A non-profit museum located in the historic heart of Orange County in Santa Ana, CA, Bowers Museum showcase art and artifacts from cultures around the world in 9 permanent collection exhibitions and rotating featured exhibitions. As the largest and one of the oldest museums in Orange County, Bowers has been voted ‘Best Museum’ in Orange County for the past 30 years by OC Register Readers (2023). Partnering with world-class institutions, Bowers Museum’s featured exhibitions include blockbusters such as Terracotta Warriors; Mummies: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Treasures of the British Museum; and Guo Pei: Art of Couture.

Celebrate world cultures through their arts.

The Bowers Museum enriches lives through the world's finest arts and cultures.

The Charles W. Bowers Memorial Museum first opened its doors in 1936 as a city-run museum devoted primarily to the history of Orange County. In 1987, the City of Santa Ana closed the museum with the understanding that after careful study and a great deal of input from the community, the museum would be reopened as a totally transformed museum, ready to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

In October of 1992, the Bowers Museum (some six times larger than the original museum) opened its doors to a crowd of over 17,000 people. Since this highly successful reopening, the museum has presented over 150 special exhibitions from all over the world, opened six permanent galleries, and watched its membership grow to nearly 8,000 members.

On February 18, 2007, the Bowers Museum opened the new Dorothy and Donald Kennedy Wing which added 30,000-square-feet and increased its total exhibition space. It features two new galleries: The East West Bank Gallery and Anderson-Hsu-Tu Gallery, in addition to the 300-seat Norma Kershaw Auditorium, the John M. Lee Court for events of up to 500 people, the Sharon D. Thompson Foyer, the S.L. and Betty Huang Courtyard, and more to meet the needs of a growing community and audiences. The Bowers Museum has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums and has been widely acclaimed in broadcast and in print, including many national magazines such as U.S. News & World Report.

For over eight decades, the Bowers Museum has evolved in many ways. From a relatively small museum focusing on Orange County history, the Bowers is now 8.6 times larger. Now it has the distinction of being the largest museum in Orange County, and one of the finest cultural arts museums in the region. Its collections, programs, and exhibitions still include Orange County history, but now reflect the demographics of Southern California by celebrating its diverse cultural makeup, with major emphasis on the fine arts of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Pacific. The Bowers Museum’s permanent collection has grown substantially since the museum’s inception. Currently, the collection numbers over 90,000 artifacts and works of art. Shortly after the Bowers celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1986, the museum closed its doors for a period of self-study, evaluation, and rebuilding for the 21st century. What emerged when it reopened its doors in October of 1992 was a new museum ready for the next millennium. With the addition of the new Dorothy and Donald Kennedy Wing in February of 2007, the museum added a permanent Chinese exhibition, along with additional galleries for special exhibitions and a growing Oceanic collection, a spacious event venue, and a 300-seat auditorium, all to advance its mission to enrich lives through the world’s finest arts and cultures.