As the largest city in Silicon Valley, San Jose beautifully blends technology and art. Visitors to San Jose can experience world-class museums covering everything from history and art to science and innovation.
| Museum Name | Focus |
|---|---|
| The Tech Interactive | Technology and science |
| Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum | Ancient Egypt |
| Children’s Discovery Museum | Interactive science and art for kids |
| San Jose Museum of Art | Art spanning 5,000 years |
| History Park | San Jose’s history |
| MACLA | Latinx and Chicanx art and culture |
| San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles | Fiber art |
| Japanese American Museum of San Jose | Japanese American experience |
| The Righteous Rebs | Classic cars and rock n’ roll |
| Triton Museum of Art | Modern California artists |
| Portuguese Historical Museum | Portuguese culture and history |
| Muwekma Ohlone Indian Museum and Cultural Center | Native American Muwekma Ohlone tribe |
Many museums in the city are hands-on and family-friendly, making for a fun and educational day. When looking to soak up some culture and history, add these top museums in San Jose to your itinerary.
The Tech Interactive
Name and Location: The Tech Interactive, San Jose, CA
Collections and Exhibits: With over 200,000 square feet housing hundreds of interactive STEAM exhibits, visitors can explore innovation labs, design workshops, VR experiences and Silicon Valley’s story through dynamic hands-on learning. Some key permanent exhibits cover the process of idea incubation, social robotics, genetics and ethics displays.
What to Expect: Prepare for an engaging, educational foray through creative exhibits allowing kids and adults alike to harness technologies like 3D printers, construct robots, engineer structures to withstand earthquakes, or produce their own stop-motion animation films. Interactive stations bring science concepts to life in entertaining and inspiring ways. Make math and physics come alive through experiential discovery across multiple galleries and activity rooms.
Visitor Information: General admission tickets $25 for adults granting access to many hands-on exhibits and experiences with add-on options like VR, special exhibits or lab builds costing extra. Open Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm. Plan to spend at least 2-3 hours immersing in activities that spark curiosity and innovation appreciation. Family-friendly with a cafe onsite.
With Silicon Valley’s focus on innovation, The Tech Interactive aptly celebrates technology and science. This hands-on museum contains over 475 exhibits displayed in unique galleries like The Tech for Global Good highlighting technological solutions for worldwide issues. Popular permanent exhibits cover topics like genetic engineering, space exploration, robotics and more with interactive displays allowing visitors to experiment and problem solve. Special traveling exhibits also come through the museum focusing on things like animation and sustainability.
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
Name and Location: Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, CA
Collections and Exhibits: This museum houses the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in the western US with over 4000 artifacts spanning mummies, sarcophagi, tomb replicas and ancient relics. Learn about their meanings and purpose through guided audio tours, interactive screens and artifact interpretation revealing secrets and stories of one of history’s most fascinating cultures.
What to Expect: Wander through reconstructed Egyptian tombs to view rare mummies and statues honoring ancient deities when discovering the myths, magic practices and symbols used to aid passage into the after life during dynastic Egypt. Marvel over jewelry, tools and sacred ritual artifacts enjoyed exclusively by wealthy nobles and pharaohs during their rule. An enchanting, intriguing portal into mysterious antiquity awaits.
Visitor Information: Open Wednesday-Sunday 10am-5pm for self-guided exploration. General admission $9 adults. Guided tour options and add-ons like obelisk building workshops available at added cost. Expect to spend 1-2 hours immersed in rare Egyptian antiquities and culture brought to California over 95 years ago through determined Rosicrucian Society efforts.
Travel back to ancient Egypt without leaving California at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum. This globally-renowned museum houses the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in western North America with over 2,000 pieces that span thousands of years. Visitors are transported back in time to learn about ancient Egyptian culture, history, magic and religion by touring replica tombs, mummified animals, stone carvings, jewelry and more. The centerpiece is a thousand-year-old mummy unwrapped in the museum revealing the body and artifacts buried alongside it.
Children’s Discovery Museum
Name and Location: San Jose Children’s Discovery Museum, San Jose, CA
Collections and Exhibits: With dozens of interactive learning stations, kids can roleplay community jobs, make stop-motion animation movies, conduct science experiments, explore multicultural music and dress up in costumes to fuel their imagination. Some unique activity rooms cover bubble experimentation, a model grocery store and race ramps to send foam balls whizzing.
What to Expect: Be prepared for exuberant exploratory play where kids ages 10 and under engage creativity and curiosity through hands-on discovery across science, arts and humanities exhibits. My Sky allows designing constellations while WaterWays brings hydraulic engineering concepts to life. Parental supervision encouraged, be ready to play and learn together!
Visitor Information: Open Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm with $15 admission for ages 1+ granting exhibit access all day. Monthly memberships offer added value for frequent visitors. Plan at least 2 hours to enjoy many creative stations, programming and demonstrations that unveil STEAM principles through joyful engagement suited especially for preschool and early elementary ages.
The Children’s Discovery Museum provides hands-on fun and learning for families and field trips. Two floors full of interactive science exhibits and art activities focused on environmental topics spark kids’ innovation and imagination. Visitors can climb into the driver seat of an eco truck, create projects in the art studio and explore concepts in the outdoor learning environments. Popular permanent exhibits allow kids to play in water, perform science experiments and learn about cultures around the world. Special events and traveling exhibits provide fresh excitement throughout the year.
San Jose Museum of Art
Name and Location: San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Collections and Exhibits: Showcasing creativity across millennia and cultures, rotating exhibits highlight Egyptian sarcophagi, modern sculpture installations, traditional African art and breakthrough digital works by pioneers. Permanent collections center acclaimed post-WWII painting, contemporary California landscape photography and ancient Greek pottery.
What to Expect: Prepare for inspired immersion in human creative innovation spanning ancient eras towards modernity represented across vast gallery halls and dedicated wings housing Egyptian mummy cases, vibrant Andy Warhol pop art lithographs from the 60s and 70s along with traditional Yoruba African tribal masks and contemporary digital media works that provoke, delight and surprise.
Visitor Information: Open 11am-5pm Tuesday-Sunday with $10 admission fee for adults and special exhibits included. Closed major holidays. Onsite cafe and sculpture garden offer added amenities along with the hands-on art studio for visitor participation opportunities. Expect to spend 1-2 hours immersed in creativity.
From classic masters to contemporary cutting-edge, the San Jose Museum of Art displays artwork spanning 5,000 years. The museum focuses heavily on 20th century art with iconic pop art pieces as well as one of the nation’s most comprehensive collections of work by Bay Area artists. Visitors can browse galleries to admire rotating works in various mediums from painting, photography and sculpture to video, installation art, textile arts and glasswork from around the globe. Talks, tours, films and other public events aim to contextualize the artwork.
History Park
Name and Location: History Park, San Jose, CA
Collections and Exhibits: Spread across 16 acres, historic homes, businesses, landmarks and gardens recreate San Jose’s past showcasing how generations lived, worked and developed the city through the agricultural pioneering era into the age of innovation. Featured exhibits cover print shop printing, a working trolley station and restored Victorian mansion hosting artifacts that share Silicon Valley’s story.
What to Expect: Interact with passionate volunteers demonstrating blacksmithing, quilting or washing antique garments using old-fashioned tools. Board a trolley to tour park grounds and preserved buildings reflecting how San Jose families and immigrants lived 100+ years ago into the early 20th century. Enjoy immersive glimpses into the activities, cultural practices and technologies shaping life for past generations.
Visitor Information: Open year-round Friday-Sunday 12pm-5pm for self-guided exploration across identified landmarks. Some special programs, exhibits and hands-on demonstrations offered during operating hours with weekly schedules posted online. Free admission and parking makes this hidden history gem welcoming for all ages to discover San Jose’s origins.
At History Park visitors immerse themselves in how San Jose used to look learn about what shaped this Silicon Valley city. Over a dozen historic buildings were transported and restored to create an open air museum displaying how people lived and worked in San Jose starting in the late 1800s. The print shop, pioneer house and trolley station transport visitors back in time as costumed docents explain what past life was like in the different eras. Many buildings are staged to appear as they would have originally with antique furnishings, equipment and décor.
MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana
Name and Location: MACLA Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana, San Jose, CA
Collections and Exhibits: Contemporary Latin art exhibits that showcase both local and global artists embracing Mexican and Chicano cultural identity across paintings, sculptures and installations from gifted visionaries also displayed through projection spaces, open studios and community programming celebrating heritage. Thought-provoking works confront modern issues and social justice.
What to Expect: Prepare for emotional, introspective engagement with artists devoted to Latino self-expression, cultural endurance and societal equity through varied mediums from vivid iconography of La Virgin de Guadalupe as covert resistance symbolism to turbulent abstract oils interpreting immigration complexities. Immerse yourself in the dynamic ascendant voices MACLA passionately platform.
Visitor Information: Free admission to main gallery spaces showing rotating exhibits across multiple rooms Tuesday-Sunday 12pm-7pm. Some special events, workshops and performances ticketed separately. Expect to spend 1-2 hours thoughtfully taking in socially-conscious works universal in message and meaning that stir to action.
MACLA is an arts center in downtown San Jose promoting Latinx and Chicanx art and culture. The community-based center contains a contemporary art gallery displaying works by U.S. Latinx and Latin American artists in all mediums from painting to sculpture, photography to video installations. Performing arts venues host film screenings, theatrical performances and musical acts celebrating Latinx culture. Events, workshops and educational initiatives provide opportunities for visitors to engage with the art and talents within the local community.
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
Name and Location: San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles
Collections and Exhibits: With over 700 quilts and textiles spanning centuries and cultures, rotating exhibits feature stellar historic and modern works showcasing global craftsmanship across eras from a vibrant Amish wedding quilt to juxtapose a minimalist Gee’s Bend abstraction stitched from repurposed sack cloth representing African-American ingenuity.
What to Expect: Marvel at the intricate handiwork dedicating countless hours seen in floral Baltimore album quilts or scrumptiously cozy Midwestern log cabin designs depicting seasonal to pastoral themes before scaling up towards contemporary fiber sculptures and politically-charged AIDS memorial panels stitched communal mourning the space holds in quiet reverence.
Visitor Information: Open Tuesday-Sunday from 10am-4pm with $10 admission fee for adults and free entry for ages 17 and under. Textile creation demonstrations, special exhibits and workshops offered weekly. Prepare to luxuriate among stunning fiber arts and be moved unlocking the messages crafted into fabrics spanning generations.
With special emphasis placed on contemporary works, the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles showcases intricate fiber art. Displayed pieces highlight innovation in the medium and honor traditional practices as well. Galleries feature quilt collections and rotating exhibits focused around certain techniques, trends or artists. Some visually stunning displays use quilting in surprising ways like exploring mathematical concepts or sculpting the fabric rather than laying it flat. Classes, lectures and special events let visitors dive deeper into quilt and textile arts.
Japanese American Museum of San Jose
Name and Location: Japanese American Museum of San Jose, San Jose, CA
Collections and Exhibits: Poignant exhibits illuminate the Japanese-American experience from immigration challenges to the painful legacy of WWII internment explored through impactful artifacts, recordings and survivor narratives allowing thoughtful understanding of one community’s perseverance maintaining cultural pride against discrimination. Ancestral crafts are also showcased interweaving past and future.
What to Expect: Glimpse immigrant family photos and tags detailing disheartening rules after forced relocation into confinement camps next to contrasting artworks conveying confinement conditions before witnessing human resilience through ancestral craft demonstrations representing cultural longevity like bonsai, ikebana, origami and dollmaking passed lovingly generation-to-generation even when tested.
Visitor Information: Free admission first Sunday monthly otherwise $10 entry for adults, $5 kids 6-17 years old. Open Wednesday-Sunday 12pm-4pm. Allow at least 60-90 minutes to take in key exhibits relaying impactful first-hand accounts of struggles faced revealing strength, spirit and dreams rising beyond unjust incarceration.
Situated in San Jose’s historic Japantown is the Japanese American Museum of San Jose preserving the experiences of Japanese immigrants. Exhibits share the stories of early settlers through WWII internment with over 500 artifacts like family heirlooms, photographs and art created by internees. Rotating exhibits highlight aspects of the Japanese American experience in San Jose like pioneering farmers, WWII veteran heroes or modern cultural celebrations in the community. The neighboring Yu-Ai Kai Japanese American Community Senior Service center further connects the past and future.
The Righteous Rebs
Name and Location: The Righteous Rebs, San Jose, CA
Collections and Exhibits: Showcasing diverse elements of hip hop culture and society, rotating exhibits and programs feature street dance performances, DJ battles, live spoken word poetry, graffiti showcases, panels on social issues and special programs uplifting community youth engagement through creativefreespace workshops led by resident breakdance crews sharing their passion.
What to Expect: Tap feet and bob heads as B-Boy dance circles battle in the cypher to live DJ sets scratching vinyl across the wooden studio floors invoking old school hip hop energy before giving the open mic a try at expression sessions afterwards or just soak in the fearless artistry of local youth evolved reclaiming life futures through the transformative power hip hop culture cultivates for personal growth and leadership.
Visitor Information: Free admission to main community programming and gallery spaces showing rotating exhibits Tuesday-Saturday 12pm-7pm. Some special events, workshops and performances ticketed separately. Expect vibrant shows embracing creative means for community building and social change through authentic hip hop elements.
Car and rock n’ roll fans will enjoy The Righteous Rebs auto museum displaying rare classic cars alongside music memorabilia. The museum contains a dozen cars like vintage hot rods, a 1963 Aston Martin James Bond car and a customized 1959 Cadillac owned by Elvis. Interspersed auto-themed art, old gas pumps, neon signs and jukeboxes play classic tunes transporting visitors back to the 1950s spirit the rebellious Hot Rod era. Special events occur throughout the year like car shows.
Triton Museum of Art
Name and Location: Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA
Collections and Exhibits: With a focus toward 20th century Bay Area artists, permanent collections feature standout paintings by notable local creatives like David Park, Nathan Oliveira and scenes of California landscapes while rotating exhibits highlight emerging talent and regional masterpieces across varied mediums from vivid oils and rich watercolors towards inspiring sculptures plus engaging special programs.
What to Expect: Savor quintessential local vistas immortalized in iconic oils of rolling Monterey cypress groves bending against the gnashing Pacific Ocean then contrast their turbulent beauty frozen in time alongside modern campus scenes from UC Santa Cruz or Berkeley captured through thick impasto brushwork refracting light itself into dazzling renderings waiting intimately to share the regional art spirit Triton stewards.
Visitor Information: Open select days weekly from 12pm-4pm for self-guided exploration across multiple galleries showcasing 20th century Bay Area landscape paintings, California contemporary works and engaging exhibits. Free admission Saturdays otherwise $10 entry. Expect to spend 1-2 hours appreciating familiar environs glorified under exacting artist visions.
Located on the outskirts of San Jose sits the Triton Museum of Art focused on modern California artists. The galleries primarily feature 20th and 21st century pieces by Bay Area artists working in various mediums from traditional paintings to new tech-infused media and installations. Some displays center around themes like abstraction or societal issues. Talks, tours and classes aim to engage the community with artists and art education. Outside, a sculpture garden and nature paths allow visitors to enjoy art within the landscape.
Portuguese Historical Museum
Name and Location: Portuguese Historical Museum, San Jose, CA
Collections and Exhibits: Showcasing the immigrant experience, featured displays follow early settler family photos, cherished keepsakes and artifacts brought when journeying towards opportunity from the Azores and mainland Portugal including recreation of cottages, festive dress, whaling tools and relics of the old country as generations nourished continuity and pride along the way creating community upholding heritage.
What to Expect: Glimpse heritage artifacts like hand-embroidered gowns once worn at harvest festivals celebrated through song, taste sweet bread recipes crafted lovingly from humble ingredients familiar to ancestors who voyaged towards new dreams or try typing names onto reproduction immigration documents from the 1920s – small interactions unveiling big truths about courage, adaptation and identities evolved though time yet forever tied to rich Portuguese roots.
Visitor Information: Free admission first Sunday monthly otherwise $5 entry for adults, $3 kids 6-12 years old. Open Tuesday-Friday 1pm-4pm showcasing a hall of rotating exhibits displaying cherished artifacts, photographs and memories from early settler families preserving community heritage for future generations.
Immerse yourself in Portuguese culture and history in San Jose at the Portuguese Historical Museum. Displays cover early Portuguese immigrants who helped establish San Jose through founding farms and businesses that shaped the city starting in the late 1800s. Exhibits showcase traditional clothing and crafts as well as religious artifacts within recreated home and workplace environments depicting immigrant life through the years. The museum lies in History Park allowing visitors to explore other historic buildings after learning about Portuguese settlers.
Muwekma Ohlone Indian Museum and Cultural Center
Name and Location: Muwekma Ohlone Indian Museum and Cultural Center, San Jose, CA
Collections and Exhibits: Celebrating the living heritage of indigenous tribes that first inhabited the greater Bay Area for thousands of years, exhibit halls feature tribal history displays including dance regalia, handcrafted baskets, tools like obsidian arrowheads along with native plants and fabrics revealing deep spiritual ties and ingenious techniques evolved allowing communities to thrive sustainably thanks to ancestral wisdom passed lovingly through generations today still being preserved.
What to Expect: Marvel at delicate intricacy handwoven into feathered ceremonial dances costumes then lean closer toward etched clam shell jewelry revealing clever craftsmanship honoring cycles of seasons and wildlife that sustained vibrant cultures before their lands and lifeways were disrupted yet never brokenby those drawn West pursuing Manifest Destiny doctrines with callous fervor. Here the Ohlone spirit endures reminding all of poignant perspectivess long overlooked now ready to be received with open eyes, ears and hearts.
Visitor Information: Free site tours available Saturdays with cultural exhibits viewable by appointment for groups, students and researchers. Open hours vary monthly with seasonal ceremonies and events welcoming public learning about thriving heritage. Unique chance to encounter the enduring richness of indigenous communities who flourished around the Santa Clara Valley for over five thousand years prior European contact.
To learn about San Jose’s original inhabitants, head to the Muwekma Ohlone Indian Museum and Cultural Center. While small in size, it overflows with information on the Native American Muwekma Ohlone tribe that thrived in the South Bay for thousands of years before Spanish settlement. Exhibits focus on preserving and sharing details on the Ohlone way of life, traditions, food, arts and more. Some displays cover how the tribe fought for federal recognition and continues keeping their culture alive today.
From science and tech to art and history, San Jose museums cover a wide spectrum of interests with many providing uniquely interactive and hands-on experiences. The city’s cultural institutions offer visitors the opportunity to innovate, experiment, ask questions and gain greater perspective on both the local community and world beyond. When seeking to spark your curiosity and creativity, include some of San Jose’s standout museums in your itinerary.