Santa Barbara Museum Of Art

You can be a museum or you can be modern, but you cannot be both. ~ Gertrude Stein Well done!! Sadly, didn’t make it to the second floor. Lots to see and learn. Get in there and take your time. If possible at least 4 hours.

A fabulous gem of a museum. One expects that a small museum in a little town miles away from LA would have a modest collection with just one or two spotlights from famous artists. This museum blows that expectation away. This museum offers fantastic samplings from some of the greatest artists of nearly every medium. Rodin, Degas, Pissaro, and ancient art of Mediterranean and Asian origin. A lovely docent is available for daily tours at 1 pm. She was knowledgeable and her affection for the permanent collection was palpable.

The tour was enjoyable and very helpful. I felt like I was being given a nice and quick art lesson. After the tour I was able to enjoy the other art pieces, recognize names mentioned in the tour, and put them in context. The museum collection is lovely, with mostly western art from the 1800s, and some interesting Asian exhibits, and some modern art. We spent 3 hours here on a hot summer afternoon, learned a lot, and enjoyed every minute of it. It’s the best $10 (entrance fee per person) that we could’ve spent.

We enjoyed our visit to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art so much we are planning to return! I so loved learning about all the female impressionists! Loved the quote by Berthe Morisot! Definitely worth the visit to know how many impressionists were women - but we did not know that - - - until now!

Once a year, there is a day when over 30 museums are free in Southern California! We took advantage of that opportunity on Saturday, March 23rd, this year! We really enjoyed checking out the Asian exhibits. I especially recommend taking one of the free tours. We really enjoyed the tour of Chinese and Japanese artifacts because the stories all link back to the history and culture of the countries. There are no famous artists as part of that discussion. It puts a spotlight on the cultural differences between the east and west approaches to art and cultural values! Thursdays 5-8pm are free to locals. Highly recommend a visit!

A small and quiet museum. The collection isn't extensive, but that makes it easier to sit peacefully in front of a Buddha statue for a long time...

I want to start with the kindness that I was met with by the security manager and the front desk manager. They were extremely understanding and even found me later to further apologize. I was fairly upset but the art in the museum, coupled with the warmth of the staff helped alleviate the tension from that one guard. Also, there was a tremendous women in the art station that greeted us with kindness and warmth. She was so great with you daughter. CONTEXT: I had a fairly rough interaction with a young security guard when we first arrived. Our 2.5 year old took off into the gallery when we arrived and I went after her while my husband paid. The security guard very aggressively yelled at me to return to my husband as he was walking up with our entry sticker. I later went to him to just explain that there was no reason to yell and that I had my hands full with my kid. He cut me off by accusing me of allowing my toddler to run in the gallery and saying “you don’t get free access”. I was distraught honestly. It was just a long day as a parent and we wanted to show our daughter the museum. But, even with everything - the surrounding staff made up for the experience. We bought a membership and have full intentions of coming back and supporting our local museum ❤️

It’s fair to say this is my favorite museum in Santa Barbara. I was in town for the day visiting from LA and had heard many great things about this museum so decided to see for myself. Parking is easy and there are multiple areas to do it. It’s not very large inside but is two floors filled with beautiful works from all over the world. It’s subdivided into different regions and periods and it’s very easy to spend an hour here looking and reading. Coming from LA it’s way less crowded than I’m used to so that was also a bonus. I would recommend to anyone visiting Santa Barbara or if you’re a fan of art like I am and live within driving distance SB is a wonderful town to plan a day away.