The 9 Best Museums in Riverside, California (CA)

Housed in the manufacturing headquarters of Phenix Technology, Inc.'s firefighter and rescue helmet division, the self guided museum features one of the world's largest collections of firefighter related memorabilia that spans centuries. Hundreds of fire helmets from around the world are the highlight of the museum including European helmets from the beginning of the 18th Century.

Nonprofit Museum and Foundation which preserves, interprets, and promotes the history of the National Historic Landmark Mission Inn Hotel & Spa. Independent organization offering free museum exhibits, guided interpretive tours, and public educational programming.

A unique cultural and historic resource in Riverside, California devoted to social justice and civil liberties education through the collected art of Japanese American artist Mine Okubo, the author of Citizen 13660, and exhibits, documentaries, and digital archives.

The California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock is devoted to showing the work of contemporary artists who use photography, collaborating with UCR faculty and students to bring their varied expertise to the public in exhibitionary form, and to preserving and making accessible its vast holdings of photography and related apparatus.

As a center for learning, the Riverside Metropolitan Museum interacts with the community to collect, preserve, explore and interpret the cultural and natural history of Riverside and its region.

Mission Statement The Riverside Art Museum strives to integrate art into the lives of people in a way that engages, inspires, and builds community by presenting thought-provoking exhibits and providing quality art classes that instill a lifelong love of the arts. About the Museum Located in the historic Mission Inn district of downtown Riverside, our architecturally significant 1929 building is a former YWCA facility designed by Hearst Castle and AIA Gold Medal-winning architect Julia Morgan. The building's distinctive architecture as a work of art in its own right brought it to the attention of the Riverside Art Center in the 1960s. Purchased from the YWCA on July 5, 1967, Morgan's building became the proud home of the Riverside Art Museum. The building is now home to artists and art lovers as a place to quietly roam and experience the world of art. Discover a wealth of opportunities to learn and be inspired in our galleries where there's something to pique everyone's interests and to challenge their perceptions of what art is. Showing a mix of solo, group, and permanent collection exhibits featuring traditional and contemporary/modern art, the Riverside Art Museum regularly displays the work of some of the best artists in the world, including Robert Williams, Takashi Murakami, Shag, Kathe Kollwitz, James Gurney, Marc Chagall, Millard Sheets, Shepard Fairey, Corita Kent, and Don O'Neill, as well as exhibits highlighting the works of our talented local members and aspiring high school students. Join us for art classes for the young and young at heart alike that teach art history and technique, free family activities, lectures, book readings and signing, film screenings, and our The Blue Door Museum Store filled with items you won't find elsewhere (Family level members and above receive a 10% discount). Be inspired. Make art. Go home instilled with a lifelong love of the arts.