With yearlong exhibitions, community engagement projects, and one major event, the San Diego Museum of Art is celebrating 100 years in San Diego.
The museum has curated for its centennial four new exhibitions that highlight the museum’s history and contribution to San Diego, and has organized several events to mark the milestone. It was important for museum curators to include the community in the celebration.
“It’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Kate Merena, SDMA’s Associate Director of Memberships. “For us as staff and for our guests here at the museum.”
In one exhibit that celebrates those who led to its growth, organizers are calling on guests to contribute their own memories with the museum.
“We truly are built on community from the very beginning of the San Diego Museum of Art,” Merena said. “Our community has been what has built and sustained us, so asking folks to send their favorite memories in is just a lovely way for us to show that we have been a part of the community for all that time.”
The museum was founded on Feb. 28, 1926, with the original name the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego. On its 50th anniversary, the name was changed to the San Diego Museum of Art, and 50 years later, it celebrates 100 years of collecting art and welcoming visitors from all over the world to San Diego.
On the same date as its inauguration — now 100 years later — the museum is hosting an all-day public birthday celebration. Other events throughout the year honor the San Diego Museum of Art’s legacy and contributions to the city of San Diego.
For art lovers, partygoers or any San Diegan who has been putting off visiting one of the jewels of Balboa Park, this may be the perfect opportunity to visit SDMA.
Here’s what to know:
One big bash to celebrate the centennial
While the San Diego Museum of Art will host events throughout the year, its biggest celebration falls on the museum’s 100th anniversary, Feb. 28, 2026. The Cake Party from 2-5 p.m. celebrates the birthday of the iconic landscape.
Tickets for The Cake Party are currently sold out, but there will still be free entry to the museum from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., as well as celebrations open to the all outside the museum. Attendees can expect performances, live music, food vendors and family-friendly activities.
SDMA is also partnering with the San Diego Ballet and the San Diego Public Library for more events under the “Centennial Celebration.”
“Cross-cultural partnerships are critically important for the arts and the community in general because it helps bring audiences who don’t necessarily know about each of the folks involved together,” said Merena. “It brings people together around a common purpose. It brings people together around a common interest.”
Four major exhibitions honor the centennial
Visitors during the centennial will be treated to four new exhibitions honoring the milestone.
“The community is going to see multiple projects this year, many events,” said Roxana Velásquez, Maruja Baldwin Executive Director and CEO of The San Diego Museum of Art. “But above all, what interests us is to look at the past, but to design the future.”
From images that take guests back in time to interpretive artwork of the museum, here’s what to explore:
SDMA 100 years
Jan. 24 to July 26 | San Diego History Center
The celebration begins with an exhibition rooted in the museum’s history, showcasing archival images and ephemera from the SDMA Archives and the San Diego History Center.
The best part? The community can be a part of this exhibition. A unique feature is the in-gallery slideshow, which displays personal photographs and community memories submitted by the public. The link to submit locals’ favorite memories at the museum is still open, and the exhibition runs through the end of July — an opportunity to be part of the museum’s history.
“We truly are built on community from the very beginning of the San Diego Museum of Art,” said Merena. “Our community has been what has built and sustained us, so asking folks to send their favorite memories in is just a lovely way for us to show that we have been a part of the community for all that time.”
Take a look at some of the moments that will be featured in the exhibit below:
Fine Arts Gallery and Plaza de Panama with the Arch of the Future during the California Pacific International Exposition, 1935. © San Diego History Center.
Construction of the façade of the Fine Arts Gallery, now The San Diego Museum of Art, 1925. The San Diego Museum of Art Archives.
Her Majesty Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland visiting The San Diego Museum of Art in 1983. The San Diego Museum of Art Archives.
Local Visions: Reimagining the Façade
Jan. 24 to July 26 | San Diego Museum of Art
Local Visions grew out of an open call inviting local artists to design their own perspectives of the Museum’s Spanish Colonial Revival façade. The museum said the selection was curated from a remarkable number of responses, each chosen to reflect the diversity of artistic approaches and the shared sense of connection to this historic building.
Wagner Humphreys, Lori Mitchell, and Tim Novara were chosen by a Museum jury as Centennial Artist Honorees. Seven additional local artists will join them in showcasing their respective reimagining of the Museum façade.
The museum is displaying the 10 selected works as a walk-in gallery until the end of July.
Cafés and Cabarets: The Spectacular Art of Toulouse-Lautrec
April 4 to Sept. 20 | San Diego Museum of Art
In 1987, SDMA received a gift from the collection of Baldwin M. Baldwin, a connoisseur of the French artist Henri deToulouse-Lautrec, whose holdings of the artist’s work were among the most comprehensive in the world.
First shown at SDMA in1972, these light-sensitive works can only rarely be displayed. To commemorate this gift and the Museum’s Centennial, the exhibition, “Cafés and Cabarets,” shares approximately thirty-five works by Toulouse-Lautrec.
“The wonderful thing about Cafés and Cabarets, that sort of beautiful full-circle moment, is that when they go on view in early April, they will be in the same gallery that they were in back in the ’80s,” said Merena.
Forging a Legacy: 15 Years of Landmark Acquisitions
May 16 – Sept. 7 | San Diego Museum of Art
San Diego Museum of ArtSan Diego Museum of Art
Claude Monet, Eglise de Varengeville, effet matinal, 1882. Oil on canvas. Collection of John and Toni Bloomberg. Promised Gift to SDMA.
This major exhibition highlights the acquisitions received by the museum over the last 15 years. Organizers say the exhibit illustrates the museum’s growth and commitment to excellence.
The majority of gifts of art were donated by the community, and includes tunning examples by Lucas Cranach, Albrecht Dürer, Jusepe de Ribera, John Singer Sargent, and Francisco de Zurbarán, as well as Impressionist and Modern paintings by Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso; Japanese woodblock prints; and cutting-edge contemporary work by Hugo Crosthwaite, Richard Deacon, Ala Ebtekar, Lalla Essaydi, Sergio Hernández, Cauleen Smith, and Wang Qingsong, the museum said.
“Almost everyone wants and loves Monet’s landscapes,” said Velásquez “So if you come to San Diego and want to see Impressionist art like you would at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris this is the only museum in San Diego where you can see it.”