SFO Museum announced on May 8 that a new exhibition, “Destination: San Francisco,” will open at the Aviation Museum and Library in the International Terminal of San Francisco International Airport. The exhibition will be available to all airport visitors from May 9, 2026, through January 10, 2027.
The exhibition explores how San Francisco and the Bay Area have been promoted as tourist destinations over the past eighty-five years. Developed in collaboration with local historian John King and the San Francisco History Center at the Public Library, it highlights key moments using images, objects, and ephemera from airline marketing campaigns. The display also features photographic commissions for the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau by photographers Scott Chernis and Craig Buchanan.
Admission to “Destination: San Francisco” is free of charge. SFO Museum operates more than twenty-five sites throughout airport terminals—including fourteen galleries—with rotating exhibitions on art, history, photography, science, and culture. Among these is the permanent collection housed in the Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum.
According to the official website, SFO Museum maintains its primary location at San Francisco International Airport and operates in the cultural and educational sector with a focus on aviation history and public enrichment. The museum seeks to delight, engage, and inspire a global audience by collecting, preserving, interpreting, and sharing commercial aviation history through various programs. It also promotes diversity, equity and inclusion in its exhibitions while acknowledging its location on ancestral Ramaytush Ohlone land.
SFO Museum offers family-oriented activities as well as long-term displays such as airline travel posters within its Aviation Museum and Library spaces according to its official website.
