In the latest stroke of a dizzying drumbeat of cultural closings across the Bay Area in response to the threat of the coronavirus, the Asian Art Museum, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco — comprising the de Young Museum and the Legion of Honor — and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art have jointly announced temporary closure, effective at 5 p.m. Friday, March 13.

They join the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the Oakland Museum of California, which closed Thursday, March 12, as well as large museums in New York and elsewhere, as art institutions that have closed off their exhibitions in response to the spreading virus.

In an exclusive interview with The Chronicle on Thursday, March 12, Fine Arts Museums Director Thomas P. Campbell said that the leaders of the four largest San Francisco museums, including the Asian Museum’s director, Jay Xu, and SFMOMA’s Neal Benezra, had together been monitoring the situation “in close cooperation with the mayor’s office.”

“We were still hoping to stay open for general admission,” Campbell said, even as large group events and programs were curtailed. “It just became clear that for the safety of our visitors and our employees that we had to make this decision. We had a telephone meeting today, and we all agreed.”

Campbell said he came to the decision “with a heavy heart.” This was to be the last weekend for “Soul of a Nation” the de Young Museum’s well-received survey of contemporary African American art.

“We’ve had blockbuster numbers, but COVID-19 is such a dangerous disease that we knew we could take no chances.”

Campbell said the exhibition “Frida Kahlo: Appearances Can Be Deceiving” would not open at the de Young on March 19 as planned, though he hoped it would not be long delayed. “It looks beautiful. All the loans arrived, and it’s been installed.”

However, a show of works to be borrowed from Italy, “Last Supper in Pompeii,” will be postponed due to that country’s policies in dealing with the virus.

The Museum of the African Diaspora, also in San Francisco, is currently closed for installation of new exhibitions and is not scheduled to open until March 25, said James G. Leventhal, deputy director of the museum.

Contacted late Thursday, representatives of the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento and the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive said that public programs were currently being curtailed, but exhibition galleries are open. Crocker spokeswoman Karen Christian said, “The leadership is meeting daily on this, and our education on the issues is by the hour.”

San Jose Museum of Art director Susan Sayre Batton said the discussion at her museum has been ongoing. “There is a board committee meeting tomorrow to discuss these matters,” she told The Chronicle. “We will have an announcement tomorrow (Friday, March 13).”

In San Francisco, the Asian Art Museum and SFMOMA tentatively plan to reopen to the public on Saturday, March 28, and the FAMSF museums plan to reopen on Tuesday, March 31. The museums will individually evaluate whether the closure time frame needs to be extended.

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