Santa Monica is not just about beaches, bikes, and boardwalks, it is a cultural heavyweight packed into little more than eight square miles. Within this compact, creative city, there are museums that span aviation history to children’s play, cutting-edge galleries showcasing international talent, and more than 170 murals transforming everyday walls into giant canvases. Add in pottery classes, intimate theaters, live music, film screenings, and a year-round lineup of cultural events, and Santa Monica is less a destination and more an artistic canvas, alive with moments that spark inspiration at every turn.

Museums
Santa Monica boasts a diverse and vibrant arts and culture scene, featuring leading museums that preserve the rich history and legacy of Santa Monica. At the Museum of Flying, just in the shadow of Santa Monica Airport, see historic Douglas World Cruisers, a replica of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s biplane and a U.S. Navy Skyhawk. You can even step into the cockpit of a Boeing 727 airliner. Along Main Street, in a historic 1894 Victorian-style house, the California Heritage Museum showcases craftsman furniture, folk art, tiles and collectables, as well as photographs of a sprawling ostrich farm that occupied much of the Ocean Park area back in the 1890s.