Bakersfield Museum of Art, Art museum in downtown Bakersfield, United States.
The Bakersfield Museum of Art occupies a 17,400-square-foot building at 19th Street and R Street in Central Park, southeast of downtown Bakersfield. It holds two large and two small galleries, two classrooms and a banquet hall, and its gardens display sculptures and other art forms. Its permanent collection focuses on regional artists.
The Walter Osborn family founded it in 1956 as the Cunningham Art Gallery, named for their daughter Marion Osborn Cunningham (1911–1948). The city ran it with Bakersfield Art Association volunteers until 1990, when the Bakersfield Art Foundation took over and renamed it. Endowments from the Patricia Crail Brown Foundation and Dr. George and Millie Ablin funded a 17,400-square-foot expansion completed in 2001.
The museum brings together local and international artists through rotating exhibitions that help visitors explore contemporary works and emerging voices. These programs create opportunities for people to engage directly with new art and artistic perspectives from different backgrounds.
The museum sits in Central Park at the corner of 19th Street and R Street, southeast of downtown Bakersfield. Inside are two large and two smaller galleries, plus two classrooms and a banquet hall. The sculpture gardens outside can be seen while walking through the park.
The gardens around the museum were part of the original plan: the founders intended the building to be surrounded by grounds displaying sculptures and other art forms. The museum's permanent collection, shown in its galleries, is drawn mainly from artists of the region.
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