The sheer weight of its movie industry tends to overshadow the more diverse cultural impact that California has. However, the Golden State holds a unique position in US culture and counterculture.
There’s a vast and evolving cache of art and historical artefacts to discover that is as much testament to California’s status as a cultural melting pot – for Native American, Asian, European, African and Latino peoples – as its purchasing power. Visitors have to choose between more than a thousand museums and galleries, many of them world-class.
Inevitably, the twin giants Los Angeles and San Francisco dominate but there is way, way more to discover.
Starting upstate, on the edge of Union Square you’ll find the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) which hosts a heavyweight collection over seven floors, including major works by such notable artists as Pollock, Matisse, Klee, Duchamp, Warhol and Still.
At the other end of the state, visitors will fall in love with San Diego’s Balboa Park, a lush botanical paradise housing 17 museums and performing arts venues. Explore the city’s Mexican heritage in Chicano Park, home to the largest number of Chicano murals in the world.
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A TRAIL OF TREASURES
ARTS AND CULTURE
CALIFORNIA DREAMING
NATIONAL AND STATE PARKS
HIGHWAY 1
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explore three Californian road trips
The Marconi Automotive Museum in Anaheim, just south of LA, is a must-visit for car aficionados. It houses an incredible line-up of American hot rods, Formula One cars and one of the largest Ferrari collections in North America. With more than 100 vehicles, this is art of a different kind.
For stargazers, Chabot Space and Science Center in the Oakland hills has exhibitions about space travel and a cool planetarium. Lick Observatory outside San Jose is over 140 years old but sits at the cutting edge of astronomy. It has a visitor centre, runs regular tours and holds a summer series of music concerts and lectures.
Just outside San Francisco, Stanford University’s Cantor Arts Center has a well respected collection of Native American art and the largest gathering of Rodin sculptures outside Paris.
Immediately south of San Francisco, San Jose is California’s third largest city by population and the heart of Silicon Valley, a fact reflected in its excellent technology museums.
The Tech Interactive is a family-friendly Stem centre while, right next to Microsoft’s shiny campus, the Computer History Museum, aka CHM, houses a peerless collection of hardware and a working repro Babbage Engine.
Inevitably Los Angeles is the epicentre of the state’s most happening contemporary culture as well as being home to several world-class galleries.
Bay watch
Northern California’s crowning glory, the Golden Gate Bridge
Do look up
Take a tropical stroll in the Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park; stargaze at the University of California’s Lick Observatory
The Getty Center is a big hitter with a collection spanning millennia of American, European and world art, all sumptuously displayed in a magnificent complex on the outskirts of the city. Los Angeles County Museum of Art has a superb 20th-century collection. In Exposition Park the California African American Museum proudly collates the state’s rich African American culture.
West Hollywood is fast establishing its cultural credentials with the recently opened Hauser & Wirth gallery. The Design District is home to some of the most exciting art and design creatives in the US.
Just south of LA, the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens is a world-class combo of art, literary history and over 120 acres of gardens. Huntington’s collection of six million rare books includes an original Gutenberg Bible and a manuscript of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
Between San Diego and LA, Newport Beach is famed not just for its beautiful beaches and chic coastal life, but also its entertainment scene. The city comes alive each spring during the Newport Beach Film Festival, where cinematic innovation and creativity are celebrated.
Heading east, visitors will discover the thriving art scene in the desert. Famed for its mid-century modern architecture and design, Palm Springs has recently put itself on the map with the biennial Desert X festival, a contemporary art exhibition with installations throughout the Coachella Valley.
California is known as the Golden State because of its part in the mid-19th-century Gold Rush. Learn all about that period at the Sacramento History Museum. The state capital is also home to the Crocker Art Museum, one of the oldest museums in California, with a fine collection of Californian and world art.
Fringing Joshua Tree National Park, Palm Springs Art Museum is the largest cultural institution in the Coachella Valley and its permanent exhibits span many media, from light art to sculpture and photography. The annual two-weekend Coachella festival takes place every April just down the road at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. Palm Springs also hosts Desert X, a biennial outdoor contemporary exhibition of desert art featuring site-specific installations set in the stark landscape.
No California arts pilgrimage is complete without a visit to Hearst Castle. Situated 50 miles south of Big Sur in the hills overlooking San Simeon, it’s a must for culture vultures. Designed for the publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst by legendary architect Julia Morgan, La Cuesta Encantada (as it’s also known) is pretty much unrivalled for its display of Californian ego and opulence – thanks to a collection of priceless art and antiques that out-Hollywoods Hollywood.
It’s a fitting climax to any cultural exploration of the Golden State.
Where the art is
From top, the Getty Center, Los Angeles; Palm Springs Art Museum in the Coachella Valley; Hearst Castle, south of Big Sur
explore THREE
CaLIFORNIAN road trips
explore three Californian road trips
CALIFORNIA DREAMING
NATIONAL AND STATE PARKS
HIGHWAY 1