headed to @deyoungmuseum!
  5. Museums need and deserve your support! These are rough times for even the largest museums.  Love science, technology, art, history, dinosaurs, plants, fashion, music... there's a museum for everyone.  Find and follow one today!
My Recommendations:
I have my own list of favorite museum tweeps: http://twitter.com/AKNickerson/museums  Follow the whole list, and you'll never miss another great tweet!

Additionally, the Follow a Museum Day sponsors have collected a very thorough directory of museums, sorted by country: www.FollowaMuseum.com

Oh, and by the way... I took all of these photos at @artsmia a few months ago!