Fresno Museums and Art Galleries

(Fresno, California - CA, USA)

A city of culture and home to some top quality museums, Fresno offers a number of attractions that fall within this category, ranging from historic homes brimming with period antiquities, to leading art galleries and museums filled with history, artifacts and regional memorabilia.

Located on the northern side of the downtown district and close to Radio Park is the Fresno Art Museum, which interestingly ranks as the only significant contemporary art gallery to be found between the Californian giants of San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The Fresno Art Museum has its origins in the late 1940s and moved to its present purpose-built facility in 1960. Over the years, the exhibition space at this modern art gallery has more than doubled in size, with notable additions including the Bonner Auditorium (150 seats).


Further museums of note in Fresno include the Kearney Mansion on the West Kearney Boulevard, which is to be found on the western side of the city and was built in the early 1890s. This grand residence comprises two buildings - the main house and an adjoining annex built for its servants, the latter of which now contains the gift store. Today, the house is run by the Fresno City and County Historic Society and operates as a museum-type attraction, being filled with many original antiquities, period furnishings, paintings and fixtures.

Rather more central is the downtown African American Museum of the San Joaquin Valley on Fulton Street. Roughly a ten-minute stroll from the Warnors Theater and its adjacent Warnors Center for the Performing Arts, this attraction was established in 1984, in order to document the many important contributions made by past African Americans who have helped to shape and influence the San Joaquin Valley of today.

Visitors should note that the Fresno Metropolitan Museum of Art and Science sadly closed at the beginning of 2010, following significant financial losses.

African American Museum of the San Joaquin Valley

Address: 1857 Fulton Street, Fresno, California (CA), 93710, USA
Tel: +1 559 268 7102

Fresno Art Museum

Address: 2233 North 1st Street, Fresno, California (CA), 93703, USA
Tel: +1 559 441 4221

Kearney Mansion Museum

Address: Kearney Park, 7160 West Kearney Boulevard, Fresno, California (CA), 93706, USA
Tel: +1 559 441 0862

Legion of Valor Museum

Address: 2425 Fresno Street, Fresno, California (CA), 93721, USA
Tel: +1 559 498 0510

Meux Home Museum

Address: 1007 R Street, Fresno, California (CA), 93710, USA
Tel: +1 559 233 8007