Mission

Founded in 1936 by the City of Santa Ana through a bequest from Charles and Ada Bowers, the Bowers Museum is one of California's finest and Orange County's largest museums. The mission of the Bowers Museum is to enrich lives through the world's finest arts and cultures; to achieve its mission, the Bowers offers exhibitions, lectures, art classes, travel programs, children's art education programs, and other special community programs. The museum's permanent collection includes some 130,000 objects and features notable strengths in such diverse areas as pre-Columbian America; African and Oceanic art, particularly from Papua New Guinea; and California Plein-Air paintings. The Bowers has also developed partnerships with museums around the world to bring national and international exhibitions from the greatest museums in the world to Southern California.