Company Profile
Laguna Art Museum
Company Overview
Laguna Art Museum, an American art museum with a focus on the art of California, is located in Laguna Beach, California. Through its collecting, exhibiting, research, and education activities, Laguna Art Museum plays an important role in highlighting the place of regional art in broader historical movements. It presents a balanced slate of 14 exhibitions annually on historical and contemporary subjects, accompanied by a broad range of educational programs for children and adults. In addition, the museum originates exhibitions that occasionally travel and catalogues which set California art in the broader national context. The museum currently has a $1.5 million annual operating budget, 11 full time staff, including a curator of exhibitions, curator of collections, and curator of education. The museum maintains one of the largest art research libraries with a focus on material relating to California art and has a permanent collection which includes over 3,000 works of art by 966 artists, and covers all major art movements practiced in California
Company History
Laguna Art Museum traces its roots to the founding of the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1918 by a small group of painters who settled in Laguna Beach. This early emphasis on supporting artists in the region has been an integral part of Laguna Art Museum throughout its history. Situated on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the museum has been in its current location since 1929, yet was re-established in April 1997 as a new nonprofit following a 1996 merger of the old Laguna Art Museum and Newport Harbor Art Museum, creating the Orange County Museum of Art. As a result the museum is in its formative adolescence yet maintains the deep historical roots of a ninety-three year institution.