Vivid Closes at the California Academy of Sciences on September 7

Vivid: Immerse Your Senses, the projection-and-scent exhibit that has occupied the California Academy of Sciences’ Forum Gallery since May, closes on September 7, 2026. It is the last week for an exhibit that works differently from anything else in the building, and it leaves the Academy without a headline temporary show until Halloween.

What the Exhibit Actually Does

The Academy describes Vivid as six ecosystems rendered in ultra high-definition projection, ambient sound, nature-inspired scents and interactive animal avatars. The six films run six to ten minutes each, which is the number worth knowing before you go: seeing all of them takes closer to an hour than the ten minutes most visitors budget for a gallery.

The sequence runs from the Amazon rainforest canopy down to the forest floor, then into a bat cave where ultrasonic waves are visualized as echolocation. An underground chamber puts moles and ants at wall scale, with an earthworm-shaped bench to sit on. A prairie room enlarges caterpillars, bees and praying mantises. A polar section uses floor projections to simulate ice cracking underfoot before dropping below the surface to sperm whales and their calves.

The last room is the Sensory Gallery, which is hands-on rather than cinematic: a touchable river dolphin skull model, an echolocation station, a thermal imaging camera that approximates how a rattlesnake sees, and three AI-powered animal avatars named Slomo, Daisy and Mel, a sloth, a beluga whale and a honeybee.

The Academy posts a sensory advisory for the exhibit: dark spaces, flashing lights and diffused scents. That matters for anyone visiting with small children or with light sensitivity, and it is easy to miss on the way in.

The content was created and produced by Sensory Odyssey Studio in co-production with the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in Paris, with original scents by IFF. The North American tour is co-produced by Supply + Demand. Vivid is included with general admission rather than sold as a separate ticket.

A Note on the Closing Date

The Academy’s May press release announcing the exhibit gave the run as May 22 to September 6. The current exhibit page says September 7, in both the body text and the page description, and the exhibits listing says the same. September 7, 2026 is Labor Day, so the later date means the exhibit stays up through the holiday Monday. We are following the museum’s current pages rather than the older release, but anyone planning a Labor Day visit specifically to see it should confirm with the Academy first.

What Is Still On, and What Comes Next

Tiny Chef, Big Impact, the pop-up exhibit and planetarium show built around the internet character, runs about three weeks longer, through September 30, in Hohfeld Hall and the Morrison Planetarium. The Incoming! planetarium show, on asteroids and comets, has 10:30 am showings listed through September 3.

After that the Academy’s permanent halls carry the visit: the Steinhart Aquarium, the four-story Osher Rainforest dome, the Morrison Planetarium, the living roof, and standing exhibits including Venom: Fangs, Stingers, and Spines, Twilight Zone: Deep Reefs Revealed and the Shake House earthquake simulator.

The next ticketed event on the calendar is SuperNatural, the Academy’s Halloween party, on Saturday, October 24 from 6:30 to 9 pm, with early and VIP entry at 5 pm. General admission is $60 for adults 18 and over, $55 for members, and $45 for youth aged 3 to 17, $40 for members. Children 2 and under are free. One rule catches people out every year: every adult ticket purchaser must be accompanied by a child. This is a family event, not an adult party.

For adults without children, the Thursday NightLife session, 21 and over, runs 6 to 10 pm weekly. The August 27 edition has a disco theme.

Details

What: Vivid: Immerse Your Senses, Forum Gallery, Level 2, included with general admission.

Closing: September 7, 2026. Open daily until then.

Where: California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park.

Hours: Monday through Saturday 9:30 am to 5 pm, Sunday 11 am to 5 pm. Thursday NightLife, 21 and over, 6 to 10 pm.

Getting there: The Academy sits on the Music Concourse, across from the de Young. The museum publishes current transit and parking guidance on its getting here page.

The Academy does not run a regular monthly free admission day, unlike several other San Francisco museums. For the ones that do, see our guide to free museum days in San Francisco. The Academy also appears in our guide to the city’s major museums and in our rundown of what to do in San Francisco on a Thursday, when both the Academy and the Exploratorium reopen for adults in the evening.

Details from the California Academy of Sciences’ Vivid exhibit page, its exhibits and events listing, and its SuperNatural page.

Photo: Coro, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.