Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Location & Contact:

2559 Puesta del Sol
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
805-682-4711

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Description:

Hours: Open Daily 10:00 AM5:00 PM
Closed: Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve (at 3 PM), Christmas Day, New Years Day, and last Saturday in June for the Santa Barbara Wine Festival

Admission: Museum Members FREE; Non-Members: $10/adult; $7/senior (65 and over); $7/Teen (13-17); $6/Child (3-12); Children under 3 free.

Locations

* Mission Canyon Campus: Located on eleven oak-shaded acres in Mission Canyon, the Museum campus features a cluster of Spanish Revival-style buildings in a beautiful park-like setting.
* Sea Center: Located on historic Stearns Wharf, the Sea Center offers a window on ocean life in the Santa Barbara Channel through fun, interactive experiences.


Exhibits
The Mission Canyon campus features twelve exhibit halls focusing on regional natural history (birds, insects, mammals, marine life, paleontology), Native Americans, and antique natural history art. In addition there is a life-size Blue Whale skeleton, an ethnobotanic garden featuring plants used by the Chumash Indians, a planetarium, and a museum store. Programs throughout the year include lectures, performances, festivals, and family programs.

The Sea Center features engaging, interactive exhibits and aquaria that invite visitors to explore the ocean environment and to discover the fun in science and the wonders of the natural world.


Audience
The Museum serves the southern and central coast of California, including the counties of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura. The City of Santa Barbara is home to 89,000 people. It has a large Hispanic population and an active Native American community. The city is a popular tourist destination. Museum and Sea Center visitors are comprised of local and regional residents and national and international tourists. In addition, the two facilities serve approximately 44,000 k-12 students annually.


Of Interest
The Museum preserves extensive natural history collections of over three million objects used for research by a staff of 14 curators as well as visiting scientists from around the world.

The Museum is the largest repository of Chumash Indian artifacts in the world. It maintains a worldwide collection of mollusks, important regional collections of vertebrate animals (particularly mammals and birds) and beetles, and a very significant collection of antique natural history art.

Hours:

Monday: 10:00 AM-5:00 PM
Tuesday: 10:00 AM-5:00 PM
Wednesday: 10:00 AM-5:00 PM
Thursday: 10:00 AM-5:00 PM
Friday: 10:00 AM-5:00 PM
Saturday: 10:00 AM-5:00 PM
Sunday: 10:00 AM-5:00 PM