The Museum focuses on the cultural heritage of our huge, diverse and powerful state, and on the unique history and accomplishments of Laguna Beach, a community of the American West located on the shore of southern California, about fifty miles below the city of Los Angeles. As cultural theorists often enjoy pointing out, southern California, with its motion picture, television, and aerospace industries, is the mecca of artificial culture. In this “here-today-gone tomorrow” culture, our history has traditionally been trivialized and discarded, leaving a great deal of the past for us to excavate. Laguna Beach and the Laguna Art Museum have stood at the center of another sort of culture. From the turn of the century through the 1930s, Laguna Beach was home to one of the most significant artists’ colonies on the Pacific Coast. The Laguna Art Museum has not only been the focal point of this art colony but, instrumental in uncovering its history as well. Along with its counterpart, the Oakland Museum of California Art in northern California, it has been at the forefront of a trend among California museums to focus on regional art history.

The Museum's exhibitions, catalogues, and educational activities illustrate an ongoing examination of California art, which includes looking at unconventional, but regionally important influences, such as car and surf culture. Through collections, publications, and research on the art of California, Laguna Art Museum promotes understanding of the role of California art and artists in the development of the visual arts nationally and internationally.

Director of Laguna Art Museum, Bolton Colburn, on Collecting California: Selections from Laguna Art Museum:

Through the years, Laguna Art Museum has been the fortunate recipient of some significant collections given by very generous collectors. These gifts have been extremely important to the institution in terms of solidifying its mission and purpose as a museum. Laguna Art Museum follows the ideals of an institution that is rigorous with its scholarship and conscientious of its educational programming, while caring for an exemplary collection of the art of California. The Museum's permanent collection reflects historical interactions with regionally and nationally important artists, which have been fairly well documented in exhibitions and publications. But the collection also reflects longstanding relationships with a number of outstanding collectors. Therefore, Laguna Art Museum decided it was fitting to honor some of these collectors; in 2005, the institution received an Institute of Museum Library and Services grant to fund such an exhibition and publication, with additional generous support later given by the McBeth Foundation.

A museum is defined by its permanent collection, and the validity of an institution's mission lies in its viability over time. The collection acts as a rudder, steering the course of the museum. The institution's commitment to the collecting and exhibiting of California art remains undiminished, and it continues to advance its efforts to place the art within the broader context of American art.

Today there are well over 3,000 works in the permanent collection. There is an interesting story behind each of the collectors that have donated works since 1941, and behind their motivations for collecting art and for making large gifts to Laguna Art Museum. The museum wishes to recognize and thank all those who have made contributions to the collection, as a good part of the institution's success and uniqueness comes from their strong and active support.

By focusing closely on just a few of the most significant collections that have been given to the Laguna Art Museum over the years, Collecting California covers a long period in California art, from 1832 to 2007. However, the exhibition and publication are not meant to be an exhaustive survey of California art nor a comprehensive selection of key works from Laguna Art Museum's permanent collection. This exhibition is meant to be a celebration of the art and artists of California and of the generosity of many longstanding friends and supporters.

Photograph of Bolton Colburn by Ted Reckas, courtesy of Laguna Beach Independent.

LAGUNA ART MUSEUM MISSION STATEMENT

Laguna Art Museum is a museum of American art with a special focus on the art of California. Its purpose is to provide the public with exposure to art and to promote understanding of the role of art and artists in American culture through collection, conservation, exhibition, research, scholarship and education. Working within the tradition of the oldest cultural institution in Orange County, Laguna Art Museum documents regional art and places it in a national context. The Museum maintains its historic ties to the community and is responsive, accessible, and relevant to the area’s diverse population.

HISTORY

Founded in 1918 by a small group of painters who settled in Laguna Beach, the Laguna Beach Art Association developed an exhibition space in which to introduce the best current works being produced by artists in the area. This early emphasis on supporting artists in the region has been an integral part of Laguna Art Museum throughout its history.

In 1920, the Laguna Beach Art Association was incorporated with artist Edgar Payne as president. The Association soon outgrew the old Town Hall, where its first exhibition was held, and after the completion of a successful fundraising drive, a gallery on the present site opened in 1929. In 1948, a gift from the estate of artist Frank Cuprien served as the catalyst for a fundraising campaign to enlarge the gallery space. The new addition opened in 1951 with an exhibition organized by Mrs. William Swift Daniell, a long-time leader in the arts. This selection of paintings by early Laguna Beach artists later became the Museum’s Permanent Memorial Collection. The Museum’s collection has since grown to include many exemplary works by California artists dating from the late nineteenth century to the present. By 1971, when the association had attained nonprofit museum status, it had a collection that reflected its artistic roots. The Museum has occupied the same site in Laguna Beach since 1929. An expansion in the mid-1980s increased exhibition and support space. In keeping with the Museum’s goal of collecting and exhibiting American art with a particular focus on California art, the name was formally changed to Laguna Art Museum in 1986.   

In 1996, LAM merged with Newport Harbor Art Museum creating the Orange County Museum of Art. In April 1997 a new non-profit reestablished Laguna Art Museum as a separate entity from the Orange County Museum of Art. Today the majority of the Laguna Art Museum’s pre-merger collection has been returned to the Museum. The re-establishment of Laguna Art Museum has been very beneficial in unifying the support of the local community in unprecedented ways.