Spring Happenings: Catching Up with San Diego Museums

Your favorite San Diego landmarks continue to re-open, and many of them are back with new attractions. Join us this Spring in supporting our local museums, historic sites, gardens and aquariums. 

From South Bay to North County, here are some highlights of what’s new and noteworthy in San Diego’s vibrant museum scene. 

TIP: Check out your favorite museums’ websites for new days/hours (many have changed), as well as additional events, exhibitions and guest experiences. You can find an updated list of museum re-openings here.

• • Art Alive
    San Diego Museum of Art
    June 17–20
    Reserve your tickets here.
    Art Alive 2021 kicks off the summer with beautiful florals and a full weekend of newly imagined festive events. See spectacular floral interpretations of nearly 100 works of art throughout the museum. Plus, extend your experience with new Art Alive events:
    • Open Air Floral Affair, a new offering bringing the sights, scents, and sounds of the floral exhibition to the Plaza de Panama with food, family-friendly fun, and an Art Alive Marketplace.
    • Virtual Art Alive 2021 goes behind the scenes and delivers online festivities, including a 360 virtual tour of the floral exhibition, a live video feed of the Museum rotunda, a virtual silent auction, at-home workshops for all ages, and more.
      
      
  • The California Center for the Arts, Escondido – Now Open
    Plan your visit here.
    With a mission of bringing people together to discover, create, and celebrate both the visual and performing arts, the CCAE Museum returns as the cultural center of North San Diego County.Through May 16, see the exhibition “Oil Painters of America 30th Annual National Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils.” The exhibit’s primary mission is to advance the cause of traditional, representational fine art by drawing attention to the lasting value of fine drawing, color, composition, and the appreciation of light.

• • Visions Art Museum – Now Open
    Explore current exhibitions and plan your visit here.
    Located in Point Loma’s Liberty Station, Visions Art Museum creates an international community of quilt and textile artists, collectors and the public through exhibitions, education, and engaging programs that increase the appreciation of quilts, textiles and fiber as fine art. This season, see “Deeds Not Words: Celebrating 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage,” an exhibition that honors the 19th Amendment’s centennial with 28 art quilts. Several of the artists chose to celebrate a suffragist whose name they remembered from history lessons, while others felt a more personal relationship with their subjects. The exhibition was co-curated by Sandra Sider and Pamela Weeks.

• • The New Children’s Museum –  Re-Opening Soon with NEW outdoor experience
    Plan your visit here.
    The Museum is introducing a new “outdoor experience” on Island Avenue and the adjacent Museum Park. With the street  closed to traffic, Museum guests can now enjoy multiple new activities, including the Apex Chariots (by Roman de Salvo, also from Animal Art) and other vehicles for children to ride in the street. There will also be  bubbles, a flowy muslin maze and a toddler area with books and other activities, plus food trucks and seating for outdoor dining. Additionally, two new murals were created during the closure, which guests will now be able to experience in person.

• • San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum – Outdoor Discovery Garden Re-Opening
    Reservations are required.
    Plan your visit here.
    Learning through play is the inspiration for all of San Diego Children’s Discovery Museum’s exhibits. Here are just a few of the exhibits families can enjoy with the public re-opening of the Outdoor Discovery Garden on May 11. (Note: The Museum’s indoor spaces remain closed at this time.)
    • Water Wise: Visit this interactive water table to learn about water conservation and buoyancy while building intricate paths for water to flow through.
    • Base Camp: Children become young archaeologists, paleontologists, and geologists as they learn about people, places and ecologies of the past.
    • Nature Play: children can meet the Museum’s resident chickens and explore the Aquaponics exhibit featuring goldfish and plant life.

• • San Diego Model Railroad Museum Debuts Walt Disney’s Magical Railroad Exhibit
    Plan your visit here.
    “The Carolwood Pacific: Walt’s Magical Railroad,” created in partnership with the Griffith Park-based Walt Disney’s Carolwood Barn, tells the story of Walt Disney’s love of the railroad and how this lifelong passion influenced some of his best-known works. Guests will see historical artifacts on loan from Walt’s Barn, some of which were owned by Walt himself.

• • The Museum of Photographic Arts Presents Exhibition Celebrating Young Talent.
    Explore MOPA’s latest exhibitions and plan your visit here.
    “Beginnings, Forever” represents the works of historic and emerging artists created prior to the age of 35. Artists establish their unique powers of expression and individuality at an early age. This exciting exhibition allows us to explore those talents through images by influential classic artists, postwar Japanese photographers, and contemporary image makers.

• Living Coast Discovery Center – Now Opening (Weekends Only)
  Plan your visit here.
  The Living Coast Discovery Center inspires the community to connect with and care for the coastal environment. For over 30 years, the zoo and aquarium located within the national wildlife refuge on San Diego Bay has offered families a unique wildlife experience, that focuses on native animals, including endangered sea turtles, sharks, rays, reptiles, owls, hawks, eagles and more.