Museum Quest
Once or twice per quarter, EFBA offers an original, play-based program of cultural discovery in French in various museums and cultural sites.
The annual program covers 5 different destinations. These museums or cultural sites are located all over the Bay Area and present various subjects mixing history, geography, nature, science, art and other human social or technological creations. Each destination offers its own journey of discovery, with various treasures and secrets.
A booklet with games guides the children through the different galleries and exhibits. Each team, chaperoned by an adult, will make careful observations to solve the final riddle of the scavenger hunt through the Art Gallery…
Museum Visit: The Matisse Painting That Paved the Way for Modern Art
About the Event
As part of our Museum Quest program, EFBA invites children ages 5 to 15 to join a French-language museum visit exploring how one surprising painting by Henri Matisse sparked a new way of seeing art and helped shape modern art.
On Saturday, May 23, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., participants will step into one of the most electrifying moments in art history: the scandal that gave birth to Fauvism, the art movement that paved the way for modern art, what would later be known as the School of Paris.
Learning Objectives
This activity blends cultural discovery and language practice in a relaxed, friendly setting. Through this visit, children will:
- Discover Henri Matisse (1869–1954) as a painter and colorist who believed that color, freed from the obligation to imitate reality, could express pure emotion
- Explore Fauvism, the first avant-garde movement of the 20th century, by encountering works by Matisse’s fellow fauves, reunited at SFMOMA in the spirit of that original 1905 Salon
- Meet Gertrude Stein, the American writer whose Paris salon at 27 rue de Fleurus in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, became the beating heart of the avant-garde, and who was among the very first to recognize Matisse’s genius and acquire his work
- Build visual literacy by looking closely, asking questions, and learning to articulate what they see, feel, and think in front of a work of art
By the end of the morning, our young museum-goers will leave not just knowing Matisse’s name, but understanding why courage, in art as in life, sometimes looks like a hat painted in green and red.
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Cultural Focus At the heart of our visit is Femme au chapeau (Woman with a Hat, 1905) by Henri Matisse; to SFMOMA, this painting is what the Mona Lisa is to the Louvre: its most iconic and precious treasure among many other treasures. When it debuted at the Paris Salon d’Automne, its raw colors and unruly brushstrokes so shocked the critic Louis Vauxcelles that he branded the artists in the room “les fauves” (=the wild beasts). What few know is that he first uttered those words in person to Matisse himself. The artist liked the phrase so much that the critic put it into print in Gil Blas, the prestigious periodical where Zola published his Germinal as a feuilleton and Guy de Maupassant gave its readers many of his short stories, including Le Horla. An art movement was born from this witticism. American audiences would not encounter Fauvist work until 1913, when the legendary Armory Show in New York introduced the United States to European avant-garde art. Femme au chapeau herself did not cross the Atlantic until 1936, when she was shown at the San Francisco Museum of Art, the very institution that would become SFMOMA, making San Francisco one of the earliest American cities to welcome Matisse’s masterpiece. In 1952, the Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted the first dedicated exhibition of Fauvism as a movement in the United States, a landmark show that traveled to San Francisco the following year. Today, because the terms of her bequest to SFMOMA by the Haas family do not allow her to travel, the world comes to Femme au chapeau. Thus for this exceptional exhibition, works by Matisse’s fellow fauves (Derain, Vlaminck, Marquet, Manguin, and others) have been reunited at SFMOMA in the spirit of that original 1905 Salon. |
Date and Time of the Museum Trip: Saturday, May 23rd | 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Where: SFMOMA, 151 3rd St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Event Schedule:
- 9:45 a.m.: We will meet in front of the museum at 9:45 sharp
- 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.: Guided exhibition visit in French
- 12:00 p.m.: Pick-up in front of the museum
Who Can Participate? This program is designed for children ages 5–15 who are comfortable with French (command of French at level A2 and up). Participants should be able to:
- Express themselves comfortably in French
- Understand the main ideas of group conversations
Questions about your child’s French level? Email us at admissions@efba.us before registering.
During the visit, participants should bring:
- Comfortable shoes
- …that’s it!
Prices:
- EFBA students (2025–2026 school year): $29
- General admission: $34
(Museum admission included for children)
Adults (optional): $10 per person
Parents or accompanying adults are welcome to join the visit. Please note that museum admission is not included and must be purchased separately.
