Arts & Culture

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.

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.

California is a year-round arts and culture capital. Here you'll find festivals and events covering everything from wildlife to wineries.

• Find yourself in nature. California's public lands offer incredible vacation opportunities in the heart of nature, from Yosemite to Death Valley.
• Find yourself in our culture. California is saturated with reminders of its cultural heritage from the Castro's rainbow-flagged streets to the Contemporary Jewish Museum.
• Find yourself in museums. California has a museum for everything - from world-class modern art and classics, to in-depth history. Don't miss celebrations of surfing , technology and cartoons .
• Find yourself on the Mission Trail. Follow the history and architecture of the 21 Spanish missions stretching from San Diego to Sonoma.
• Find yourself on a movie set. Hollywood's studio backlot tours take you up close and personal.
• Find yourself in the Wild West. The Golden State offers guest ranches, cattle drives, gold panning, horseback riding, wagon trains, historical sites and towns.
• Find yourself in literary California. Visit the homes of Mark Twain , John Steinbeck , Jack London, Eugene O'Neill and Robert Louis Stevenson , among others.
• Find yourself somewhere quirky. With roadside dinosaurs, giant clams and Babe the Blue Ox, California is a wonderland of never-ending eclectic surprises.
• Find yourself enjoying California Cuisine. Our world-famous fusion of different cooking styles uses the freshest local ingredients purchase at local farmers' markets and served at fine restaurants all over the Golden State.

• 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.

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.