San Diego Guide » Attractions & Activities » Art Museums
San Diego Attractions & ActivitiesArt Museums
Address: 1550 S El Camino Real, Encinitas, CA 92024
The Lux Art Institute expands on the traditional museum concept by combining traditional gallery exhibits with observation of art-in-progress. During regular museum hours, a resident artist is busy in the studio creating new works. This means you get to see the artistic process itself, instead of just the end result....
Mingei International Museum of World Folk Art
Address: 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101
Mingei is a Japanese word meaning "arts of all people." This museum presents exhibits of folk art from around the world, including Indonesia and New Guinea (multicolored masks, dolls, fertility symbols and shadow puppets) and Japan (decorative bottles, bowls and jars). Children will delight in the displays of...
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
Address: 700 Prospect St, La Jolla, CA 92037
This beautiful museum began in what was once the 1916 Mission-style home of Ellen Browning Scripps, noted San Diego philanthropist. (The Institute of Oceanography and the breathtaking oceanside park are named for Mrs. Scripps.) Expansion to the original building was completed in the mid-1990s. Houses an impressive...
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego – Downtown
Address: 1001 Kettner Blvd, San Diego, CA 92101
This is the satellite branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art located in La Jolla. In addition to its sculpture plaza, you'll find four galleries within, showcasing a variety of works in different mediums by local, national and international artists.
Address: 5790 Armada Dr, Carlsbad, CA 92008
This is a fun and interesting museum where you can not only look at exhibits of musical instruments but you can try your hand at playing some of them. Each gallery represents 20 years, with vintage instruments, and audio and video clips of that era’s popular music. The final gallery is an interactive music room where...
Address: 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101
This world-class museum features extensive collections of still photographs, videos and films. The history of the medium is illustrated, from the earliest Daguerreotypes and albumen prints to modern laser holograms. A variety of artists are represented, including Alfred Stieglitz, Ben Shahn, Alberto Korda, Ansel Adams...
San Diego Art Institute - Museum of the Living Artist
Address: 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park - House of Charm, San Diego, CA 92101
Gain insight into the regional art scene with a visit to the San Diego Art Institute’s Museum of the Living artist. Exhibits change every few weeks and highlight the work of emerging and established artists who may work in oils, pastels, mixed media, pen and ink, collage, sculpture or photography. The 10,000 foot...
Address: 1450 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101
San Diego's most comprehensive collection of art. Italian Renaissance, Dutch, Spanish and baroque pieces are exhibited, as well as contemporary paintings and sculptures. Works by Monet, Toulouse-Lautrec, Renoir, Pisarro, van Gogh and Dufy are rotated in display on the ground floor. Shop, sculpture garden and cafe with...
Address: 9500 Gilman Dr, University of California - San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093
The university campus as sculpture garden. The ever-expanding Stuart Collection is comprised of almost 20 large-scale works scattered around campus – from artists such as Alexis Smith, Niki de Saint Phalle, Michael Asher, Elizabeth Murray and Tim Hawkinson. William Wegman, of artfully posed weimaraner fame,...
Address: 1500 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101
The Timken Museum houses the collection of well-traveled sisters Anne R. and Amy Putnam. They focused their collecting efforts on three genres: European old masters, Russian icons and 18th-and 19th-century American paintings. You’ll see works by Rembrandt van Rijn, John Singleton Copley, Pieter Bruegel the Elder,...
