Page 34 - 2015 Travel Guide to California

CA.MUSEUMS & ART
MUSEUM OF MAN in Balboa
Park, San Diego, right.
features a walk-through rainforest with
free-ranging birds and butterflies, the
world’s largest all-digital planetarium and
a “Living Roof” with 1.7 million native Cal-
ifornia plants: a world unto itself.
In 2013, after nearly 45 years at the Palace
of Fine Arts, the legendary Exploratorium
moved to a brand new building at Pier 15 on
San Francisco’s Embarcadero. Founded by
atomic scientist Frank Oppenheimer
(brother of J. Robert), the vast new space
includes more than 600 interactive
exhibits—including an amazing “Tinkerers’
Clock,” mind-boggling optical illusions and
popular “After Dark” event the first Thursday
evening of every month. The crawl-through
Tactile Dome, recently refurbished, remains
a highlight (reservations required).
The Tech Museum of Innovation in San
Jose (the heart of Silicon Valley) is the
country’s first museum dedicated to the
digital revolution, with exhibits on Artifi-
cial Intelligence, Robotics and the
bone-rattling Earthquake Platform.
Two hours south of San Francisco by car,
the Monterey Bay Aquarium deserves to be
included among the Wonders of the World
for its astonishing displays of sea otters and
jellies, its mesmerizing three-story kelp
forest and a staggering million-gallon
“Outer Bay” tank as fascinating as any IMAX
film. Give yourself a full day to enjoy Mon-
terey’s iconic Cannery Row and explore this
marvel of a museum.
Culture
California is a rare and enduring alloy of
more than 50 different ethnic groups. Its
museums reflect the racial diversity and
cultural history of this melting pot in
microcosm. What follows is but a sample;
there are many, many more cultural
32 2015 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A
museums to choose from. We wish we
could include them all!
In Sacramento, the California Museum
features the California Hall of Fame, cele-
brating local legends from John Muir to
Sally Ride.
In San Francisco’s North Beach, the Beat
Museum is affectionately known as “The
House Jack (Kerouac) Built.” Downtown,
the Contemporary Jewish Museum and
nearby Museum of the African Diaspora
(MoAD) provide fascinating insights into
two of California’s most creative ethnic tra-
ditions. Visiting the Asian Art Museum, in
San Francisco’s former Public Library, is
the next best thing to a trip along the
ancient Silk Road.
For a taste of luminous California kitsch,
the Museum of Neon Art—recently located
in Glendale’s new Cultural Arts District—
offers June through September “Neon
Cruises” through the high-voltage land-
marks of downtown Los Angeles. Also in
LA, the Mexican Museum showcases “more
than 12,000 objects representing thousands
of years of Mexican art and culture within
the Americas,” while in Long Beach, the
Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA)
features modern and contemporary work by
artists from the New World. In Little Tokyo,
the Japanese American National Museum
features exhibitions ranging from the World
War II incarcerations to a sprawling show
on Hello Kitty.
» FIND
YOUR ART
THE ARTS
Fine Arts Museums of SF
famsf.org
SF MOMA
sfmoma.org
Oakland Museum of California
museumca.org
LACMA
lacma.org
MoCA
moca.org
Geffen Contemporary
moca.org
The Broad Museum
thebroad.org
Norton Simon Museum
nortonsimon.org
The Huntington Library
huntington.org
Getty Center & Getty Villa
getty.edu/visit
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
sbmuseart.org
Museum of Photographic Arts
mopa.org
SCIENCE
California Science Center
californiasciencecenter.org
The Tech Museum
thetech.org
Monterey Bay Aquarium
montereybayaquarium.org
California Academy of Sciences
calacademy.org
Exploratorium
exploratorium.edu
CULTURE
The California Museum
californiamuseum.org
Beat Museum
thebeatmuseum.org
Contemporary Jewish Museum
thecjm.org
MoAD
moadsf.org
Asian Art Museum
asianart.org
Museum of Neon Art
neonmona.org
Japanese American National Museum
janm.org
Mexican Museum
mexicanmuseum.org
MoLAA
molaa.com
Muzeo
muzeo.org
RITU MANOJ JETHANI/SHUTTERSTOCK