About Us

The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts preserves, presents and creates California history. The Museum brings our rich and diverse history alive through the extraordinary collection of the California State Archives and other collections throughout the state. For the first time, California's women have a home for their stories in a Museum about California history. And the California Museum promotes our artistic and cultural heritage. Here you will find an active, engaging center that serves as a bridge from the past to the future.

First Lady Maria Shriver has led a bipartisan effort to create this museum housed at the site of the former California State History Museum. The revitalized museum operates as a nonprofit, non-partisan historical and cultural institution dedicated to telling the complete history of California, including the stories of California's women.

A revitalized Board of Trustees oversees the operations and will launch a multi-million dollar capital campaign to design and develop the new Museum.

The Governor and First Lady serve as Honorary Chairs of the Museum along with an Honorary Board including former Governors and First Ladies Gray and Sharon Davis, Peter and Gayle Wilson, George and Gloria Deukmejian, Jerry Brown and Anne Gust, and Nancy Reagan.

An Advisory Board of notable historians, scholars, writers, teachers, artists and others, led by Dr. Kevin Starr, California Librarian Emeritus, will help guide the Museum's content and design, which will include permanent and changing exhibits, traveling exhibits and a dynamic website.

The new Museum received a huge vote of confidence from the California Legislature when it unanimously approved bipartisan legislation authorizing the new Museum.

The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts is housed in the State Archives Building in Sacramento, one block from the State Capitol. The building has more than 20,000 square feet of exhibit space, and facilities for lectures, performances, receptions and events. Click here to find out more.

The ground-breaking California Museum for History, Women and the Arts will tell the story of our great state, a story of remarkable men and women, a story that is still being written. The Museum will be a thriving, living center of history, culture, art and learning. It will showcase the State Archives and partner with other museums and women's institutions in California and across the nation.

History museums are not simply showcases of the past. They honor those who blazed trails and opened doors, as well as inspire new generations to dream their own dreams. At The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts, generations of boys and girls for years to come will find inspiration and search for their own dreams.