Crocker Art Museum

Crocker Art Museum is at 216 O Street, about 0.7 walking mile south of the railroad museum along Sacramento’s riverfront side of downtown. The museum combines the historic Crocker family mansion and gallery with the Teel Family Pavilion, creating three floors and 15 gallery spaces. It is a deliberate 90-minute-to-half-day add-on rather than a quick gift-shop stop.

E. B. and Margaret Crocker assembled European paintings, master drawings, and California art after traveling in Europe from 1869 to 1871. Margaret donated the gallery building and most of the collection to the City and California Museum Association in 1885, creating what the museum describes as the first public art museum west of the Mississippi. The contemporary pavilion more than tripled the museum’s size in 2010.

The collection contains more than 25,000 objects. Strengths include California art from the Gold Rush to the present, European master drawings and paintings, one of the country’s largest international ceramics collections, and art from Asia, Africa, Oceania, Native America, and the ancient Americas. Rotating exhibitions mean no individual artwork should be promised without checking the current on-view pages.

Current public hours are Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 10 a.m.–5 p.m., with Thursday hours extended to 9 p.m.; the museum is closed Monday and Tuesday. Standard admission is $15 adult, $10 senior or college student, $8 ages 6–17, and free through age five. The buildings are barrier-free, three elevators serve all floors, and the museum publishes free loaner wheelchairs, strollers, gallery stools, sensory tools, and advance interpretation services.