San Diego, California Museums
Exhibiting Icons, Antique Airplanes,Dinosaur Skeletons and Art
Oct 7, 2007
Chances are, San Diego's sun and sea will always be its stellar attractions. But for people who like to look at exhibits, its museums are the number one attraction.
An even dozen of the museums are located within walking distance of each other in Balboa Park. Though it would take weeks to explore them all thoroughly, you can comfortably visit three or four in a day. Built around world-renowned collections of Italian Renaissance, Dutch and Spanish Old Masters, the San Diego Museum of Art is located almost at the Park's center. In addition to its permanent collection, the museum offers major international exhibitionsthroughout the year.
Two other art museums -- the Timken Art Gallery and Museum of Photographic Arts -- are adjacent to the Museum of Art. The outstanding works in the Timken are a spectacular collection of early Russian icons and one of Gobelin tapestries. The Museum of Photographic Arts is the first museum in the United States designed specifically for all the photographic arts: video, motion picture and still photography.
Also in Balboa Park, the San Diego Aerospace Museum traces the history of flying from the dawn of powered flight at Kittyhawk. Planes from the barnstorming era as well as military planes and pleasure craft are on display, along with an extensive collection of aerospace memorabilia.
Another Balboa Park museum, the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theater and Science Center, combines a planetarium and hands-on scientific exhibits. In the Space Theater, the gigantic motion picture frame projects OMNIMAX films through a fish-eye lens onto a tilted 76' dome. The 9,500-square-foot exhibit area is filled with more than 50 participatory exhibits including a cloud chamber, a heartbeat oscilloscope and sand pendulums.
One of the most popular museums outside Balboa Park is the Maritime Museum. The three sailing craft moored in San Diego harbor that make up the museum include the iron-hulled Star of India, built on the Isle of Man in 1863 as a full-rigged merchant ship; the luxurious 1904 steam yacht Medea and the ferryboat Berkeley. The Berkeley was built in 1898 to carry railroad passengers, commuters and tourists between terminals in Oakland and San Francisco. All of the vessels may be toured.
At the Mingei International Museum of World Folk Art in La Jolla, exhibits are exceptionally well displayed in a large, airy gallery and there's an area where artisans demonstrate various folk art processes. The museum also presents folk music performances, illustrated lectures and films, and A show called "Paper Innovations," for example, incorporated displays of paper cuts from around the world, handmade decorative papers, clothing and papier mache objects with demonstrations of paper making.
Others among San Diego's eclectic array of museums range from the Scripps Aquarium in La Jolla and the Firehouse Museum in downtown San Diego to Mission San Diego de Alcala in the northern part of the city and Old Town. The latter, a California state park, contains several points of historic interest. A self-guided walking tour, starting at Old Town Plaza, passes by historic buildings including residences of early Spanish settlers. Maps are available at Old Town business places.
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