United States Tourism

Art & Culture

California has a reputation as a haven for people with creative minds, and you can see this in its multifaceted cultural offerings. Arts abound here in four main formats: large-scale, world-class organizations; smaller, quirkier museums, often showcasing the Golden State’s history and its abundant idiosyncratic subcultures (think surfers, Silicon Valley techno-wizards, and Peanuts aficionados); music venues galore; and robust artists’ communities. Below you'll find a small sampling of California’s cultural bounty. Want to learn more? Come to California!

Cultural Institutions: The Big Guns

California is chock-full of large, internationally renowned arts institutions—world-class museums, concert halls, and theaters.

Contemplate both old master and contemporary paintings at Los Angeles’ richly landscaped J. Paul Getty Museum.

Revel in the sounds of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Frank Gehry’s wildly angled, stainless steel–clad architectural landmark, Walt Disney Concert Hall.

In San Francisco, enjoy music and dance at the opulent French Renaissance–style War Memorial Opera House, home to the San Francisco Opera and its younger sibling, the San Francisco Ballet. Or stroll a few blocks to the American Conservatory Theater, one of the most acclaimed regional theaters in the nation.

San Diego’s verdant Balboa Park claims that it’s “the nation’s largest urban cultural park.” The assertion is tough to debate: Balboa hosts 15 major arts organizations, including the multistage Old Globe Theatre, modeled on Shakespeare’s London theatre.

Regional Museums: Eclectic Collections

Smaller arts organizations flourish throughout the state. Many stand out as monuments to distinctive California traditions.

It’s a testament to the significance of surfing in California that you can cruise collections of vintage boards at not one but three fine coastal surf museums: the California Surf Museum in Oceanside, the International Surfing Museum in Huntington Beach, and the Santa Cruz Surfing Museum.

Get a hands-on education at San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation, which showcases the fruits of Silicon Valley’s boundless scientific inventiveness.

The Charles M. Schulz Museum—located near the Santa Rosa studio where the prolific Peanuts cartoonist worked for 30 years—contains more than 6,000 of his gently wry original strips.

Music: Hitting All the Right Notes

During the annual Inland Empire Jazz and Blues Festival, music soars through the pine-covered mountains of Wrightwood’s Angeles National Forest.

If the riffs could travel far enough north, they might well bump into the craggy Sierra Nevada and the hot licks being laid down at the Mammoth Lakes Jazz Jubilee.

The Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra performs free summer band concerts under a canopy of stars in Beale Park every Sunday.

In San Francisco, the summer of love plays on, with multiple outdoor venues spreading the good vibes with free concerts. Bring your own harmonica to the San Francisco Free Folk Festival, or stop by Stern Grove any Sunday afternoon and groove to acts ranging from top pop bands to bhangra (Punjabi folk dance) collectives.

Arts Communities: Living by the Work

For decades, artists and galleries have created their own pocket communities throughout California, famously in Carmel, Mendocino, and Laguna Beach. The state boasts many more arts enclaves, equally rich in creativity (and shopping opportunities).

Painters attracted to desert beauty have been drawn to Palm Springs since the late 1800s. Wander the Backstreet Art District, anchored by Dezart One Gallery. The gallery hosts everything from play and poetry readings to film screenings to exhibitions of contemporary painting.

Sacramento’s reputation as an arts community is growing. Dozens of well-established midtown galleries span media from tribal jewelry to bronze sculpture.
In Chico, watch Richard Satava working in his public open studio, Satava Art Glass. His trademark ethereal glass jellyfish sculptures are shipped all over the world.

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California Tourism