The Hilbert Museum opens February 23, 2024, to the public after an ambitious three-year expansion that tripled the gallery and other space available for one of the world’s largest collections of California art and largest private collections of Disney art.
At 22,000 square feet, the Hilbert Museum in Orange, California, directly opposite the Orange Metrolink train station, is now Orange County’s largest art museum offering galleries dedicated to paintings, illustrations, and other art that tell the unique California story.
Nine opening shows showcase early scenes of Los Angeles and Southern California life; Disney movie art and original animation cells; and special exhibitions dedicated to Orange County, Norman Rockwell, and celebrated Southern California painter and mosaic artist Millard Sheets, whose 40-ft. x 16-foot “Pleasures Along the Beach” mosaic from 1970 was fully restored and installed on the museum’s façade earlier this month.
Visitors to The Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University will now find a striking new two-building ensemble offering 26 galleries for rotating displays of the more than 5,000 oils, watercolors, illustrations, drawings, pieces of movie production art, and more in the growing Hilbert Collection.
Founded through the ongoing generosity of art patrons and philanthropists Mark and Janet Hilbert, it holds the distinction of being the only museum in the world committed to tracing the rich, iconic history of the Golden State from the 1900s to the present through works by leading California Scene artists and Hollywood studio artists and animators.
View more museum announcements here at FineArtConnoisseur.com.
