It has been quite a while since the last time I visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Although I only visited there for my school project, I really enjoyed being there and staring at those fascinating art pieces. I remember that the building was enormously huge, consisting of 4 (or 5 can’t remember exactly) floor plans within the building. Recently, it got even bigger with an expansion and now they have total of 7 floor plans in the building. Each floor has one or two categories of exhibitions but mainly focused on the sculptures and paintings.
The first two floors include a theater, a museum store, Atrium, Howard Street Gallery, education center, and painting and sculpture Galleries. The education center really caught my attention because it offers “more opportunities for hands-on-art-making, welcoming family-oriented artist commissions, and providing increased professional development opportunities for teachers”. I found this to be very fascinating because it breaks the mold regarding the perception of museums as a place of look-at-the-art-pieces-and-leave and offers opportunities for people of all ages to create their own art piece first hand. The third and fourth floor include an extension of painting and sculpture galleries, center for photography, and this space called the “White Box”. The White Box is a new multi-disciplinary space which features a state-of-the-art lighting grid and acoustics, creating new possibilities for live performances.
The painting and sculpture galleries seem to extend all the way to the sixth floor, with a new category of architecture & design gallery. The new seventh floor includes contemporary galleries, conservation studio and media art galleries. The media art gallery seemed quite interesting to me especially because it suits with the theme of our class well. 
Overall, SFMOMA is a very well-constructed museum with various categories of art pieces. However, there is one thing I was disappointed with the museum – it’s heavily devoted to the Western arts. The paintings and sculpture gallery being the main collections of the museum, the description on the website specifically says “collection of postwar and contemporary art comprised of over 1,100 works by 185 major American and European artists”. I mean, there certainly are very good Asian & middle eastern modern arts out there… Therefore, as an alternative system of categorization, I think they bring in collections from different countries, cultures, and of different artists. That way, it would enrich the experience of appreciating the modern arts for the visitors more than ever, or they might as well change their name to “The Museum of Western Modern Arts”.
I completely agree with your statement about how interactive educational centers deepen a guest’s overall experience. Even more, may alter they perception of and relationship with art. At the Getty Villa, for example, they feature an open room where guests can freely draw on replica vases with dry erase marker. While this may seem a bit boring, it’s actually a very popular spot for children and adults alike: my boyfriend and I still stop in there every time we visit! As a child, their interactive room made a huge impact on my feelings about museums and art of the time- it created a positive and lasting relationship that has stayed with me for over a decade. That’s the power of educational centers like these.
I liked how the museum had an education center for people to get a hands-on experience and make their own art. I believe resources like this help ease a bit of discontent we sometimes may feel in museums because we cannot interact with the works of art directly. I agree that it is very disappointing to know that the museum lacks art from non-Western countries. It is unfortunate that these countries become overshadowed by Western art all the time, not just in this museum. It is unfair to label a museum a “Modern Art” museum if it only encompasses limit variation.