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Museum Hours
Thu–Mon: 10 AM–5 PM
Tue–Wed: Closed
Location
200 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.581.3500
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Our City

With its historic ties to Asia and long-established Asian American communities, San Francisco is an ideal home city for the Asian Art Museum.

San Francisco’s ports were the entry point for the first wave of Asian immigrants to the United States, who played a key role in building the transcontinental railroad in the late 19th century. The city’s Chinatown is the first in North America and the largest Chinatown outside of Asia. San Francisco’s Japantown is one of only three remaining in the United States, having endured for over a century.

Today, more than one-third of San Francisco’s residents come from diverse Asian and Pacific Islander backgrounds, with people of Chinese descent accounting for one-fifth of the city’s population. In the last 15 years, San Francisco’s Indian American population has more than doubled; currently, Indian Americans and Filipinx Americans each comprise approximately 16% of the Bay Area’s AAPI residents. People of Asian descent constitute the largest ethnic group in the Bay Area counties of Alameda (home to Oakland and Berkeley) and Santa Clara (home to San Jose).

Thanks to San Francisco’s strong connections to Asia and significant AAPI population, the Asian Art Museum is uniquely positioned to preserve and promote the art and culture not only of the 48 countries of the Asian continent, but of the Bay Area’s many Asian diasporic communities. Acclaimed artists of Asian descent who have contributed to San Francisco’s artistic legacy include:

  • Ruth Asawa, Japanese American sculptor (1926–2013)
  • Bernice Bing, Chinese American painter (1936–1998)
  • Loni Ding, Chinese American filmmaker (1931–2010)
  • James Leong, Chinese American artist (1929–2011)
  • Hung Liu, Chinese American painter (1948–2021)
  • Carlos Villa, Filipino American artist (1936–2013)
  • Martin Wong, Chinese American painter (1946–1999)
  • Kaisik Wong, Chinese American fashion designer (1950–1990)

 

Image: Looking [at] the Waterfront of San Francisco City, April 27 or May 3, 1906. by Chiura Obata (American, 1885 – 1975). Watercolor and graphite on paper. Asian Art Museum, Gift from the Estate of Chiura Obata, 2021.42. Photograph © Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. 

 

About Us
Where Asian and Asian American art and cultures inspire and connect us all.
Our History
How the Asian Art Museum became one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of Asian and Asian American art.