California Official Visitor's Guide 2021 - 62

Museums
With its rich history, diverse cultures,
and arts community, it's no surprise that
California boasts world-class institutions

San Francisco
Museum of
Modern Art

Housed in the State Archives Building, this
multimedia museum illuminates California's
history through video and oral-history kiosks,
along with traditional art and artifact displays.
Signature exhibits focus on different communities-from Native American tribes to the
contributions of Chinese-Americans-while the
California Hall of Fame celebrates innovators
from John Muir to Tony Hawk.

103 CROCKER ART MUSEUM
Sacramento
In 1872, the Crocker family-helmed by a State
Supreme Court Justice-turned part of their
mansion into a gallery. Today it's the oldest art
museum west of the Mississippi. The family collected a lot of 19th-century paintings, but the collections have
since expanded to include
later artists such as Georgia
O'Keefe and photographer
Ansel Adams.

104 THE HAGGIN
Stockton
The stately museum in Victory
Park has a solid
base of ﬁne
art, including

62 | VISITCALIFORNIA.COM

a Renoir and a selection of Albert Bierstadt's
gorgeous paintings of Yosemite Valley. But it
also has a ﬂair for pop culture: Its permanent
collection includes baseball memorabilia and
many works by iconic advertising illustrator J.C.
Leyendecker.

105 SF MUSEUM OF MODERN
ART San Francisco
This huge, airy museum off Union Square offers a breathtaking backdrop for its collection
of modern and contemporary art. Even the
staircases, which narrow at the top, are meant
to subtly challenge your perspective. It boasts
33,000 works and features a who's who list of
artists such as Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol,
and Frida Kahlo. Get close to see (and smell)
the Living Wall on the third-ﬂoor terrace, featuring 19,000 plants, many native to the Bay Area.

106 CALIFORNIA
ACADEMY OF
SCIENCES San
Francisco
The LEED Platinum-certiﬁed museum complex
inside Golden Gate Park
boasts four attractions
in one: a natural history museum, aquarium,
planetarium, and rainforest. Choose from a
range of exhibits, from

the three-eyed chameleon in the rainforest to
the albino alligator in the aquarium. Stargaze
in the Morrison Planetarium, which displays a
digital universe on its 75-foot dome screen.

107 OAKLAND MUSEUM OF
CALIFORNIA Oakland
This East Bay museum has been a trendsetter for its interactive " environments " -like the
hands-on Nature Studio where you can create
habitats by combining natural materials and
sounds. The museum's three California-themed
galleries (History, Natural Sciences, and Art)
feature kiosks that invite you to learn about
Golden State topics such as Spanish colonialism, Mount Shasta, and moviemaking.

108 COMPUTER HISTORY
MUSEUM Mountain View
This museum devoted to the history of high
tech relocated in the 1990s from Boston to-
where else?-the heart of Silicon Valley. With
galleries and multimedia experiences detailing
everything from slide rules to the smartphone,
this is arguably the most signiﬁcant collection
of computing artifacts in the world. Interactive
experiences let you see how different apps
work, or you can try your hand at coding.

109 MUSEUM OF WESTERN FILM
HISTORY Lone Pine
This collection of moviemaking artifacts is set

FROM TOP: JOE FLETCHER/COURTESY SFMOMA, FUTURE PUBLISHING/GETTY IMAGES

102 CALIFORNIA MUSEUM
Sacramento

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California Official Visitor's Guide 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of California Official Visitor's Guide 2021