Asian Art Museum: Tips for the First-Time Visit

Located across the lush lawn of the Civic Center, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is a museum not to be missed! Its thirty galleries display 2,000 objects from the Museum’s permanent art collection of over 18,000 items. Also, the museum hosts a variety of temporary, traveling exhibitions, special events, and classes throughout the year. If you enjoy learning about Asian culture and art — this place is for you! Tag along on our first-time visit to the Asian Art Museum!

The First Floor

The First floor of the Asian Art Museum is home to special exhibitions, classes, a boutique, and a cafe. We started with the Continuity experience.

Continuity by teamLab

What is this enchanted land? Once you enter the pitch-dark mirrored maze of connected rooms and alcoves, you’ll find yourself becoming a part of this dynamic, immersive experience created by teamLab. teamLab is an international art collective based in Japan, with unique exhibitions around the world. Continuity is exhibited exclusively in the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

Your eyes feast on walls-to-floor digital projections, with colorful fluorescent flowers blooming, butterflies fluttering, and schools of fish passing through space. The immersion is enhanced by the haunting melodies of Mr. Hideaki Takahashi, and a faint floral aroma flowing through the galleries.

With each step you take, it feels like you are slipping into a different world or dimension. Dreaming while awake…

This boundaryless art merges the three-dimensional world and two-dimensional artwork to coexist in one space harmoniously. “At its origin, the world is a complex continuum: nothing can exist independently, and there are no boundaries.”, teamLab.

In comparison to other immersive art experiences we’ve had, we found Continuity by teamLab to be the most interactive. What do we mean by that? The majority of the exhibits react to your presence and movement, and that’s why you’ll see adults and kids brushing their hands across the walls, making images change and adjust right in front of your eyes. 

The cool thing about Continuity that puts it apart – most of the artwork is generated in real-time, and not on a prerecorded loop, so it’s constantly changing, never repeating itself. Thus, no two experiences are the same!

TIP 1: Plan about 45 minutes for this exhibition.

TIP 2: Do not miss a highly emotive installation about the healing process “I was, I am, I will be” by our local Bay Area artist Chanel Miller, author of New York bestseller “Know My Name”. It is located right behind the Continuity exhibition.

We’ll bring you back to the First Floor of the Asian Art Museum a little bit later, but for now, let’s take an elevator up to the 2nd and 3rd floors to explore the wonders of the Museum’s permanent collections.

Upper Floors

Reaching the top floor, our journey into the past begins. Immediately, we are faced with an immense collection of artifacts, life-sized statues, and fascinating items from ancient South Asia, the Persian World and West Asia, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas and the Tibetan Buddhist World, China, Japan. and Korea. There is a lot to absorb here, so take some time to soak it all in.

TIP 3: If short for time on your first visit to the Asian Art Museum, you can follow the Masterpieces Tour path (15 stops) or Collection Highlights (55 stops). Museum offers self-guided audio tours via a free phone app!

TIP 4: You will also find interactive tablets throughout the galleries, with the stories of some of the most unique artifacts, and review informational gallery cards right from your mobile device.

Here are some of our favorite discoveries in the Asian Art Museum:

Eleven-Headed Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara

In one of the glass displays, an eleven-headed bronze statuette from West Tibet caught our attention. And this is how we stumbled upon a touching story of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara! Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings on their way to Buddhahood who decided to stay behind to help others attain the awakening. Avalokiteshvara is the embodiment of compassion.

As the story goes, one day he realized that no matter how many sentient beings he had helped, many more were in need of his assistance. Avalokiteshvara’s compassion was so strong that his head burst into ten pieces. His spiritual father, the Buddha Amitabha came to his rescue. He shaped the Bodhisattva’s head into TEN heads and then added his own head on top for good measure. This way, Avalokiteshvara would have eleven heads to figure out ways to help others!

Look closely at this sculpture, notice his hands, and… make a wish! This rare sculpture of Avalokiteshvara has eight hands, with the central ones clasping a hidden gem that grants all wishes (allegedly)! 😊

Simhavaktra, the Buddhist Deity, a Dakini (Sky-walker)

The fierce lion-faced deity Simhavaktra, with flames for hair, draped in flayed human and tiger skin, caught in the middle of dance will stop you in your tracks. See that sealed compartment in her back? It covers a secret hollow to store precious offerings, like seeds, jewels, or other valuables. Why is she called a sky-walker? By some accounts, Simhavaktra resides in the sky, able to travel through space and time.

Simhavaktra is one of the powerful images to call upon in meditation practices to get rid of anger and hatred because they are just illusions of this world, capturing the heart in meaningless stimuli instead of gaining wisdom.

Kris Daggers

These intimidating-looking knives, or Krisses, most commonly found in Indonesia, played many roles besides being just a weapon. The krisses were symbols of social status, used in ceremonies, and thought to possess supernatural powers — some good, some of questionable nature.

The hilts were often carved to resemble animals or religious deities. In Bali, they were made to resemble demons (almost like gargoyles on a church) and adorned with jewels.

Netsuke

We were giddy with delight to discover a display with almost sixty netsukes, wearable Japanese miniature sculptures.

You see, traditional Japanese clothes did not have pockets. Instead of stuffing necessities in the sleeves of a kimono, people crafted small pouches and wooden boxes and hung them from their sashes by cords.

At first, these cords were fastened by a simple bead to protect the owner’s belongings, and later on, the bead got upgraded into a fancy fashion item, a netsuke! Doesn’t netsuke remind you of a modern keychain or a bag charm? 😊

Many Faces

As you stroll through the Asian Art Museum, staring deep into the eyes of these ancient artifacts, there is a slightly unnerving feeling that they’re staring back at You. Here are just a few we had to go back to for a second look:

Sketch Ocean

While getting your mind blown in the Continuity exhibit at the beginning of the tour on the first floor, you’ll notice some pretty peculiar-looking fish swimming across the walls. No, you’re not hallucinating — they are a part of another TeamLab exhibition, Sketch Ocean.

Held in the Museum’s Shriram Learning Center on the first floor, it is another spectacular interactive marvel by teamLab. Here you can choose from a few different fish designs, color them any way you want (crayons provided), scan your creation, and it comes to life!

The image becomes animated and projected onto the walls in the room, swimming around with all the others, sometimes crossing over to the Continuity exhibition. These are also interactive and react to touch and movement. And with a virtual fish food feeder, you can ‘feed’ them while they scurry around. Just try not to hog all the crayons, other kids want to play too. 😊 This was a lot of fun!

TIP 5: If you draw a Tuna, not only it’ll cross to the Continuity exhibit in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, but it can also transcend to other teamLab’s installations internationally, like Sketch Ocean and Sketch Aquarium: Connected World. Look close — you might notice other tunas, drawn somewhere else in the world, swimming in the Sketch Ocean right in front of you!

Museum Cafe & Gift Boutique

Museum Cafe

There is a lot of ground to cover while visiting the Asian Art Museum, so you’re going to work up an appetite. Nothing to worry about! Museum Cafe, “Sunday at the Museum”, serves a selection of Asian-inspired creations prepared by Chef Deuki Hong. Tasty dishes like Coconut Curry Noodles, Chicken Katsu, and Pork Belly caught our eye on the menu. Hot drinks, like coffee and tea, beer and wine are also served. The Café is open to the public, and Museum admission is not required.

Gift Boutique

Who doesn’t like souvenirs? The Cha May Ching Museum Boutique sells Asian and locally handcrafted gifts, jewelry, art, clothing, and books. The boutique also carries educational toys for kids (and adults), tableware, and stationery.

Proceeds support the Museum’s educational programs, exhibitions, partner artisans, and their respective communities.

Getting There

If you are visiting San Francisco from out-of-town and not staying in the city, driving through the city beneath the San Francisco skyline can be an exciting and adventurous experience, but it does have its challenges. We recommend taking the BART train into town instead. BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) has routes from Antioch in the East Bay, and to San Jose in the South Bay. They all take you into San Francisco, but most importantly, stop at the Civic Center Station just half a block from the Asian Art Museum! It is a great way to get there, and you’re right in the center of the city. 

Driving in the city does have its advantages though! It allows you to visit San Francisco’s many sites and attractions at your own pace and see some of the hidden spots you might miss otherwise. Just be prepared for traffic and parking concerns. Paid parking lots and garages are readily available in the area, but full lots or city events may cause an unexpected change of plans.

TIP 6: While you’re visiting the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, be sure to check out what is around, like Orpheum Theatre, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall, War Memorial Opera House, all within a couple of minutes’ walk!
TIP 7: And, if you love libraries and architecture, have a peek inside San Francisco Public Library, right next door to the Museum. Crowned by a majestic skylight, its five-story sunlit atrium is admirable.

Looking for more Museums in the San Francisco Bay Area and abroad? We got you covered! How about the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, CA, or a museum ship, USS Hornet in Alameda? Love cars? — the Blackhawk Museum Complex in Danville will be right up your alley! Here are just a few of our international favorites: The British Museum in London, Icelandic Punk Museum in Reykjavik, and Atlas Obscura in Edinburgh.

There is so much more to see in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco! We couldn’t fit it all here, but we hope we piqued your interest to explore on your own! Our special thanks to Zac Rose, PhD, Associate Director of Communications, for arranging our first-time visit to the Asian Art Museum!

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