A heads-up before you go: the Asian Art Museum says it is closed on Thursday, Oct. 29, for its annual gala. Thursday is normally its late night, so if you were planning an evening visit, pick another day. Here's the rest of what to know about one of the largest collections of Asian art in the world.

Regular hours

  • Thursday: 1–8 p.m.
  • Friday–Monday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
  • Tuesday–Wednesday: closed

The museum is also closed on New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Its store and its restaurant, Asian Box, are open during museum hours and don't require admission. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays Asian Box is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Free and cheaper ways in

General admission is free on the first Sunday of every month, and special exhibitions cost a discounted $10 that day. The museum offers free docent-led tours of the collection and special exhibitions daily, free school tours for pre-K through college, and discounted tickets for groups of 10 or more.

Getting there

The museum is at 200 Larkin St. in Civic Center, one block from the Civic Center/UN Plaza BART station. The museum suggests taking the UN Plaza exit, walking past the Simón Bolívar statue, crossing Hyde onto Fulton and turning right on Larkin. The closest garages are the Civic Center Garage at 355 McAllister St. and the UC Law garage at 376 Larkin St., where members get reduced rates. The Helen Diller Civic Center Playgrounds are right across Larkin, which helps if you're visiting with kids.

What's in the collection

The museum's collection holds more than 20,000 objects, some as much as 6,000 years old. Galleries for South Asia, Iran and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, China, Korea and Japan rotate more than 2,000 objects at a time. The Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion for large contemporary works opened in July 2023, and the East West Bank Art Terrace, the largest rooftop art venue in San Francisco, followed in August 2023.

How it began

The museum grew out of a gift from Chicago millionaire Avery Brundage, a major collector of Asian art. San Francisco voters passed a $2.75 million bond to build a wing for it at the de Young in Golden Gate Park, which opened in 1966. In all, Brundage gave the city more than 7,700 objects. As the collection outgrew the park, the city moved the museum into the former Main Library, a 1917 Beaux-Arts building by George Kelham. Italian architect Gae Aulenti renovated it with a seismic base-isolation system, and it reopened there on March 20, 2003. Silicon Valley entrepreneur Chong-Moon Lee launched the fundraising with a $15 million gift in 1995, and the museum's full name is the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco – Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture.

The museum has also reckoned with its founder. A closer look at Brundage's record found that he held racist, sexist and antisemitic beliefs at odds with the museum's mission. In June 2020, director Jay Xu addressed that history in an open letter, and the museum removed a statue of Brundage that had stood in its lobby for five decades and began re-examining his legacy. Soyoung Lee now leads the museum as its director and CEO.