Laguna Art Museum

The Laguna Art Museum on Pacific Coast Highway is the oldest cultural institution in Orange County and one of the few museums in California with a genuine focus on California art rather than a general survey collection. The permanent collection is strong on the California Impressionists — the plein air painters who worked in the hills and coves around Laguna in the early 20th century — and on more recent California artists who have engaged with the state's landscape and light.

Temporary exhibitions tend to be local and regional in focus, which is what makes the museum worth visiting rather than bypassing for one of the larger LA institutions. The building is a modest but pleasant structure on PCH, walking distance from the main galleries and beaches. Open Wednesday through Monday; closed Tuesday.

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A story
The museum was founded in 1918 as the Laguna Beach Art Association — the same year the town itself incorporated. The California Impressionist painters who gathered here in the 1910s and 1920s, working en plein air in the hills and on the coves, created a body of work that has its strongest institutional home at this museum. Edgar Payne's canyon paintings and the coastal scenes of Anna Hills are among the most significant works in the collection.