BAMPFA: Berkeley's Art Museum and Film Archive, From a Brutalist Spiral to a Former Printing Plant

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, known as BAMPFA, is UC Berkeley's combined art museum, repertory movie theater and film archive. Since January 2016 it has been at 2155 Center St. in downtown Berkeley, across from the university's main entrance.

The art museum

UC's art collection began in 1870 with Flight into Egypt, a 16th-century panel painting from the School of Joachim Patinir. The museum itself was founded in 1963, after painter and teacher Hans Hofmann gave 45 paintings and $250,000. Founding director Peter Selz, formerly of New York's Museum of Modern Art, championed unorthodox Bay Area artists. The MATRIX Program for Contemporary Art dates to 1978. In 2019 the museum received the Eli Leon Collection, almost 3,000 works by African American quilt makers, including more than 500 by Rosie Lee Tompkins. It now makes up about 15% of the collection.

The film archive

Sheldon Renan founded the Pacific Film Archive in 1967. It holds 18,000 films and videos, including the largest collection of Japanese films outside Japan, and runs screenings with lectures and visiting filmmakers.

Two buildings

The museum's first home was a 1970 Brutalist building by Mario Ciampi, with galleries fanning down a spiral. It was deemed seismically unsafe in 1997. A planned Toyo Ito building downtown was cancelled in 2009. Instead, Diller Scofidio + Renfro turned the 1939 Art Deco UC Press printing plant into the new museum: a $100 million project with 25,000 square feet of galleries, a 232-seat theater, a store and a learning center. The old Ciampi building has reopened as a biotech incubator.

Hours and admission

BAMPFA lists gallery and store hours of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday. Film times are on its calendar. General gallery admission is $18, with $12 discounts for seniors 65 and older, visitors with disabilities, non-UC Berkeley college students and others. UC Berkeley faculty and staff are always free. The museum warns of shortened holiday hours: it closes early at 5 p.m. on Nov. 25 and Nov. 27–29, is closed Thanksgiving Day, and is closed from Dec. 23 through Jan. 3.