San Diego Museum of Art San Diego Museum of Art The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located at 1450 El Prado in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed its name to the San Diego Museum of Art in 1978. The official Balboa Park website calls the San Diego Museum of Art "the region's oldest and largest art museum". Nearly half a million people visit the museum each year.
San Diego Art Institute The San Diego Art Institute is now recognized as an experimental, bi-national contemporary art center with a focus on the artists of Southern California and Northern Baja. In 1941, a group of San Diego businessmen met in the office of then Director of the Fine Arts Gallery in Balboa Park, Reginald Poland. These men were interested in forming a group, which would have as its chief objective the painting of local characteristic and historical scenes of San Diego and vicinity. Following the organizational meeting, invitations were issued to painters known to be interested in preserving the memories of the fast