San José Museum of Art

Museum

110 South Market Street, San José, CA 95113
San José

Open Hours:

Special Events:

Saturday, April 25 | 5:30 PM - 12:00 AM

Gala Auction

Art + Cocktails • Dinner + Auction • Music + Dancing

Join us for a sparkling evening and help celebrate the San José Museum of Art (SJMA) as a Museum without borders, essential to creative life throughout the diverse communities of San José and Silicon Valley.

This not-to-be-missed event features an elegant dinner under the stars on the Circle of Palms Plaza, a live auction of cutting-edge contemporary art, and late-night dancing and drinks around the Museum.

Dress code: Formally festive and a touch of sparkle (Coats and warm wraps recommended)
Complimentary valet parking provided

All proceeds from the 2026 Gala + Auction will support the Museum’s acclaimed exhibitions and essential arts-education programs throughout Santa Clara County.

The Gala + Auction is sold out, but you can still join us at the After-Party!

Friday, May 1 | 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

First Friday

Everyone at SJMA’s First Fridays can enjoy an inviting evening with open galleries and entertainment.

Reserve free tickets here.

Saturday, May 2 | 3:30 PM

Sonic Canvas: A Journey Through Sound and Art

Step into “Sonic Canvas: A Journey Through Sound and Art,” a free, unique experience at the San José Museum of Art! This interactive event brings together San José State University faculty, guest artists, and students to perform a dynamic range of music in conversation with the Museum’s permanent collection gallery, Tending and Dreaming: Stories from the Collection.

The program kicks off with a chamber music prelude by SJSU students, followed by an interactive performance of contemporary music and poetry. As the performances unfold, you are invited to engage your creativity by writing and reflecting on the art and sound around you.

Don’t miss this exciting and compelling celebration of creativity, where music, poetry, and visual art come alive, and you are part of the experience!

“Sonic Canvas: A Journey Through Sound and Art” is supported in part by an Artistic Excellence Programming Grant from the College of Humanities and the Arts.

Schedule

3:30pm Chamber Music Student Performance
4:10pm Poetry Reading
4:30pm Guest and Faculty Performance

Reserve free tickets here.

Saturday, May 2 | 11:00 AM - 1:30 PM

Curator-led Tours of The Woven Pixel and Motherboards

Join us for a two-part program starting at the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles (SJMQT) for a curator-led tour of the exhibition The Woven Pixel, which explores the rise of digital weaving. Then join us at the San José Museum of Art (SJMA) for a curator-led tour of Motherboards, which explores the legacies of women's work in technology.

First Stop: The Woven Pixel at SJMQT
Address: 520 S 1st St, San José, CA 95113

The Woven Pixel explores the rise of digital weaving, which emerged in the early 2000s. It brings together a variety of work by artists and designers who experiment with digital looms and jacquard software. It pays tribute to two artists in particular, Bhakti Ziek and Alice Schlein, who wrote The Woven Pixel (2006), which quickly became something of a bible for weavers in art, design, and industry—and referenced still today. Because every intersection of warp and weft represents a pixel, weaving seamlessly merged with the earliest computer technologies. Today, digital weavers are altering the landscape of contemporary art and design using algorithmic painterliness, expressive structures, and flexible parametric forms. Curated by Sarah Mills.

Reserve free tickets here.

Last Stop: Motherboards at SJMA
Address: 110 S Market St, San José, CA 95113

Motherboards explores the foundational contributions of women’s work to the technology industry. Featuring artists from California and beyond, the exhibition maps an extensive network of women’s work in technology, connecting Silicon Valley’s laboratories and garages to vital work performed at looms, desks, kitchens, and assembly lines across the globe. Curated by Juan Omar Rodriguez.

Saturday, May 16 | 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

Art 101 | Woven Circuits with Ahree Lee

Learn about electronic textiles, or eTextiles, by crafting a woven circuit using traditional weaving techniques applied to conductive thread and LEDs. Facilitated by exhibiting artist Ahree Lee, the workshop includes an overview of the field of eTextiles, circuitry basics, and weaving on a frame loom. No prior experience with either weaving or electronics is required, and all materials will be provided.

Purchase tickets here.

Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot | April 10 - October 18, 2026

Working with land-based materials, Christine Howard Sandoval excavates the knowledge systems and histories that lie dormant in archives, architecture, and the land itself. "Move the Plot" debuts Howard Sandoval’s newest body of work, a study of the layered histories present in Bay Area and Central Valley wetlands. With adobe forms, dyes made from local medicinal plants, and modular steel structures, it puts archival traces of Indigenous resistance and knowledge in tension with the modern engineering technologies that continue to transform California’s marshes.

Christine Howard Sandoval, "Move the Plot" brings the artist’s practice home to San José, where she grew up.

Motherboards | April 10, 2026 - January 10, 2027

“Motherboards” explores the foundational contributions of women’s work to the technology industry. From the first human computers and programmers, to the women working at electronics factories in Silicon Valley and beyond, to today’s global network of ghost workers, women have been deeply involved with the technologies that undergird our daily lives. Yet their contributions are often left out of official histories of technology.

Featuring artists from California and beyond, the exhibition maps an extensive network of women’s work in technology, connecting Silicon Valley’s laboratories and garages to vital work performed at looms, desks, kitchens, and assembly lines across the globe. Motherboards features installations, videos, textiles, and more by Sarah Buckius, Tania Candiani, Priyageetha Dia, Rhonda Holberton, Charlotte Johannesson, Ahree Lee, Amor Muñoz, Hương Ngô, Mimi Ọnụọha (with Charlene Eigen-Vasquez), Sonya Rapoport, Cara Romero, Sarah Rosalena, Analia Saban, Marilou Schultz, the Superkilogirls (Camila Galaz, Ana Meisel, and Lua Vollaard), and Mika Tajima, as well as archival objects from the Computer History Museum.

Image:

Cara Romero, “Gikendaaso,” 2022, archival fine art photograph, 40 x 55”. Courtesy of the artist.

Christine Howard Sandoval, “Phonological Sketch II,” 2024, adobe on blind embossed paper mounted to panel, 23 3/4 x 17 3/4 x 5”. Image courtesy parrasch heijnen, Los Angeles. © Christine Howard Sandoval. Photo by Ed Mumford.

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