Located in a gracious Mission style edifice, the museum is dedicated to preserving and displaying fine art from the Americas, Africa, the Pacific Rim and Oceania. Endowed by local rancher and developer, Charles Bowers (1842-1929), the museum opened in 1936. Today the permanent collection comprises over 130,000 artworks and artifacts dating from 1500 BCE to the mid-20C. A dozen or so temporary exhibitions are mounted annually.