ISO a Patron to Bring Back SFMOMA’s Free First Thursdays

Luck has run out for the budget-conscious arts lover: starting this week, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is pausing its First Thursdays program indefinitely. That four-hour window of free general admission once made for a great after-work activity or a budget date night, but in the absence of sustained outside funding, the museum will now “reassess” the program. SFMOMA hopes to relaunch it at a later date.

The move comes after a year of budget woes and staff layoffs, and during a particularly hard time for the local arts sector, which is seeing galleries, museums and longstanding arts institutions closing.

For residents struggling with an ever-rising cost of living in the Bay Area, free entry is no insignificant thing; currently, SFMOMA’s general admission is $30 a ticket.

It might feel like First Thursdays have been around forever, but the program kicked off only five years ago in 2021, in the wake of the museum’s pandemic closures. Over the years, the monthly event has been supported by a variety of sponsors and individual funders, including, recently, Google. The next First Thursday would have taken place on Feb. 5, 4–8 p.m.

And they weren’t just open hours: First Thursdays were usually marked by special events and programming like December’s “Gift Lab.” That event saw artists and educators hosting drop-in workshops on the museum’s third floor, where visitors could make their own crafty gifts by hand.

Risa Iwasaki Culbertson, an interdisciplinary artist who specializes in fiber arts and illustration, was one of December’s workshop leaders. With funds from SFMOMA, she created custom designs for participants to block print their own postcards.

“People could actually make art inspired by the museum, in the museum,” she says. “It was just so nice to connect and meet new people — and see familiar faces — within such a beautiful institution like that.”

SFMOMA does offer other free entry days, including family days (the next one is scheduled for June 14, 2026) and free community days (dates TBD). And programs like Discover & Go allow San Francisco residents to get free museum tickets with their library cards, while Museums for All offers free entry for EBT and Medi-Cal cardholders. (KQED has put together a handy guide to visiting local museums for free and discounted rates, SFMOMA included.)

Other coordinated art nights, like the Tenderloin’s First Thursday Art Walk (Feb. 5, 6–10 p.m.) and the Castro’s Art Walk (Feb. 6, 5–8 p.m.) are always free. A show of Culbertson’s work opens at MAG Galleries as part of this Friday’s Casto Art Walk.

The desire to gather in-person is there, she says. In her experience leading workshops at the Asian Art Museum, Workshop SF and Make It! On Market, she sees a hunger for arts and community.

“Any event that I’m doing or any program that I am seeing out there, people are showing up,” she says. “[The San Francisco art scene] is very much alive.”