Press Kit

The Randall Museum is a San Francisco Recreation and Park Department community learning center and a treasured family museum. Offering fun activities for children, teens, and adults alike, the Randall Museum promotes exploration of art and science in a natural setting right in the heart of the City. Focusing on the cultures and environment of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Museum strives to inspire creativity, curiosity, and appreciation of the world around us.

San Francisco’s free family museum is situated on a 16-acre hill overlooking San Francisco and the Bay and houses changing science, art, and interactive exhibits. Permanent features of the Museum include a live animal exhibit, a woodshop, art and ceramics studios, STEAM lab, natural sciences lab, toddler playroom, and interactive exhibits exploring ocean ecology, earthquakes, and model railroads. The outdoor areas of the Museum showcase a small amphitheater, picnic area, native plant gardens, observation deck, and a wind-driven kinetic façade by local artist Charles Sowers. The Randall Museum Theater is host to a number of performances, movies, plays, and lectures year-round. A hiking trail from the Museum leads to the top of adjacent Corona Heights with 360-degree views of San Francisco and the Bay.

In order to encourage community access, the Randall Museum has no admission fee and activities are either free or presented at low cost. The Museum offers a variety of hands-on classes and workshops in the arts and sciences for families, children, teens and adults. Family festivals and events, such as Bug Day and Holiday Crafts Day, are held throughout the year to celebrate holidays or explore subjects, such as insects, water and astronomy. On Saturdays, museum visitors can participate in drop-in art and science workshops and docent-led live animal presentations.

In addition to the variety of hands-on classes and drop-in programs, the Randall Museum is an important science-education resource for Bay Area teachers, with classes from more than one hundred schools (some 12,000 students) making field trips to the Museum each year. School programs are free and cover a variety of subjects. The Museum also organizes the annual San Francisco Middle School Science Fair.

A number of community groups and clubs meet at the Randall Museum including S.F. Beekeepers Association, S.F. Natural History Group, S.F. Amateur Astronomers, Cine Club, and Young Peoples Teen Musical Theatre Company. Many of these clubs feature special speakers at their meetings &mdash which are open to the public.

The Randall Museum is a facility of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, in operation since 1937. It is located at 199 Museum Way, just up the hill from 14th Street and Castro.