What are the opening hours?

Wednesday 11am - 7pm Thursday 11am - 7pm Friday 11am - 7pm Saturday 11am - 7pm Sunday 11am - 7pm

Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, 2155 Center Street, Berkeley, CA (2026)

06/03/2026

Summer films start this week at BAMPFA. 🎬

The season begins tomorrow with “French Noir: From the Shadows into the Light," a summer-long dive into the French films that helped define the language of noir. The series opens with Jean-Pierre Melville’s BOB LE FLAMBEUR on June 4, followed this weekend by Louis Malle’s ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS and Jean-Luc Godard’s BREATHLESS. Also this week: Sergei Loznitsa’s TWO PROSECUTORS screens on June 5, introduced by UC Berkeley professor Polina Barskova. 🕶️

Browse the lineup and get tickets at bampfa.org/film or the link in bio. 🍿

06/02/2026

BAMPFA is hiring!

We're looking for a Curatorial Fellow, Chinese Cinema to help shape our film program through public screenings, special events, publications, and partnerships across the field of Chinese cinema.

➡️ bampfa.org/careers or link in bio to apply.

06/01/2026

This Thursday is Free First Thursday at BAMPFA. ✨

Gallery admission is free all day on June 4, making it a perfect time to revisit your favorites, explore something new, or bring a friend along for an art-filled afternoon. You can also spend time in the Fisher Family Art Lab, which is open from 11 AM to 7 PM for drop-in art making. 🎨

Plan your visit at bampfa.org or the link in bio. 🖼️

05/31/2026

Summer at BAMPFA is here! ✨

This season brings a packed lineup of art, film, and public programs, from our flagship summer exhibition “Maren Hassinger: Living Moving Growing” to a film season that includes French Film Noir, Monica Vitti, Stanley Kubrick, and much more. Whether you’re here for shadowy crime films, restored Italian classics, q***r cinema, contemporary art, or a quiet afternoon in the galleries, there’s plenty to look forward to. 🎬🎨

Start planning your summer of art and film at bampfa.org or the link in bio. 🖼️

Art by Itzli OCIEL on view in "Countermyths: The Fifty-Sixth Annual UC Berkeley MFA Exhibition" through July 26.

05/30/2026

Opening June 11, “Summer with Monica Vitti” celebrates one of cinema’s most magnetic performers, highlighting Vitti’s iconic collaborations with Michelangelo Antonioni and other influential directors. Thanks to the recent restorations by Cinecittà and with the support of Istituto Italiano Cultura SF this is a special chance to experience Vitti’s wit, mystery, and unmatched screen presence on the big screen.

Thu / Jun 11 @ 7 PM — L’AVVENTURA by Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, France, 1960
Sat / Jun 13 @ 7 PM — LA NOTTE by Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, France, 1961
Thu / Jun 18 @ 7 PM — L’ECLISSE by Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, France, 1962
Sun / Jun 21 @ 6:30 PM — RED DESERT by Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, France, 1964
Wed / Jul 1 @ 7 PM — I MARRIED YOU FOR FUN by Luciano Salce, Italy, 1967
Sun / Jul 5 @ 7 PM — THE GIRL WITH A PISTOL by Mario Monicelli, Italy, United Kingdom, 1968
Thu / Jul 16 @ 7 PM — HELP ME, MY LOVE by Alberto Sordi, Italy, 1969
Wed / Jul 22 @ 7 PM — TERESA THE THIEF by Carlo Di Palma, Italy, 1973
Sat / Jul 25 @ 6:30 PM — I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT I KNOW by Alberto Sordi, Italy, 1982
Thu / Jul 30 @ 7 PM — L’AVVENTURA by Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, France, 1960
Sun / Aug 2 @ 7 PM — LA NOTTE by Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, France, 1961
Sat / Aug 8 @ 7 PM — L’ECLISSE by Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, France, 1962
Thu / Aug 13 @ 7 PM — RED DESERT by Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, France, 1964

Browse the series and start planning your summer at bampfa.org/monicavitti or the link in bio. 🍿

05/29/2026

Opening next weekend at BAMPFA: “Maren Hassinger: Living Moving Growing”. ✨

On view starting June 6, this groundbreaking retrospective brings together sculpture, performance, video, and installation by a luminous artist whose work has long explored movement, collaboration, nature, and the fragile relationships that connect us all. The opening weekend continues on Sunday, June 7, with Free Community Day, featuring free gallery admission all day long, drop-in art making, and a curator’s tour of the exhibition. 🌿

Also on view is the large-scale installation “Monument (Pyramid)” (2022/2026) at the UC Botanical Garden through the run of the exhibition. The outdoor sculpture was remade using redwood sticks directly from the UC Botanical Garden by a group of BAMPFA staff and UC Botanical Garden volunteers.

Learn more at bampfa.org/hassinger or the link in bio. 🎟️

Images 📸
1. Maren Hassinger in her studio with works from her series On Dangerous Ground (1981). Courtesy of Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC. Photo: Adam Avila
2. Maren Hassinger leading a newspaper twisting workshop Sign of the Times, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, 2023. Courtesy of Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC.
3. Maren Hassinger, Tree Duet, 1977. Courtesy of Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC. Photo: Adam Avila

05/27/2026

Coming up: TWO PROSECUTORS at BAMPFA. 🎬

Sergei Loznitsa’s latest film is a chilling thriller set during the Stalinist purges of 1937, following an idealistic state lawyer who tries to expose a miscarriage of justice—only to find the full force of the state turning toward him. Our screening on June 5 at 7 PM will be introduced by Polina Barskova, Associate Professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. Additional screening on June 28 at 4 PM!✨

Get tickets and learn more at the link in bio. 🎟️

05/26/2026

Coming this summer: “Some Particular Heaven: Ideas of Utopia in the BAMPFA Collection”. ✨

Opening August 5, this year-long exhibition invites visitors to think about utopia not as an escape from the world, but as an ongoing project shaped by spiritual, social, environmental, and political possibility. Drawing from BAMPFA’s collection across centuries and cultures, the exhibition considers how artists have imagined better realities, rethought inherited ideas of progress, and claimed spaces of liberation. Curated by Tausif Noor, Curatorial Associate, and Elaine Yau, Associate Curator and Academic Liaison.🌍

Learn more about the exhibition at the link in bio. 🖼️

Images 📸
1. Unidentified artist (Japan), Nehan-Zue: The Parinirvana (Entry of Buddha into Nirvana), 14th century. Hanging scroll: Ink and color on silk; 45 1/8 x 37 3/8 in. (image). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. C.D. Carter, 1972.17.
2. Francisco Goya, Por qué? (Why?), from Los desastres de la guerra (The Disasters of War), 1819-1823. Etching, reinforced with aquatint; 6 x 8 in. (plate). Gift of Mrs. Louise Mendelsohn, 1970.103.32.
3. Mark Rothko, Number 207 (Red over Dark Blue on Dark Gray), 1961. Oil on canvas; 92 3/4 x 81 1/8 in. Museum purchase, 1965.33.
4. Gordon Ashby, Drawing for Be a Transformer, 1970. Ink on vellum; 28 1/2 x 27 in. Gift of the artist, 2015.18.4.
5. AMBOS, Con Nuestros Manos Construimos Deidades (With Our Hands We Build Deities), 2023. Woven rope and fabric, embroidery, ceramics; 48 x 48 x 120 in. Contributing artists: Karla Aguiñiga, Tanya Aguiñiga, Natalie M. Godinez, Annie Alarcon, Juan Villavicencio, Sergio Soberanes, Katie Mejia, AMBOS Ceramics students at Jardin de las Mariposas (TJ, MX) and Casa Arcoiris (TJ, MX); Public workshop participants in Los Angeles, San Diego and Tijuana. Courtesy of AMBOS and The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Photo: Joshua White.

05/25/2026

Coming this summer, Art Wall / Marcel Pardo Ariza: “Las Frutas del Labor”.

Curated by Margot Norton, Chief Curator, the next installment of BAMPFA’s annual Art Wall series features Oakland-based artist Marcel Pardo Ariza, who presents a site-specific installation that pays homage to art handlers and the essential, often-overlooked labor that makes museum exhibitions and collection care possible. The commission draws on Ariza’s large-scale photographic collage practice, as well as their work as cofounder of Arthandlxrs, an organization and publication supporting marginalized communities within the art handling profession. 🧰🔧

“Las Frutas del Labor” opens August 6. Learn more at the link in bio.

05/24/2026

Now on view: Teaching Gallery / “The Politics of the Poster”. ✨

This new Teaching Gallery presentation looks at the poster as a powerful site of artistic expression and a tool for motivating people toward collective action. Curated by BAM PFA - Student Committee in conjunction with BAMPFA's curators, the exhibition is part of BAMPFA’s rotating Teaching Gallery series, which connects UC Berkeley faculty teaching and student learning with artworks from the museum’s collection. 🖼️

See “The Politics of the Poster” at BAMPFA through August 23. Learn more at the link in bio. 📣

05/23/2026

Coming up June 6: Maren Hassinger Tributes and "Wrenching News" Workshop. ✨

For the opening of “Maren Hassinger: Living Moving Growing”, BAMPFA will welcome central figures in Hassinger’s life and career to offer tributes to the artist and her extraordinary legacy. Speakers include Linda Goode Bryant, Ava Hassinger, Kellie Jones, Leslie King-Hammond, Senga Nengudi, and Lowery Stokes Sims. After the remarks, Maren herself will lead the audience in a newspaper twisting workshop entitled "Wrenching News". 🗞️

Tickets are required for this special opening weekend program. Details are at bampfa.org/hassinger or at the link in bio. 🎟️

05/22/2026

Just announced: Frameline50 at BAMPFA! 🎬

This June, BAMPFA celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of Frameline, the Bay Area’s incredible LGBTQ+ film festival. Bringing you four films from the festival lineup, there is a vibrant mix of q***r stories, artist portraits, restorations, and in-person guests to the Barbro Osher Theater. The festival at BAMPFA opens June 19 with Allan Deberton in person for GUGU’S WORLD, then continues with Cheri Gaulke in person for ACTING LIKE WOMEN, Jenni Olson introducing the restored Yugoslavian period drama VIRGINA, and Sasha Waters’s documentary MARY OLIVER: SAVED BY THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD. ✨

Browse the lineup and start planning your festival week at the link in bio. 🌈

05/20/2026

This Summer at BAMPFA: "French Noir: From the Shadows into the Light". 🕶️

Opening June 4 and running through August 28, this summer series dives into the French films that helped define, transform, and complicate the noir tradition, with films by Jean-Pierre Melville, Louis Malle, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Renoir, Jules Dassin, François Truffaut, and more. 🎬

Thu / Jun 4 @ 7 PM — BOB LE FLAMBEUR by Jean-Pierre Melville, France, 1956
Sat / Jun 6 @ 6:30 PM — ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS by Louis Malle, France, 1958
Sun / Jun 7 @ 5 PM — BREATHLESS by Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1960
Wed / Jun 10 @ 7 PM — THE RULES OF THE GAME by Jean Renoir, France, 1939
Sat / Jun 13 @ 4:30 PM — LE DOULOS by Jean-Pierre Melville, France, Italy, 1962
Wed / Jun 17 @ 7 PM — LE SAMOURAÏ by Jean-Pierre Melville, France, 1967
Sat / Jun 20 @ 7 PM — LE CERCLE ROUGE by Jean-Pierre Melville, France, 1970
Sat / Jun 27 @ 4 PM — RIFIFI by Jules Dassin, France, 1955
Fri / Jul 3 @ 7 PM — LE JOUR SE LÈVE by Marcel Carné, France, 1939
Sun / Jul 12 @ 3 PM — Book Launch with David Thomson + PIERROT LE FOU by Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1965
Wed / Jul 15 @ 7 PM — PORT OF SHADOWS by Marcel Carné, France, 1938
Sat / Jul 18 @ 6:30 PM — SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER by François Truffaut, France, 1960
Fri / Jul 24 @ 7 PM — MISSISSIPPI MERMAID by François Truffaut, France, 1969
Sun / Jul 26 @ 7 PM — LE CORBEAU by Henri-Georges Clouzot, France, 1943
Wed / Jul 29 @ 7 PM — PANIQUE by Julien Duvivier, France, 1946
Sun / Aug 2 @ 4:30 PM — THE CLOCKMAKER OF ST. PAUL by Bertrand Tavernier, France, 1974
Thu / Aug 6 @ 7 PM — LE TROU by Jacques Becker, France, 1960
Sun / Aug 9 @ 7 PM — THE SEVENTH JUROR by Georges Lautner, France, 1962
Wed / Aug 19 @ 7 PM — BOB LE FLAMBEUR by Jean-Pierre Melville, France, 1956
Thu / Aug 27 @ 7 PM — PURPLE NOON by René Clément, France, 1960
Fri / Aug 28 @ 7 PM — ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS by Louis Malle, France, 1958

Expect shadowy streets, cool gangsters, fatal choices, smoky atmospheres, and some of the sharpest style in cinema history. Browse the series and start planning at bampfa.org/frenchnoir or the link in bio. ✨

05/17/2026

We are delighted to receive a $250,00 grant from Getty through the Black Visual Art Archives initiative. This multi-year program increases access to archival collections across the country that hold important historical records related to works created by Black artists.

Grants provide archivists with wider capacity to organize, catalogue, and digitize materials, as well as activate archives through creative projects like exhibitions, programming, and more.

05/16/2026

Coming up Friday, May 22: Black Life: Bloom as Miracle. ✨

This improvisational performance brings together two performance artists whose identities remain unknown to each other—and to the audience—until the day of the event. What unfolds is a live encounter shaped by movement, tension, healing, persistence, and collective blossoming. 🌱

Organized by Black Life Guest Curator Gabriele Christian, Bloom as Miracle is the third installment in the yearlong series AS LONG AS THERE ARE CATASTROPHES, THERE WILL BE MIRACLES.

Included with admission. Details are at the link in bio. 🎟️

05/15/2026

This Sunday at 11 AM: Highly Descriptive Vision Access Guided Tour of “Rhapsody: Works from the Cooper Rosenwasser Collection”. ✨

BAMPFA Education staff offers a highly descriptive tour of several artworks in the exhibition for blind and low-vision visitors with rich verbal description and close attention to the artworks on view. Together, we’ll explore abstraction, design, representations of the body, materiality, process, and the influence of second-wave feminism throughout Rhapsody. 🖼️

The tour is included with admission and runs from 11 AM to 12:30 PM. Details are at the link in bio. 🎟️

05/14/2026

Ahead of this Saturday’s screening of OUR HI**ER, read this Screen Slate preview of Hans-Jürgen Syberberg’s monumental 1977 film. 🎬

Screening at BAMPFA on May 16 at 1:30 PM, OUR HI**ER is a sprawling, formally audacious work that uses stylized tableaux, projection, performance, and dense historical reference to confront the mythologies of modern Germany. ✨

Join us for the screening this Saturday. Tickets and details are at bampfa.org/event/our-hitler or the link in bio. 🎟️

05/13/2026

This Friday at 6 PM: MFA Artists’ Talk at BAMPFA. 🎤

Hear from the 2026 graduates of UC Berkeley’s MFA program as they discuss their work with exhibition curators Omar Farah and Tausif Noor. BAMPFA’s Fifty-Sixth Annual UC Berkeley MFA Exhibition features work by graduating artists Zuhoor Al Sayegh, Eleni Maria Berg, Itzli OCIEL, Kristiana Chan 薧礼醑, Swaleha Masude, and Héctor Muñoz-Guzmán. It’s a chance to hear directly from these artists about the ideas, materials, and questions behind the work now on view. ✨

Tickets are required, and gallery admission is included with ticket purchase. Details are at the link in bio. 🎟️

05/12/2026

Planning a visit to BAMPFA this month? ✨

A quick reminder that our seasonal hours begin this week. From Wednesday, May 13 through Sunday, May 24, the BAMPFA galleries and store will close early at 5 PM.

Please check our Hours & Admission page before your visit. Link in bio. 🕐

05/11/2026

Opening tomorrow: Fifty-Sixth Annual UC Berkeley MFA Exhibition. ✨

For more than fifty years, BAMPFA and the UC Berkeley Department of Art Practice have partnered to present work by graduating MFA students. This year’s exhibition features work by Zuhoor Al Sayegh, Eleni Maria Berg, Itzli OCIEL, Kristiana Chan 薧礼醑, Swaleha Masude, and Héctor Muñoz-Guzmán. 🖼️

The exhibition opens May 13 and runs through July 26. Come see the culmination of two years of rigorous research, experimentation, and making at BAMPFA. Link in bio.

05/09/2026

Tomorrow at 4:30 PM: ROBERT WILSON AND THE CIVIL WARS at BAMPFA. 🎬

Howard Brookner’s documentary follows avant-garde American director Robert Wilson as he pursues one of the great unrealized productions of the twentieth century: a twelve-hour historical opera planned in six parts, rehearsed across multiple countries, and intended for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Featuring appearances by Philip Glass and David Byrne, the film captures an artistic vision of almost impossible scale. ✨

See this new digital restoration on the big screen Sunday afternoon. Tickets and details are at the link in bio. 🎟️

05/08/2026

Art. Film. Food. Community. Support for the mission we love. ❤️

BAMPFA's 2026 Art & Film Benefit was pure magic, honoring the incomparable Alice Waters and Stephanie Syjuco, with a menu by Alice Waters herself, and a late-night dance floor that no one wanted to leave.

A special thanks to our incredible wine sponsors, Beaune Imports, Chez Panisse, and Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant!

This is what it looks like when a community shows up for art and film. Thank you.

🔗 Link in bio to learn more.

05/07/2026

This Saturday is Second Saturdays for Families at BAMPFA! 🎨

Join us Saturday, May 9, for a full day of family-friendly programs in the galleries, Art Lab, and Reading Room. Start the day with Gallery+Studio / Architectural Designs from 11:30 AM to 1 PM, where local artist Jill McLennan leads young artists in exploring blueprint plans and bas-relief models. Then stop by the Fisher Family Art Lab from 1 to 7 PM, or join Roundtable Reading / “Lalani of the Distant Sea” by Erin Entrada Kelly from 2:30 to 3:30 PM. ✨

Admission is free for kids 13 and under, and for one accompanying adult per child. Plan your family visit at bampfa.org/family-programs, the link in bio. 🖍️

05/06/2026

Tomorrow is Free First Thursday at BAMPFA! ✨

Gallery admission is free all day on Thursday, May 7. Drop in to check out “Rhapsody: Works from the Cooper Rosenwasser Collection,” “Object Oriented: Abstraction and Design in the BAMPFA Collection,” “Stephanie Syjuco: Present Tense (Roll Call)”, “Sarah Cain: To—you know—you”, and the newly opened “Collection Focus / Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS”. If you’re feeling inspired, the Art Lab is open all day! 🖼️

Plan your visit at bampfa.org or the link in bio. 🎨

05/05/2026

Opening May 6 at BAMPFA: “Collection Focus / Meriem Bennani: Life on the CAPS,” curated by Omar Jason Farah, Curatorial Assistant. ✨

This new exhibition marks the California debut of Meriem Bennani’s acclaimed “Life on the CAPS” trilogy, a vivid, genre-bending video installation that blends animation and live action to imagine a dystopian future shaped by migration, technology, borders, and diasporic life. Guided by Fiona, a crocodile and resident of the CAPS, Bennani’s fictional island world is playful, strange, funny, and poses sharp questions about humanity’s future. 🐊

On view May 6–August 23, the exhibition brings together the complete trilogy in one presentation at BAMPFA. Learn more and plan your visit at bampfa.org/bennani or the link in bio. 🎥

François Ghebaly

Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive