The Bowers Museum: Orange County's Museum, in Santa Ana
Founded in the 1930s, the Bowers Museum on Main Street presents world cultures and California history in a Mission Revival landmark.
On Main Street in Santa Ana stands a Mission Revival building with a bell tower, arched courtyard and a collection that ranges across the world. The Bowers Museum, opened in the 1930s with a bequest from Charles Bowers and his wife Ada, has grown into Orange County's principal museum, and it belongs to Santa Ana in a way few institutions do.
The Bowers built its reputation on exhibitions of world cultures, presenting art and artifacts from the Pacific, Asia, Africa and the Americas, often through major traveling exhibitions developed with international partners. A large exhibition at the Bowers can be a genuine occasion for the county, drawing visitors who might otherwise drive to Los Angeles for a museum day of the same scale.
At the same time, the museum keeps a California thread running through its work. Its permanent galleries include material on the state's early peoples, the Spanish and Mexican eras and the pioneer history of Orange County itself. That balance, global exhibitions beside local history, is the Bowers' signature: it treats Santa Ana residents as citizens of the world and students of their own home ground at the same time.
The museum campus adds to the experience, with its courtyard, gardens and the Bowers' restaurant and events spaces making it a setting for school programs, lectures, films and community celebrations as well as gallery visits. Schoolchildren from across the county know the Bowers as a field-trip destination, which makes it part of growing up in Orange County.
For residents who think of the Bowers as a place for out-of-town guests, a return visit is worthwhile. The exhibitions change, the courtyard is beautiful, and the county's museum is right here.
