Santa Monica boasts a diverse and vibrant arts and culture scene, featuring leading museums that preserve its rich history and legacy
For more than 30 years, L.A. Art Exchange has showcased original art and offered custom framing for everything from fine art to posters and keepsakes. Photo Courtesy: Santa Monica Travel & Tourism
Santa Monica is not just about beaches, bikes, and boardwalks, it is a cultural heavyweight packed into little more than eight square miles. Within this compact, creative city, there are museums that span aviation history to children’s play, cutting-edge galleries showcasing international talent, and more than 170 murals transforming everyday walls into giant canvases. Add in pottery classes, intimate theaters, live music, film screenings, and a year-round lineup of cultural events, and Santa Monica is less a destination and more an artistic canvas, alive with moments that spark inspiration at every turn.
Museums
Santa Monica boasts a diverse and vibrant arts and culture scene, featuring leading museums that preserve the rich history and legacy of Santa Monica. At the Museum of Flying, just in the shadow of Santa Monica Airport, see historic Douglas World Cruisers, a replica of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s biplane and a U.S. Navy Skyhawk. You can even step into the cockpit of a Boeing 727 airliner. Along Main Street, in a historic 1894 Victorian-style house, the California Heritage Museum showcases craftsman furniture, folk art, tiles and collectables, as well as photographs of a sprawling ostrich farm that occupied much of the Ocean Park area back in the 1890s.
Adjoining the Santa Monica Public Library, the Santa Monica History Museum features several dedicated permanent exhibits, including exhibits on the life of the Tongva, the original inhabitants of the Santa Monica Bay area; the Outlook, Santa Monica’s oldest local newspaper; and the town’s rise as a resort destination. The museum is also responsible for archiving upwards of 600,000 photographic prints, negatives, glass-plate negatives, and slides. As the first museum of its kind in Los Angeles, Cayton Children’s Museum offers 21,000 square feet of discovery-based exhibits and immersive play for children aged 0-10. Discover the power of play when visiting this fan-favorite museum.
Art galleries
With two campuses, the 18th Street Arts Center has been bringing unique and groundbreaking work to Santa Monica for 30 years. Including a programme for Los Angeles-based artists who get to rent a workspace at a subsidised cost, the 18th Street Arts Center also offers the largest artist residency in Southern California. At Bergamot Station, stop into galleries such as William Turner, who represents mid-career and rising artists such as Ed Moses and his son Andy Moses; Alejandro Gehry, son of architect Frank Gehry; and abstract painter Kristina Quinones. And if you are ready for a bite, Bergamot Café does brisk business in sandwiches, salads, and coffee.
For more than 30 years, L.A. Art Exchange has showcased original art and offered custom framing for everything from fine art to posters and keepsakes. Its Santa Monica showroom also boasts one of the largest frame collections. Lois Lambert Gallery represents emerging and mid-career contemporary artists, both local and international, working in painting, sculpture, mixed media, and photography. The gallery represents over 100 artists from the United States, Latin America, South America, Europe and Asia, and is dedicated to bringing thoughtful, sometimes provocative, and always original art to the public. For a kid-friendly experience, visit Heal the Bay Aquarium, Heal the Bay’s marine education facility, which inspires understanding and conservation of Southern California coastal waters, watersheds and marine life through education, interaction, and discovery.
Street art murals and public art
Santa Monica boasts of over 170 art murals across its 8-square-mile radius. Many of the murals adorning parking lots and the sides of family-run businesses were completed by the nonprofit Beautify Earth and continue to entertain and inspire visitors and locals daily. The street murals of downtown Santa Monica, Third Street Promenade, Main Street, Mid-City, Montana Avenue, Pico Boulevard and more invite you to explore artistic concepts and ideas with their vibrant display of colors and styles.
Explore Santa Monica’s dynamic Public Art Guide, featuring masterpieces by local, national, and international artists, a rich archive of temporary works, and the Art Bank, a rotating collection displayed in public spaces. Feel the city’s pulse at numerous stunning permanent installations and programs that can be experienced solo or through guided tours.
Art and pottery classes
In a bright corner building on Broadway and 14th Street, female-owned Paint : Lab has been offering art instruction for adults, kids, and teens since 2009. Learn to paint with a variety of mediums: oil, acrylic, watercolor or gouache, a type of opaque watercolor.
For pottery classes, delve into the world of ceramics at Still Life Studio. The spacious, airy studio runs weekly classes, one-off wheel sessions, as well as specialized workshops focused on glazing, making molds and Raku firing. Bring the whole family and make take-home memories together.
Theatre, dance, music and film
There is no shortage of theatre and music venues in Santa Monica. Check the calendar at the Santa Monica Playhouse, Morgan-Wixson Theatre and City Garage for upcoming adult and family-friendly productions. In 2008, the glass-clad 500-seat Eli and Edythe Broad Stage opened its doors in Santa Monica, in partnership with the city’s college, bringing with it high-caliber performing arts, dance, music and children’s programming. Along Montana Avenue, the Aero Theater is a historic cinema showing films from Hollywood’s golden days, such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Chinatown.
Events calendar
Santa Monica has a year-round calendar of art and culture events taking place weekly across the city. From free historic tours of the Marion Davies House at Annenberg Community Beach House to painting classes for toddlers at Cayton Children’s Museum, and from theatre performances to movie screenings, there is something for all ages.
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