San José Museum of Art

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Art Museum Day

11 AM – 8 PM
FREE ADMISSION

San Jose Museum of Art will again offer FREE ADMISSION on Thursday, May 18, 2017, as part of the Association of Art Museum Directors’ (AAMD) annual Art Museum Day. Last year, San Jose Museum of Art—along with more than 175 other AAMD member museums across North America—participated in Art Museum Day.

The theme of this year’s Art Museum Day is Art Museums Foster Vibrant Communities. AAMD members across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico will be offering programs and initiatives to celebrate the arts and the important role art museums play in their communities. In addition to bringing the best of human creativity to people across North America, museums serve as engines for the creative economy, partners with school systems and civic organizations, and anchors for public spaces and neighborhoods, making their regions better places for everyone who lives and works there. 

Reserve Free Tickets

Related Programming

Fragile Waters: Photographs by Ansel Adams, Ernest H. Brooks II, and Dorothy Kerper Monnelly

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Water is very much on the minds of Californians after six years of drought. Fragile Waters celebrates this precious, essential resource and encourages dialogue about water conservation. One hundred and seventeen black-and-white photographs by three artists whose works span a century create a powerful collective statement. The exhibition will feature thirty-seven works by Adams— including rarely seen historic images from his family’s private collection—along with photographs by Ernest H. Brooks II and Dorothy Kerper Monnelly.

The Darkened Mirror: Global Perspectives on Water

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Our simultaneously abusive and dependent relationship with water has made it an international battleground not only of environmental issues, but also of humanitarian concerns. The Darkened Mirror complements the pristine waterscapes on view in the exhibition Fragile Waters by presenting recent work by international artists who address our conflicted relationship with water today. From their twenty-first-century points of view, they reveal an essential resource that is no longer merely threatened, but actively besieged: it is a troubling reflection of the contemporary moment.

   

Diana Al-Hadid: Liquid City

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Diana Al-Hadid is fascinated by boundaries, where something begins and ends. How do we define a space—be it architectural, sculptural, or experiential? Drawing on a panoply of art-historical and scientific references, she explores the space between two-dimensional mark-making and three-dimensional sculpture, the imagined and the real, interior and exterior, belonging and alienation, the ruin and the yet-to-be-completed.

Beta Space: Victor Cartagena

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As consumers, we are often oblivious to the humans who perform the hard, physical work that brings food to our tables. One champion of this labor force, the United Farm Workers (UFW), has fought for the rights of migrant farm labor since 1962. San Jose was home to the UFW’s founder, the well-known activist Cesar Chavez. In the fifth installment of SJMA’s exhibition series “Beta Space,” artist Victor Cartagena will collaborate with the Salinas chapter of the United Farm Workers Foundation to create new work that will spotlight the lives and stories of the people who help feed populations across the United States.