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.
Balboa Park (San Diego) in "far to the north" San Francisco to celebrate the canal opening. Although $5,000,000 had been set aside by Congress for celebrations of the Panama Canal opening, the majority of the funds went to the San Francisco expo. In anticipation of the exposition, many of San Diego's business and city leaders began to develop separate plans for the park. John D. Spreckels, owner of the San Diego Electric Railway, wanted to shift the location of the main public plaza to add room for exhibitors — and to allow his streetcar system to traverse the park and extend to the North