The Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University reopens today after a multiyear, $12 million expansion led by founders Mark and Janet Hilbert.
The museum tripled in size to more than 22,000 square feet by adding a second building during the overhaul. The expanded facility along North Atchison Street, across the street from Orange train station, also includes a café, community room for educational events, research library and outdoor areas.
The entrance to the museum is highlighted by the 1969 mosaic “Pleasures Along the Beach” from famed California artist Millard Sheets.
Reopening with nine exhibits, the museum’s collection has around 5,000 pieces of art, mostly from the Hilberts’ own collection. The couple began collecting California scene paintings in the early 1990s.
“Welcome to our dream come true,” Mark Hilbert said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 22.
For more on the Hilbert Museum, see the Feb. 19 print edition of the Business Journal.
