Over 5,000 years of art history are celebrated at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) located on the central California coast. With over 25,000 pieces of permanent art and constantly revolving exhibits, the SBMA sees about 70,000 visitors come through its doors each year. The museum opened to the public in 1941 in what used to be the old Santa Barbara post office. Since then, various renovation projects have turned its facade into the simple but elegant museum you can see today. The museum and its diverse collection was one of our highlights on a recent visit to Santa Barbara.
The museum has shown incredible dedication to providing opportunities to the surrounding community with 20% of each ticket sale going straight to educational programs. These include academic outreach programs for K-12 students, activities and events for families, college level art classes, and learning opportunities for adults and seniors. Their current educational programs have served over 40,000 people in the Santa Barbara area.
The SBMA holds a significant collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramic creations, and more from Asia, Europe, and the Americas. SBMA prides itself on their wide ranging collection of international antiquities from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Many of the art pieces are from China, India, Greece, Rome, Egypt, and the Near East. The collection has found a focus in American and European art, contemporary American paintings, photography, and the arts of Asia.
At the entrance, guests walk right into Portrait of Mexico Today (1932), an integral piece to their Latin America exhibit and only intact mural in the U.S. by David Alfaro Siqueiros. Other notable works include four paintings by the creator of French Impressionism, Claude Monet, and an exhibition featuring the works of Vincent Van Gogh.
Two individual art pieces that stood out to me during my visit. An oil painting by Paul Joseph Victor Dargaud, The Statue of Liberty in Frédéric-Auguste Batholdi’s Studio, Paris from 1884 was so intricate it looked like a photograph. The painting depicts the Statue of Liberty being built in France. As a photojournalist this work seemed significant and appeared to be the equivalent of an editorial photo for the time to capture the story.
The second piece of art that I couldn’t stop admiring was a more recent painting in the special Portraits Revealed exhibit. The oil painting on canvas by Cynthia Talmadge called The Diplomat’s Wife’s Altitude Sickness, San Salvador from 2024. The painting has a shaking moire effect which mimics the feeling of altitude sickness. The painting is based on an unseen fictional character that the artist created after conducting research of an American diplomat’s wife who lived abroad with her husband during the Cold War in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
The traveling exhibits currently featured are abstract painter Vian Sora’s: Outerworlds mid-career works, Elliott Hundley’s solo exhibition called Proscenium and By Achilles’ Tomb, and Math + Art. Elliott Hundley’s work blew me away with the intricacy of the collages and as an engineer, I was intrigued by Math + Art and how clever science met art around the gallery and on the walls with sculptures, paintings and drawing.
The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed on Mondays. It is recommended to purchase tickets online to ensure a guaranteed entry time. Admission fees are $15 for adults, $6 for kids under 6, and $10 for seniors 65+. On the first Thursday of every month, admission is free from 5PM to 8PM. The museum recommends you set aside an hour of your time to explore the art exhibits.
The Museum Store is currently closed for renovations, and is expected to reopen at the State Street entrance in the Fall. The online store is always open where you can find SBMA merchandise and gifts inspired by the galleries.