Summer Camps & Teen Studios

Virtual Summer Youth Programs

July 19–August 13, 2021

Get ready for a new and exciting summer of art making!

Virtual Summer Youth Art Programs give students the opportunity to learn from artist-educators while enjoying the Museum virtually. Designed for elementary, middle, and high school students, Virtual Summer Camps and Teen Studios include a full week of live art instruction, studio activities, and online tours of the Museum. Join us for a summer of art and fun!

SDMA at Home

Virtual SDMA

Enjoy the Museum from home with Virtual SDMA.

View tours on our SDMA App, see gallery talks and performances on our YouTube channel, and explore even more resources online and through social media. Welcome to the Museum, no matter where you are.

On View

Paintings from the Confinement

Through May 1, 2022

San Diego-based artist Marianela de la Hoz shares 11 intimate egg tempera paintings created in 2020 to 2021 in response to the transformative circumstances imposed by the global pandemic of COVID-19. The collection of works invites reflection on a variety of experiences lived during the pandemic.

On View

A Dogon Figure from Mali: Bridge to the Spirit World

Through January 9, 2022

This single-object exhibition showcases a Dogon carved wooden figure and provides background on the Dogon peoples, who live primarily in the Bandiagara escarpment of Mali, Africa. Visit this new exhibition for a rare opportunity to engage with and reflect upon a single work of art.

On View

The Elephant in the Room: Indian Paintings from the Edwin Binney 3rd Collection

Through July 18, 2021

In Sanskrit poetry, people and elephants live harmoniously in a shared natural world, where elephants enhance the aesthetic pleasure of the landscape by augmenting almost all of the human senses. Inspired by this inherent reverence for the elephant, an appreciation rooted in India’s rich literary traditions and folklore, artists at the courts of Muslim and Hindu rulers produced splendid paintings and studies of elephants, many of which were admired in albums, and others conceived as independent compositions or as designs for transfer to other media.

On View

Juan Sánchez Cotán and Cauleen Smith: Mystical Time and Deceptive Light

Through September 6, 2021

Contemporary artist Cauleen Smith creates a new work of art–a video that premieres at the San Diego Museum of Art that is inspired by one of the most important works in the Museum’s collection, Juan Sánchez Cotán’s Still Life with Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber (ca. 1602).

Coming Soon

Cranach to Canaletto: Masterpieces from the Bemberg Foundation

Opening June 18, 2021

See more than 80 masterpieces produced between 1500 and 1800 from the Bemberg Foundation, based at the historic Hôtel d’Assézat in Toulouse, France. This exhibition marks the first time these works have been shown publicly in the U.S. and features some of the biggest names from the German and French Renaissance.

Coming Soon

Everything You See Could Be a Lie: Photorealistic Drawings by Ana de Alvear

Opening June 18, 2021

Take a closer look at what you see. This selection of works by contemporary Spanish artist Ana de Alvear may first appear as photographs or even paintings of traditional still lifes, but invite a deeper look and investigation. Everything You See Could Be A Lie: Photorealistic Drawings by Ana de Alvear features more than 20 works of art executed in colored pencil, including two extraordinary, large-scale murals. See the hyper-realistic drawings by Ana de Alvear that will have you question what you see.

Virtual SDMA

SDMA 360: A Virtual Gallery Experience

Step inside the Museum from anywhere with our new 360 tour! Enjoy 360-degree scans of your favorite galleries, zoom in to see art details, and read full label text in both English and Spanish, all from the comfort of home.