Museums You May Have Missed

Two Fridays - February 9 and 23, 2024
1PM-3:00PM PT

Corte Madera Store

$120 for both, $65 for one session

There are a half dozen museums - some in rather remote places and some in oft visited cities - that most people miss entirely. They house intriguing collections of art and in this course we will see what is in store for us if we make an effort to get off the beaten track. 

• In Stockton: We start close to home, visiting the Haggiin Museum in Stockton. Opened in 1931 it houses works by well-known French artists, especially the Barbizon School, a significant collection of California Landscapes including the largest collection of works by Alfred Bierstadt anywhere. 
• In Santa Barbara: We visit Lotusland, a fantastic botanical garden connected to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and its equally picturesque founder. This is really several gardens in one. We will also pop into the Santa Barbara Museum of Art , a really fine museum sadly ignored by visitors to the city.   
• In Los Angeles: On to La-La land where we visit the fairly new Museum of Motion Pictures. Long overdue, it is a paradise for old movie buffs!  
• In New Orleans: The Cabildo is the museum to visit in The Big Easy, with a marvelous collection of art and artifacts telling the story of Louisiana and New Orleans traditions. 
• In Tulsa, OK: The Philbrook Museum and Garden - the former home of a wealthy oil man - is worth a whole day, viewing Italian Renaissance paintings in beautifully furnished rooms with commissioned murals, collections of porcelain and glassware and important period furniture. The gardens are extensive and very lovely.   

Washington DC: The last stop is our nation’s capitol, where we will visit Hillwood the Estate, Museum and Garden of Marjorie Merriweather Post. She had exquisite taste and wanted to inspire and educate the world - from the French Drawing Room to the incomparable collection of Russian Sacred Art (her third husband was Ambassador to Russia) - every room in the house and every gallery in the museum is an experience. At the end of the day, relax in the  Merriweather Cafe in the Garden.

Kerrin Meis taught art history at SFSU for ten years and has led study tours in Europe. Her Book Passage classes have been favorites for years.