Carnegie Art Museum - Oxnard (Closed July 2019)

The Carnegie Art Museum (CAM) was closed effective July 1, 2019 as a result of a $9.2 million shortfall in the fiscal year 2019-20 City of Oxnard budget. City Council opted to close the Museum as a result of the shortfall.

CAM Cornerstones will continue offering exhibits and programs at the CAM Studio Gallery, behind the Museum on the right-hand side, facing Plaza Park. Updates on exhibits will be posted via social media, email newsletter and at www.carnegieam.org.

The Carnegie Art Museum is run by the City of Oxnard.  It was originally built by Andrew Carnegie, who donated $12,000 in 1906 towards the construction of the building to be used as a library for the area. Its Neo-Classical (1900-1920) architecture and grand scale preserves the prevailing taste for classical forms during the first decades of the twentieth century. Its strict Greek Temple facade in the Doric Order with interior Ionic columns are graphic documents of a young western town's striving for recognition. Its Greek architecture was in fact the choice of Oxnard's first mayor, Richard Haydock. It was designed by Los Angeles Architect, Franklin Burnham.

The Carnegie collection is Oxnard's municipal art collection which began before the Carnegie Building was used as a fine arts museum. The collection began in 1924 when members of the Art Club of Oxnard decided to purchase "Desert Bloom" by California landscape painter Katherine Leighton.

In addition to its traveling and special exhibits which change every month, the Museum has a permanent collection of over 1,500 art and ethnographic objects. Over 600 are paintings, drawings, prints and photographs primarily by 20th century California artists.

The museum is open Thursday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm, Sunday from 1-5pm and is closed on holidays. For more information, visit www.carnegieam.org or call 805.385.8157.  The museum is located at 424 South C Street, Oxnard.