Santa Barbara Museum of Art

In 1941, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art opened its doors in the building that used to house the Santa Barbara Post Office. Today, the museum is a 60,000 square foot institution complete with exhibition galleries, an auditorium, a café and museum shop, and the off-campus Ridley-Tree Education Center. It is home to 27,000 works of art and 50,000 books spanning more than 5,000 years of history, and welcomes more than 150,000 visitors every year. In addition to the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art provides more than 40 educational programs to 40,000 students, families, and community members annually. These include afterschool programs for K-12 students, college-level courses, lifelong learning opportunities for students of all ages, lectures, symposia, film series, and gallery tours. Through this extensive work, the museum works to not only integrate art into the lives of diverse audiences, but also to foster informed dialogues about the driving cultural and artistic issues of today.