About the Museum
The mission of the Santa Paula Art Museum is to preserve and share Santa Paula's artistic heritage including the famous Santa Paula collection; and to educate and engage the community through collection, exhibition, interpretation, programming, and outreach.
Art creates community. That’s our mantra at the Santa Paula Art Museum. We believe that art strengthens our community by providing opportunities for self-expression, connection, learning, and joy.
Santa Paula is a remarkable community with a fascinating history and art history. In 1937, local banker, rancher, and artist Douglas Shively was so enraptured by the beauty of his hometown that he convinced the Chamber of Commerce to establish an annual Santa Paula Art Show. Offering purchase prizes, the Chamber invited all of the best Southern California artists to paint scenes within an 8-mile radius of the city. (The show broadened in subsequent years and continues to be hosted to this day.) Having acquired the show’s winning artworks for nearly five decades, the Santa Paula civic art collection now consists of over 300 works of art by noted 20th-century artists like Cornelis Botke, Jessie Arms Botke, Robert Clunie, Al Dempster, Ralph Holmes, Emil Kosa, Jr., Paul Lauritz, and Milford Zornes. Also included in the collection are a great number of early Hollywood and Disney background painters like Al Dempster, Basil Davidovich, George Gibson, and Charles Payzant. With such a rich artistic heritage in need of preservation, a devoted group of Santa Paula citizens worked to establish an art museum.
Through a lease agreement with the Limoneira Company, the company’s former headquarters was renovated and reopened as the Santa Paula Art Museum on February 14, 2010. Built in 1924, the classic two-story structure was designed by the famed local architect Roy Wilson, Sr. The architectural details of the exterior of the building hint at the interior's handsome wood paneling, soaring windows and stunning atrium, all of which have been lovingly restored (see slideshow and video below).
In 2016, local businessman Lee Cole gifted the mid-century former Santa Paula Savings and Loan building (located right next door) to the Santa Paula Art Museum. This incredible gift was a continuation of the longstanding generosity that The Cole Family has shown towards the Museum in memory of Lee’s late wife, Jeanette Cole, who was a beloved Santa Paula Art Museum docent. Following a ten-month renovation, this second space opened in the summer of 2018 as the Museum’s Cole Creativity Center offering art classes and programs for children and adults.
In addition to exhibiting and safeguarding the historic Santa Paula civic art collection, the Santa Paula Art Museum maintains its own permanent collection. The Museum presents ten original exhibitions of historic and contemporary art each year; a wide variety of art classes and programs for all ages; creative community events; and much more.
The Santa Paula Art Museum is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization #2478728.
The Santa Paula Art Museum is proud to bear the names of Jeanette Cole and The Cole Family who have supported the Museum from the very beginning.
