Laguna Art Museum

What it is

Laguna Art Museum collects and shows California art. Local artists founded it in 1918 as the Laguna Beach Art Association, and the museum’s own history page credits Anna Hills, Edgar Payne and other artists with starting it to grow knowledge of and interest in art.

The building has layers. In 1929 the association opened a custom gallery by the Los Angeles architect Myron Hunt, paid for through a fundraising drive that Hills led. That room survives inside today’s building as the Steele Gallery. The gallery took on museum characteristics and became the Laguna Beach Museum of Art in 1972, then the Laguna Art Museum in 1986, the year an expansion completed the building you see now. The museum marked the association’s centennial in 2018.

The museum sits at 307 Cliff Drive, near Coast Highway at the edge of the Village. GW Contemporary says on its own site that it is directly opposite, and Tamara Nelson Art Gallery says it is steps away.

Hours and admission

The museum posts these hours:

• Tuesday through Sunday: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Monday: closed, except select Mondays and holidays.
• Closed on New Year’s Day, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve it closes at 3 p.m.

Admission, as of October 2026, is $15 for general visitors and $10 for students 20 and older, seniors and military. Youth 19 and under and museum members enter free. The museum lists two recurring free times: the first Thursday of each month from 6 to 9 p.m., and military members and their families from Armed Forces Day through Labor Day. Health aides and caregivers who accompany a visitor are admitted free, according to the museum’s tours page.

Special hours apply now and then, including on some Art Walk nights. Check the museum’s page before you plan around a date.

The free first Thursday

The free evening lines up with the monthly First Thursdays Art Walk, when member galleries along Coast Highway stay open from 6 to 9 p.m. The museum is one of the stops. Plan to look at the museum first, then walk north on Coast Highway toward Gallery Row.

Getting there and parking

The museum says it has no on-site parking. It lists metered spaces on Cliff Drive and Coast Highway near the building, plus street parking in the residential area east of the museum, across Coast Highway. Accessible metered spaces are on Cliff Drive, and the museum says holders of a disabled person placard can park in metered spaces free for up to 72 hours.

The city’s free Coastal Route trolley follows Coast Highway between North Laguna and Heisler Park, downtown, South Laguna and Mission Hospital, and on to the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point. From September 8, 2026 to June 25, 2027, the city runs it Monday to Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., with a trolley every 20 to 30 minutes. The city posts a separate summer schedule. For lots, meters and permits, see the parking guide, and for routes, see getting around.

Tours and programs

Docents give drop-in public tours on business days other than Mondays. The museum asks you to call 949-494-8971 first to confirm that a docent is scheduled for your day. Private groups can reserve tours Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with at least three weeks’ notice. The museum quotes a discounted group rate for 15 or more visitors on its tours page.

The museum launched an annual event called Art & Nature in 2013, and it keeps an event calendar of programs. The Laguna Beach Music Festival lists a prelude evening at the museum on February 3, 2027.

Nearby

Heisler Park, at 375 Cliff Drive, is on the same street, and Main Beach is to the south, where Broadway meets Coast Highway. On a day of rain, the museum is one of the indoor options collected on the rainy-day page. For the longer story of how the art colony took hold, read Laguna Beach history.