Santa Barbara Museum of Art

Mission
The mission of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art is to integrate art into the lives of people.

Guiding Principles
We believe in the power of art to ignite imagination, stimulate thought, and generate personally rewarding experiences.

Quick Facts about SBMA

• Comprises 27,000 works of art – an art museum of magnitude and quality more commonly found in cities eight times the size of Santa Barbara
• Spans more than 5,000 years of human creativity
• Includes classical antiquities rivaled in the West only by the J. Paul Getty Museum
• Includes masterpieces of French Impressionism. No West Coast museum owns more Monet paintings
• Presents at its front door Portrait of Mexico Today, 1932, the only intact mural in the United States by David Alfaro Siqueiros, and capstone of the Museum’s distinguished collection of Latin American art
• Brings world-renowned exhibitions to Santa Barbara
• Originates exhibitions that travel to museums across the Americas and Europe
• Welcomes 150,000 visitors to exhibitions and activities each year
• Provides education programs to over 40,000 people in Santa Barbara County each year, free transportation for school groups and after-school activities, and free California State Standard based eduation programs for Santa Barbara School district students in grades K-12
• Receives less than 1% of its budget from government grants and no regular tax dollars
• Spends approximately 20% of every dollar on education programs