SFO Museum

SFO Museum Aviation museum, custodians of SFAC art, and temporary exhibitions located throughout the terminals at San Francisco International Airport.
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Created in 1980, SFO Museum was the first cultural institution of its kind located in an international airport. An ever-changing schedule of exhibitions on a diverse range of subjects provides an educational and cultural experience for all visitors to the Airport. SFO Museum's mission is to delight, engage, and inspire a global audience with a broad range of programming; to collect, preserve, inte

rpret, and share the history of commercial aviation; and to enrich the public experience at San Francisco International Airport.

Isamu Noguchi is recognized internationally as one of the most significant artists of his generation. Though born in the...
05/26/2026

Isamu Noguchi is recognized internationally as one of the most significant artists of his generation. Though born in the United States, Noguchi attended elementary school in Japan. Like other schoolchildren in Japan, he learned origami and kirigami (the folding and cutting of paper). This influenced this three-dimensional sculpture from two-dimensional materials, from sheet brass in the late 1920s to surplus sheets of architectural marble cladding in the 1940s to stainless steel in the 1960s and 70s, and steel and bronze plate in the 1980s.

See “Figure” by Isamu Noguchi on display, post-security, in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 and online at: https://bit.ly/4eGYDmT

Today would have marked Harvey Milk’s 96th birthday. Milk was the first openly gay politician elected into public office...
05/22/2026

Today would have marked Harvey Milk’s 96th birthday. Milk was the first openly gay politician elected into public office in California. A visionary leader, Milk was sworn in as the Supervisor of the newly created 5th district of San Francisco on January 8, 1978. On April 11, Mayor George Moscone signed the Human Rights Ordinance, which Milk had co-sponsored, banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in employment, housing, and public accommodations in the private sector. On June 15, at the Gay Freedom Day, Milk gave his famous, “My Name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you” speech. On November 27, Milk and Moscone were assassinated by former city supervisor Dan White. Milk’s legacy lives on at SFO in our exhibition “Harvey Milk: Messenger of Hope.”

See “Harvey Milk: Messenger of Hope” and read the full exhibition catalog online at: http://bit.ly/HarveyMilkExhibition

📸:
San Francisco Gay Democratic Club members rejoice on
Harvey Milk’s day of inauguration January 9, 1978
Photograph by David Waggoner (1947–90)
Courtesy of the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, SFPL
R2019.0203.017

Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone at City Hall March 29, 1978
Photograph by Efren Convento Ramirez (1941–2017)
Collection of Efren Ramirez; Courtesy of the GLBT Historical Society
R2019.0202.007

Harvey Milk during the Gay Freedom Day parade June 1978
Courtesy of the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, SFPL
04101B; R2019.0203.020

05/15/2026

South Asian filmmaker Ian Bawa shares an endearing portrait of a father who attempts to give life and marital advice to his bodybuilding son. Shot on Super 8 film, this comedic short is an autobiographical piece that stars the director’s own father.

See “Strong Son” by Ian Bawa in the Video Arts Gallery, located pre-security in the Mayor Edwin M. Lee International Terminal Departures Hall, and open daily from 8:00am to 10:00pm. Learn more about this month’s films at: https://bit.ly/Video-Arts

In a world of constant distraction, undergraduate photography students at California College of the Arts turn to slownes...
05/13/2026

In a world of constant distraction, undergraduate photography students at California College of the Arts turn to slowness as an antidote, expressed through labor-intensive practices and restrained visual language.

For many, slowness takes shape through experimentation with analog and alternative photographic processes. Slowness is also evident in the subject matter chosen or in projects that cannot be quickly completed. The exhibition positions slowness as a set of deliberate choices—about materials, subjects, and the pace at which meaning unfolds.

See “Slow Burn: Undergraduate Photography at California College of the Arts” on display, pre-security, in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 and online at: https://bit.ly/4w6zg45

📸:
Night Moss 2025
Benjamin Young (b. 1999)
gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the artist and California College of the Arts
L2026.1101.015

Tangled in the Bittersweet 2025
Sahalie Carnahan-Ramsey (b. 2005)
reproduction of cyanotype on glass
Courtesy of the artist and California College of the Arts
L2026.1101.032

In July 2025
Sahalie Carnahan-Ramsey (b. 2005)
reproduction of cyanotype on glass
Courtesy of the artist and California College of the Arts
L2026.1101.032

Detanglement 2025
Amylee Rachael (b. 2001)
gelatin silver print
Courtesy of the artist and California College of the Arts
L2026.1101.028

Ala Ebtekar's work is informed by light and illumination. He created Zenith (VII) by first applying a photochemical solu...
05/12/2026

Ala Ebtekar's work is informed by light and illumination. He created Zenith (VII) by first applying a photochemical solution to a raw canvas. The light-sensitive material was then overlaid with multiple negatives from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Image Archive and exposed to sunlight. After the chemicals were washed away and the cyanotype of outer space was revealed, the artist painted stylized cloud forms across the deep blue sky. By superimposing fantastical clouds on top of the photographic image of the cosmos, Ebtekar generates a dialogue between science and art, the finite and the infinite, the real and the imagined.

See “Zenith (VII)” by Ala Ebtekar on display, pre-security, in Harvey Milk Terminal 1 and online at: https://bit.ly/4i8WPCX

The marketing of San Francisco and the Bay Area as a world-famous tourist destination is a project with strong historica...
05/11/2026

The marketing of San Francisco and the Bay Area as a world-famous tourist destination is a project with strong historical links to the airline industry. Destination: San Francisco, developed in collaboration with local historian and former San Francisco Chronicle urban design critic, John King, as well as the San Francisco History Center at the San Francisco Public Library, shares key moments of this history though images, objects, and ephemera going back over 85 years.

See our newest exhibition, “Destination: San Francisco,” on display pre-security, in the Aviation Museum and Library in the International Terminal and online at: https://bit.ly/3QSYNhb

Having introduced the “non-uniform uniform” concept with Braniff Airways with multiple combinations, Emilio Pucci then p...
05/08/2026

Having introduced the “non-uniform uniform” concept with Braniff Airways with multiple combinations, Emilio Pucci then produced his 1968 Classic Collection. This mini dress in plum Trevira blend, with a set-in long sleeve, jewel neckline, and low-waist pleated skirt, also came in pale pink. This open-sided smock-style hostess apron in silver space-age material with buttons at the shoulder, first appeared with the Classic Collection. It is made of a Conn-Hall-Marx vinyl fabric and has a matching rope belt with jewel ends. It was repeated for Pucci’s subsequent Braniff uniforms in iridescent sunset pink, aqua, gold, and metallic blue nylon.

“Fashion In Flight: A History of Airline Uniform Design” was on display, from June 16, 2016 to January 08, 2017 in the International Terminal and the Aviation Museum and Library. See our exhibition catalog online at: https://bit.ly/FashioninFlight

📸:
Braniff International Airways hostess uniform with apron 1968
Emilio Pucci
SFO Museum
Gift of Thomas G. Dragges
L2016.0301.137-.138 a b
2001.016.081 a b-.082

Happy 99th birthday to SFO. in 1927, the City and County of San Francisco held a dedication ceremony for the new Mills...
05/07/2026

Happy 99th birthday to SFO. in 1927, the City and County of San Francisco held a dedication ceremony for the new Mills Field Municipal Airport of San Francisco. San Francisco had the barest necessities for an airport – an airstrip and an unfinished Administration Building – when the dedication took place. The previous March, the City and County of San Francisco signed a lease with the Mills Estate for 150 acres to use as an airport. The terms were for three years at the rate of $1,500 per year for this “temporary and experimental” municipal airport. The original tract of land remains part of SFO today. In 1931, Mills Field Municipal Airport of San Francisco was renamed the San Francisco Airport.

📸:
negative: Mills Field Municipal Airport of San Francisco; 1927
Gift of Gregory Baccari
2021.087.003

https://bit.ly/42ippdZ

Today marks the inaugural service from SFO to Warsaw on LOT Polish Airlines. The flag carrier of Poland, LOT Polish Airl...
05/07/2026

Today marks the inaugural service from SFO to Warsaw on LOT Polish Airlines. The flag carrier of Poland, LOT Polish Airlines, or Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A., is one of the world’s oldest operating airlines. Founded on December 29, 1928 by the Polish government, the airline commenced domestic service three days later. Have you ever flown on LOT Polish Airlines?

📸:
poster: LOT (Polish Airlines); 1970s
Gift of the William Hough Collection
2006.010.457

https://bit.ly/4dugMTK

05/05/2026

Hong Kong illustrator Veda Lee shares a fun animation that follows a young piano prodigy who gets into a musician block just a few weeks before his big competition. While trying to find motivation to play the piano, a mysterious yet charming melody from his neighbor catches his attention.

See “A Neighbor Duet” by Veda Lee in the Video Arts Gallery, located pre-security in the Mayor Edwin M. Lee International Terminal Departures Hall, and open daily from 8:00am to 10:00pm. Learn more about this month’s films at: https://bit.ly/Video-Arts

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94128

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