[Visitors are viewing the artworks. Photo Credit: Yujun Lee]

San Francisco Museum of Modern Arts (SFMOMA) hosted its first Free Family Day of the year on January 14th, 2024.

Free Family Day is a special event hosted by SFMOMA once every few months, allowing families to enjoy the museum together.

Up to four adults accompanied by a visitor under the age 18 are eligible for free admission on Free Family Day.

Under normal circumstances, general admission is free for visitors under 18, but the adult general admission fee is $30 per person.

The Free Family Day experience includes access to all exhibitions from the first floor to the seventh floor, as well as special experiences designed for families.

During each Free Family Day, a selected exhibit is featured in all family activities.

The theme for this Free Family Day was “The Many Threads of Pacita Abad.”

It focused on the exhibit, “Pacita Abad,” the first retrospective of Filipino-American artist Pacita Abad, who embraced quilting and various needlework techniques.

Born in the Philippines in 1946, Abad later immigrated to San Francisco in 1970, where she experienced the progressivism of the Bay Area and began her journey as an artist.

She traveled to 60 different countries, such as Sudan, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Afghanistan, where she learned various indigenous art materials and techniques that she later embraced into her artworks.

In one of the artworks in the exhibit, we could see that she used Sumukwha, Korean ink brush painting, which shows the extent of her experimentation in her art.

Additionally, through visiting different parts of the world, she began paying attention to diverse global social issues, including the Cambodian refugee camp she encountered during the Cambodian-Vietnamese war.

Throughout the exhibit, the visitors could see and experience events Abad witnessed during her travels around the world.

As part of the Free Family Day, SFMOMA organized several family-friendly events related to Pacita Abad.

Activities included a Pacita Abad-themed book raffle, art projects, a SOMA Pilipinas info table, scavenger hunt, and a Pacita Abad-themed storytime with a San Francisco Public Library librarian.

SFMOMA also featured activities unrelated to Pacita Abad, such as a San Francisco Public Library info table, a performance by Kulintang Dialect, and a reading of “Melo the Umang-Boy: an Ivatan Tale.”

In addition to regular exhibitions and Free Family Day activities, visitors had the opportunity to explore a special exhibition.

Admission to the special exhibition required an extra fee, even for groups eligible for Free Family Day admission.

The current special exhibition, “Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Love,” focuses on the vibrant world of luminous colors and reflections.

It is an exhibition by the renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, well-known for her distinctive use of polka dots and unusual colors on pumpkins.

This exhibit is set to close on September 7th.

The next Free Family Day hosted by SFMOMA will take place on June 9th, 2024, which will feature the upcoming exhibit, “Art of Noise.”