Hilbert Museum of California Art

Contemporary art museum in Orange, California

The Hilbert Museum of California Art

Established| 2015
Location| 167 N Atchison St.,
Orange, California
Coordinates| 33°47′20″N 117°51′24″W﻿ / ﻿33.7890°N 117.8566°W﻿ / 33.7890; -117.8566
Type| Contemporary art museum
Visitors| 30,000 in 2019
Director| Mary Platt
Website| www.hilbertmuseum.com

The Hilbert Museum of California Art is a U.S. museum located at Chapman University in Orange, California. The museum's collection consists of more than 1,000 paintings[1] – primarily watercolors and oil paintings by artists of the California Scene Painting movement.

## History

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The Hilbert Museum of California Art, located in the historic district of Old Town Orange,[2] opened in 2016.[3] It was founded by Mark and Janet Hilbert with a gift of $10 million,[4] including a collection of more than 1,000 paintings valued at more than $7 million in 2015.[5] The collection consists mostly of works in oil and watercolor created between the 1930s and the 1970s by artists – including Millard Sheets, Emil Kosa Jr., Phil Dike, Milford Zornes and Rex Brandt – of the California Scene Painting movement, a form of American regionalist art depicting scenes of everyday life involving landscapes, places, and people of California.[6] The museum also features regular exhibitions of works of American illustrators, as well as the motion-picture production art and animation art created by many of the California Scene artists, who found work in the movie studios during the Great Depression.

## Expansion

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The museum expanded from its original 7,500 square feet (700 m2) to 22,500 square feet (2,090 m2) and reopened in February 2024 after three years of construction.[7] The price of the expansion was planned to be around $14 million, and the goal is to have 100,000 visitors per year by 2025.[3]

## References

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1. ^ "The Museum". Hilbert Museum. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
2. ^ Chang, Richard (2019-06-14). "Chapman's Hilbert Museum of California Art to Expand and Nearly Triple In Size". Voice of OC. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
3. ^ a b "Hilbert Museum exhibits Los Angeles-area scene paintings and eyes an expansion". Daily Pilot. 2020-01-16. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
4. ^ "$10 million gift will make Chapman University home to 'California Scene' art". Chapman Newsroom. 2014-11-15. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
5. ^ "Chapman Magazine Winter 2015". Issuu. 23 February 2015. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
6. ^ "The Golden Age of California Scene Paintings". www.afanews.com. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
7. ^ Grenda, Anastacia (February 2024). "Hilbert Museum Debuts New Space". Orange Coast: 74–79.74-79&rft.date=2024-02&rft.aulast=Grenda&rft.aufirst=Anastacia&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Hilbert+Museum+of+California+Art" class="Z3988">