Lectures

Museum curators, educators, artists, and guest speakers offer a wide variety of perspectives on the Museum’s exhibitions. Guest speakers include well known curators from other museums, artists whose work is being shown in the Museum, musicians, writers, cultural historians, and others who provide a dynamic dialogue about the ideas and issues presented within the exhibitions. The Museum collaborates with cultural institutions within Balboa Park and throughout the regionto inspire a rich conversation between speakers, performers, and the audience. Audience participation and discussion, and opportunities to meet the presentersare important features of these programs.

Guest Lecture Series

The Museum’s Guest Lecture Series brings some of the most interesting national and international minds in the field of art and cultural history to the Museum to present recent research on a variety of topics. This series offers attendees an opportunity to hear from scholars, academicians, and artists. Frequently, lecturers address topics that directly relate to current Museum exhibitions or specific areas of our collections, but the talks can also serve as a way to address parts of the collection that are either not on view or not fully represented in the galleries. For more information, email programs@sdmart.org.

Museum Lecture Series, sponsored by The San Diego Museum of Art Docent Council

The San Diego Museum of Art Docent Council sponsors a monthly series of lectures by outstanding scholars from various aspects of the Art World.  Held at 10:00 a.m. on the third Friday of each month, September through May, in the James S. Copley Auditorium, each lecture connects a topic to the permanent collection of the Museum.  A free After Lecture Tour, led by a Docent, follows each lecture.  Tickets for each lecture  can be purchased at the Museum Front Desk or at the Copley Auditorium box office at 9:30 a.m. prior to the lecture.

Please plan to spend your third Friday mornings at the Docent Lecture Series! For more information, email docentprograms@sdmart.org.

Seldom Seen Lectures

The Seldom Seen program allows Museum curators and educators the opportunity to take rarely seen works out of the vault for one night and share them with the public.  Presented works of art may include new acquisitions, newly researched objects, faux works, recently restored works, and singular works from the Museum’s collection.  Audience members enjoy an in-depth half-hour lecture, have the chance to ask questions and view these objects up close before they are placed back in the Museum’s vault at the conclusion of the program. 

Spanish Language Programs and Lectures

Throughout the year, the Museum collaborates with the Consulate of Mexico in San Diego to present lectures and programs featuring leading Mexican artists and scholars including José Luis Cuevas, Elena Poniatowska, and Guadalupe Rivera Marín. For more information, please email bilingual@sdmart.org.