March 27, 2024 - Wednesday - Today we were excited to be back in Orange, CA to visit the newly remodeled and expanded Hilbert Museum of California Art. We've been coming here since 2016 and the original museum closed in 2022 and it opened in temporary quarters in downtown Orange during the last year and a half. The museum has now tripled in size from 7,000 sq. ft. to over 22,000 sq. ft.
The spectacular mural shown above was created by Millard Sheets. The 1969 mural had been on the facade of a former Home Savings in Santa Monica for 50 years. In 2019, with the building facing demolition, the mural was painstakingly removed, in sections, and crated up. For more of the story, click here for an article written by David Allen.
The museum is very large now so we only looked at the new building and we plan to return soon to see what they've done with the original building. There are several smaller galleries in the new building and the first one we saw contains Navajo textiles.
The second gallery was devoted to Norman Rockwell.
The third gallery was about radios. A lot of the artists who painted the California scene paintings designed the cabinets for the radios made during the 1940s and 1950s.
We loved it and will return soon to see the rest of the museum.
Before the museum we had lunch at the Filling Station Cafe.
I had their fish tacos which is three battered fish tacos with green cabbage, carrots, cilantro, tomato, onion and cheese in corn tortillas. It's served with guacamole, sour cream and salsa.
Judy had their Filling Station Special Burger served with bacon, avocado, cheddar and Swiss cheese with a side of fruit.
