Grace Cathedral Launches New Visitor Experience

The iconic cathedral is reopening to visitors for the first time in two years, introducing professionally curated self-guided and docent-led tours

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Grace Cathedral joyfully reopens its doors to the public after closing exactly two years ago due to the pandemic. Now, Grace Cathedral joins major cathedrals around the world in offering an elevated visitor experience. The cathedral is open 10am - 5pm Monday through Saturday to visitors.

The cathedral staff used the time of the closure to evaluate and reimagine Grace through the eyes of the over 70,000 people who visit the cathedral every year during non-service hours. After much planning and discussion with the community of Grace, as well as the many visitors of the cathedral and arts professionals, Grace has installed the first of many professionally curated visitor experiences to help visitors appreciate the architecture, artifacts, artistic offerings, and history of the cathedral.

“We’ve spent countless hours developing interactive self-guided and docent-led tours so that every visitor can really go deep into the history of Grace Cathedral and understand how it’s been the center of so many important cultural, civic and spiritual movements in San Francisco, the country and even the world,” said the Very Rev. Malcolm Clemens Young, ThD, Dean of Grace Cathedral. “We hope that everyone leaves here with the sense of awe and wonder that we have every day, and that they’ll know that Grace is a home for them, no matter their faith, nationality, race or age.”

In the fall of 2021, the cathedral hired museum membership expert Julie Knight to bring the vision of the robust visitor experience to life. “It’s been extremely fulfilling to take my experiences from the museum world and apply them to such a beautiful and significant place as Grace Cathedral. We have worked to develop relevant and engaging content on each of the stops on the tour. We hope this will help every visitor grow to appreciate this wonderful place as much as those of us who work here every day do,” said Julie Knight, Director of Cultural Membership & Visitor Experience at Grace Cathedral.

The Highlights Tour

The new visitor experience will take sightseers through a Highlights Tour, the first of many themed experiences. The Highlights Tour features 18 artifacts in 12 professionally curated touch screen stops, bringing each station to life with unique interactive digital experiences. Each station will leave visitors with a greater understanding of the history and significance of the artifacts and architectural details. Visitors can experience the tour in self-guided or docent-led formats. Two more themed tours will be available this Summer; others are planned for 2023. Each tour will feature different aspects of the cathedral so visitors can return time and time again and learn something new with every visit.

The cathedral will be open to sightseeing visitors Monday through Saturday from 10am - 5pm. General admission tickets are $12. Seniors 65+ are $10. Youth and young adults between the ages of 12-22 are $10, and children 11 and under are free. Visitors can purchase timed tickets for self-guided or docent-led tours, here.

The cathedral is open to all on Sundays for services and general viewing without fee and will always be open for free admission for church services and prayer.

About Grace Cathedral

Grace Cathedral is an Episcopal church in the heart of San Francisco and the 3rd largest Episcopal cathedral in the United States. Grace Cathedral is a house of prayer for all people serving the community and its congregation with courage, joy and wonder through prayer, the arts and connection in its many forms. The cathedral is famed as a destination for visitors from all over the world who come to see its striking architecture, stunning stained glass, two labyrinths, Interfaith AIDS Chapel, listen to the Aeolian-Skinner organ and the different choirs of the cathedral, and to participate in its beautiful traditional and contemporary expressions of spirituality and prayer. Everyone is welcome. For more information visit www.gracecathedral.org.