The After-Turkey: Your Guide to Family-Friendly Art Viewing All Over the Bay

You fought traffic on the road and crowds at the airport; you brined, trussed, and/or basted a turkey; and you prevailed! Everybody sat down at the table Thursday and ate themselves into a stupor. But now it’s Friday and they’re awake.

Since you’ve had to organize everything else, let KQED provide a fool-proof guide to getting the multigenerational posse out of your house the day after. Exercise their legs and brains with trips to some of the Bay Area’s best art spots — destinations guaranteed to get them talking about something other than how the mashed potatoes should have been prepared. We’ve got something for every unique snowflake in the clan.

And yes, we checked to make sure the museums will be open.

For Your Gen Alpha Brain-Rotted Younger Cousin

Getting Gen Alpha off their phones is going to be as impossible as getting a Boomer to keep an opinion to themselves. So take them to a place where the phone is part of the experience: KAWS: Family at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The New York City-based artist’s characters have appeared in fine art museums, street art and brand collaborations with the likes of Nike, Dior and Reese’s Puffs. Whether they love the characters or want to hate on a sellout, KAWS will provide your young relatives with ample TikTok content.

Don’t scroll past: Immersive dance installations at the Asian Art Museum’s Rave into the Future: Art in Motion will help everyone release the pent-up energy of holding in political comments during the Thanksgiving meal. And Instagrammists will find excellent backdrops for their cultured poses on SFMOMA’s rooftop sculpture garden, beside the museum’s living wall, and in front of its many, many Ellsworth Kelly paintings.

For the Slightly Stodgy Elder Who Only Reveres ‘High’ Culture

Speaking of those Boomer opinions, keep them positive at the Legion of Honor’s art-so-historical-it’s-beyond-reproach Manet & Morisot show. Impressionism lets everyone opine whether they like paintings up close or from a distance, and the museum’s provided enough historical context to spark conversation on artists and gender in the 19th century — safely removed from today’s politics. Plus, high-quality loans from France will let Francophiles reminisce about past trips to Paris over tea in the museum café or outdoors on the patio.

Et aussi: Another excellent option is the Black Artists in America and the extensive permanent collection at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. Or, take them to visit the WPA murals, topped by an epic city view, at San Francisco’s Coit Tower.

For Your Perpetually Stoned Uncle or the Aunt Who’s a Little Too into Tarot

The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University (free admission!) has mounted Cunning Folk: Witchcraft, Magic, and Occult Knowledge for those who seek the supernatural and magic in the natural world. The early modern European artwork from 1500 to 1750 will give even the hungover plenty of bats and skulls to point at with glee.

More bewitching exhibitions: Catch the last weekend of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive’s Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts, an exhibit with so many colors and geometric designs, it’ll dazzle them into reveries. For the truly adventurous, try the “Institute of Illegal Images,” aka the Blotter Barn where a massive collection of LSD blotter paper lives in a Mission District Victorian. (Note, there are no regular hours at the barn, so ring the bell at your own risk.)

For the One Who’s Too Cool for School (and Everybody Else)

You might be related to this one or maybe someone brought them along. Either way, they’ve already seen everything and weren’t impressed. When you can’t stand hearing “actually, Jackson Pollock was a hack” one more time, take your too-sophisticated houseguest to something truly remarkable: Pao Houa Her: The Imaginative Landscape at the San José Museum of Art. The Hmong artist’s first major survey plays with reality and constructions of home with so many layers that nobody will be able to say it’s tired.

Equally hip: Check out UnBound: Art, Blackness, & the Universe, a mind-bending blend of astrophysics, philosophy, and the possibilities of Blackness at San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora. (Note, MoAD is closed Friday but will be open the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving.)

To Exercise the Small Rambunctious Gremlins

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that small children make cleaning a kitchen harder, even if you love them. Give them room to run while the adults chill with Stanford’s extensive outdoor sculpture collection, spread across its ample campus. A handy app provides a map. The collection includes Rodin, Andy Goldsworthy and a 40-foot-tall Haida totem pole carved by Don Yeomans. Walk off Thursday’s pie while feeding the mind.

Also child-proof: Youngsters can enjoy scouting out murals and snapping pics in the Mission’s Clarion and Balmy Alleys, while taking burrito breaks in between. In the North Bay? Try the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa, which has indoor exhibitions and a large outdoor sculpture garden. The pro tip here is to pack a picnic. You can even bring wine!