Spring into Summer: Five new and Noteworthy exhibits in San Francisco

Fashioning San Francisco at the de Young

Five new exhibits showcase different eras and aspects of life in the City by the Bay.

1) Fashioning San Francisco at the de Young chronicles how style in the Bay Area has evolved over generations and spans a century of high fashion and haute couture. The exhibit presents the work of over 50 fashion designers, from Balmain to Miyake, Valentino to McQueen, with the majority of the over 90 ensembles on view for the first time. On view through Aug. 11, the exhibit also features an interactive augmented reality installation enabling visitors to “try-on” three fashions.

2) San Francisco On Stage explores the city's long and colorful tradition of performing arts, which date to the Gold Rush. The exhibit features historical artifacts from the worlds of dance, music, and theater, including costumes, programs, videos of performances, and other unique memorabilia. Presented by the San Francisco Historical Society in collaboration with San Francisco's Museum of Performance + Design, the exhibit is on view until Aug. 15.

3) The massive Art of Noise exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (from May 4 to

Art of Noise

Aug. 18) covers over 100 years of music's visual aesthetics. It features an immersive floor-to-ceiling installation of 700 works of graphic design including concert posters (mainly drawn from the 1960s and '70s), album covers, music advertising, and fliers for shows, many highlighting Bay Area concerts, and performances. The exhibition also has an interactive seating environment designed by Stockholm-based studio teenage engineering with custom-designed devices for audio playback embedded.

Beyond that are nine tables displaying industrial designs for listening to music dating from the early 1900s to 2023. Cutting-edge listening experiences are featured in two dedicated galleries, including teenage engineering's Choir, a set of sonic sculptures programmed to sing as a choral group, and the immersive “HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 2” audio installation by Devon Turnbull (OJAS). His functional sculpture facilitates super high-fidelity music playback and will be activated through a series of performances with renowned record collectors, musicians, and music labels, drawing heavily on the Bay Area's robust music culture and history. Arborhythm by Yuri Suzuki is also part of the new exhibition. The commissioned project can be experienced on the publicly accessible Floor 2 terrace and on the Floor 7 terrace. Composed of tree-like sculptures of yellow, orange, and green metal tubes, Arborhythm is a seating structure and sonic landscape, remixing sounds of San Francisco's natural and urban surroundings together into an ambient soundtrack.

4) RetroBlakesberg: The Music Never Stopped showcases Bay Area artist Jay Blakesberg's photographs of legendary musicians. It captures San Francisco's music scene, evolution, and widespread impact. The exhibition, on view at the Contemporary Jewish Museum through July 28, includes images of artists like the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell, Soundgarden, and others.

Fort Point National Historic Site

5) A new permanent exhibit at Fort Point National Historic Site provides an immersive experience of the fort's unique history, featuring Civil War era artifacts and weaponry, contemporary and archival images and projections, and interactive elements. The exhibit highlights individuals from all backgrounds who contributed to Fort Point's construction and operation. Built in the 1850s as a coastal defense point by the US Army, Fort Point never fired its guns during wartime.

* Website: https://www.sanfrancisco.travel/