On-the-move art groove

Put that art appreciation class on hold and go experience the real thing. You could spend the next six weekends museum-hopping on a coast-to-coast art crawl. Frenzied knits and perfumed installations await -- if you know where to look. -- Mary Forgione and Jane Engle, Times staff writers

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Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Where: Downtown location, 1100 Kettner Blvd., San Diego

When: Ongoing; two new buildings open today

Expect to see: The new site (others are in La Jolla and at 1001 Kettner) features commissioned works that include Ernesto Neto’s giant scent-filled sacs, through May 27, and steel blocks by Richard Serra. “Modern American Masters” and other shows are on view.

Hours: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. SaturdaysTuesdays; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; closed Wednesdays.

Tickets: $10 for adults; $5 for seniors and military; free, 25 and younger.

Info: (858) 454-3541; www.mcasd.org

‘Radical Lace &

Subversive Knitting’

Where: Museum of Arts and Design, 40 W. 53rd St., New York, N.Y.

When: Thursday-June 17

Expect to see: Getting enough fiber lately? Twenty-seven artists create fresh and twisted ways of knitting, tatting and knotting, including “nano-knit” silk gloves by Althea Merback and a video of David Cole’s artwork: Two backhoes using phone poles to “knit” a 35-foot-wide American flag.

Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. daily, 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursdays

Tickets: $9 for adults; $7, students and seniors; younger than 12, free.

Info: (212) 956-3535; www.madmuseum.org

‘Picasso and

American Art’

Where: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 151 3rd St., San Francisco

When: Feb. 23-May 28

Expect to see: It’s a decidedly curvy line that connects Pablo Picasso to Modern artists. In this show, works by Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein and others hang side by side with the Picassos that influenced them.

Hours: 11 a.m.-5:45 p.m. daily, 11 a.m.-8:45 p.m. Thursdays, closed Wednesdays

Tickets: $12.50 for adults; $8, 62 and older; $7, students, 12 and younger, free.

Info: (415) 357-4000; www.sfmoma.org

‘Matisse: Painter

as Sculptor’

Where: Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood St. and nearby Nasher Sculpture Center, 2001 Flora St., Dallas

When: Today-April 29

Expect to see: The heart of this show is 40 of Henri Matisse’s sculptures amid his similarly themed paintings and works on paper. Sculptures by Brancusi, Cezanne, Degas and others round out the show.

Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, 11 a.m.9 p.m. Thursdays, closed Mondays

Tickets: (for both venues) $20 for adults; $18, seniors; $14, students; 12 and younger, free.

Info: (214) 922-1200; www.dallasmuseumofart.org and www.matisseindallas.org

‘Tamayo: A Modern

Icon Reinterpreted’

Where: Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State St., Santa Barbara

When: Feb. 17-May 27

Expect to see: The biggest show in decades on Rufino Tamayo, a giant of Mexican art in the 20th century who fused his native culture with European styles such as Cubism and Surrealism. Spurning the Social Realism of Mexican muralists Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, he practiced arte puro (pure art).

Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. TuesdaysSundays, closed Mondays.

Tickets: $9 for adults; $6 for 65 and older, students and ages 6-17; free on Sundays and for kids younger than 6

Info: (805) 963-4364; www.sbma.net

Olympic Sculpture Park

Where: 2901 Western Ave., Seattle (along Belltown waterfront, north of Pike Place Market)

When: Ongoing; park was set to open Saturday.

Expect to see: More than 20 monumental sculptures by Alexander Calder, Richard Serra, Claes Oldenburg and others in a 9-acre park carved from a former industrial site. Stroll through meadows, on a 220-foot-long footbridge and along a restored beach, or grab a bite and shop at this $85-million extension of the Seattle Art Museum.

Hours: 7 a.m.-6 p.m. daily October-April; 6 a.m.-9 p.m. May-September.

Tickets: Free; parking $6 and more.

Info: (206) 654-3100; www.seattleartmuseum.org