The UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art is a modern and contemporary art museum located on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. The museum's collection comprises more than 4,500 objects, with a concentration on the art of California and the Pacific Rim from the early 20th century to present. Exhibits include traditional paintings, sculptures, and photography, as well as new media in the form of video, digital, and installation art.
History Fine Arts Patrons Pavilion Gallery, 1962–1968 The museum was founded in 1962 as the Fine Arts Patrons Pavilion Gallery at the Balboa Pavilion by 13 women – Dorothy Ahmanson, Joan Brandt, Thelma Chastain, Em Cray, Dorothe Curtis, Kay Farwell, Ailene Hays, Judy Hurndall, Gloria Irvine, Jane Lawson,Jane Lawson, 91; a founder of the Orange County Museum of Art Los Angeles Times, January 16, 2007. Betty Mickle, Florence Stoddard and Betty WincklerCathy Curtis (June 21, 1989), Betty Winckler Dead at 82 : Services Held for Museum Organizer Los Angeles Times.Sarah Mosqueda (September 29, 2022), A new exhibit pays homage to the 13 women who founded OCMA Los Angeles Times. – who rented space on the pavilion's second floor in order to exhibit modern and contemporary art. Winckler served as its president until 1968, when the gallery changed its name and hired a professional staff.
Newport Harbor Art Museum, 1968–1996 By 1968 the institution became known as the Newport Harbor Art Museum, and in 1972 moved to a nearby, larger location to a storefront on the Balboa Peninsula.Suzanne Muchnic (October 24, 2004), No more coasting for OCMA Los Angeles Times. In 1977 the museum opened its doors in Newport Beach at a spaceRick Vanderknyff (January 25, 1992), Plans for New Home Put on Hold Los Angeles Times. – with of exhibition spaceCathy Curtis (January 15, 1993), Newport Harbor's Tumultuous Times Los Angeles Times. – designed by local architects Langdon & WilsonWilliam Wilson (January 24, 1988), Newport Art Museum's $50-Million Next Wave Los Angeles Times. on San Clemente Drive in Fashion Island.
In 1981, Paul Schimmel was named chief curator/curator of exhibitions and collections at the Newport Harbor Art Museum. At age 27, he was the youngest chief curator in the museum's history. During his eight-year tenure, he sharpened the museum's focus on contemporary California art, bringing works by John Altoon, John Baldessari, Chris Burden, Vija Celmins, Robert Irwin, Edward Kienholz, David Park, Charles Ray, Allen Ruppersberg, and James Turrell into the permanent collection.
In 1982, the museum won accreditation by American Association of Museums. By the following year, the collection was worth $2 million, 4,500 members were signed up and annual attendance was 65,000.Cathy Curtis (August 24, 1993), Ambition and Acrimony: Cathleen Gallander Helped Newport Harbor Build a National Reputation, but There Were 'Growing Pains Los Angeles Times. In 1985, the Irvine Company donated $1 million to underwrite major art exhibits at the museum for a decade.Hannah Fry (November 16, 2016), Irvine Co. objects to plans to donate part of Newport art museum land Los Angeles Times.
In February 1987, the Irvine Company offered a 10-acre site at the intersection of East Coast Highway and MacArthur Boulevard as a "challenge gift" to the museum; to get title to the land, the museum would have had to raise $10.5 million in cash. By November 1987, museum officials announced Renzo Piano as the winner of an international search for an architect to design a new $25-million building. Preliminary drawings of Piano's plans for a one-story, building, unveiled in August 1989,Cathy Curtis (August 2, 1989), New Art Museum's Future Look Los Angeles Times. showed a barrel-vaulted design that would be cut into the hillside to avoid violating local height restrictions. Visitors were to enter through the barrel-vaulted roof at parking lot-level and glide down to the lobby on an escalator.Cathy Curtis (May 17, 1991), Architect Speaks Up on Ouster Los Angeles Times. The response to the design was initially enthusiastic, but less than a year later, Piano lost the commission over assertions of escalating cost and insufficient gallery space. At the initiative of trustee Donald Bren, the museum's board hired Kohn Pedersen Fox instead. However, fund raising stalled at $10 million, and the title was never transferred.
Orange County Museum of Art, 1996–2018 After favorable votes by the boards of trustees of both museums after years of on-and-off discussions,Zan Dubin (April 19, 1996), Museum Merger Takes Step Closer to Reality Los Angeles Times.Zan Dubin (May 17, 1996), Vote Clears Key Hurdle for O.C. Museum Union Los Angeles Times. Attorney General of California Dan Lungren permitted Newport Harbor Art Museum to merge with Laguna Art Museum. The merger was completed in July 1996 and the newly combined organization was renamed the Orange County Museum of Art.Zan Dubin (March 31, 1996), Newport Trustees Want Changes in Museum Accord Los Angeles Times. The union lasted only nine months before, in April 1997, OCMA returned the deed of the Laguna Art Museum site to the LAM Heritage Corp., a nonprofit entity OCMA established as caretaker for the Laguna site.Cathy Curtis (April 2, 1997), Laguna Art Gets Hard-Won Freedom Los Angeles Times. The 3,800-piece art collection the Laguna museum contributed to the OCMA merger remained in a third-party trust along with the 2,360 pieces formerly owned by Newport Harbor Art Museum. Both museums agreed on shared access to the collection for exhibition purposes. OCMA retained responsibility for storage and insurance of all the art.
After the failed merger, incoming director Naomi Vine oversaw a $1.8-million expansion of OCMA designed by New York-based firm Archimuse that more than doubled the museum's size, with gallery space totalling .Cathy Curtis (January 25, 1997), Orange County Art Facility Now Ready to Reopen Los Angeles Times.Randy Lewis (December 27, 2001), Naomi Vine, 52; Headed Two O.C. Art Museums Los Angeles Times. The project also involved carving two art studios and a classroom out of office space in the former Newport Beach Public Library next door, which also has a new 108-seat auditorium and a vastly enlarged collection storage area; the library building was donated to the museum by the Irvine Co. In 2004, the lobby was transformed on a tight budget by Bauer and Wiley Architects of Newport Beach.
In June 2008, OCMA announced its intent to pull up stakes from its longtime home at 850 San Clemente Drive in Newport CenterLuke Money (December 15, 2016), O.C. Museum of Art's relocation plan has many ends still loose Los Angeles Times. when it was given title to a 1.64-acre parcel on Avenue of the Arts, on the condition that it break ground within five years.Carolina A. Miranda (April 8, 2015), Recent cuts at OCMA not a retreat, head of museum's trustees says Los Angeles Times. Shortly after, Thom Mayne was named to design the building.Mike Boehm (June 7, 2008), Architect, new site named for O.C. museum Los Angeles Times.
Temporary space
OCMA opened a temporary space in a former Room & Board furniture store at South Coast Village on October 3, 2018Richard Chang (February 11, 2019), Temporary OCMAExpand location offers a unique experience for arts lovers Los Angeles Times. which served as its interim home during the construction of the permanent Segerstrom Center facility, with about total and of exhibition space. Known as OCMA Expand Santa Ana (stylized as OCMAEXPAND-SANTA ANA), the site featured exhibition seasons of approximately six months each in duration,
New building and acquisition by UC Irvine
On May 31, 2018, officials unveiled the design for the museum's new building at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa created by Morphosis. The sale of the former Newport Beach site was announced on May 15, 2018. Groundbreaking for the three-story building took place in September 2019, with a projected opening in 2022. The structure was topped out on October 6, 2020.
The museum was temporarily closed on March 14, 2020, in accordance with quarantine efforts in response to the COVID-19 breakout in the United States. The facility was once again shuttered on November 16, 2020 amidst what local health officials described as a "second wave" of the virus in Orange County.
On October 8, 2022, OCMA opened its doors to the public for the first time with a 24-hour Grand Opening. Following from the design of Thom Mayne and Morphosis, the $93-millionSara Cardine (October 1, 2022), Orange County Museum of Art celebrates 60 years with new site, decade of free admission Los Angeles Times. building features curving bands of terracotta paneling to create a distinctive visual character. With nearly of reconfigurable exhibition galleries — approximately 50 percent more than in the previous location — the new museum allows OCMA to organize major special exhibitions alongside spacious installations from its collection. It also features an additional for education programs, performances, and public gatherings, and include administrative offices, a gift shop, and a café.
In June 2025, OCMA and the University of California, Irvine signed a nonbinding letter of intent, which, if approved by the University of California Board of Regents, would bring the museum under the university's control, effectively merging it with UC Irvine's Langson Institute and Museum of California Art.Jessica Gelt (June 16, 2025), UC Irvine in talks to take over Orange County Museum of Art: L.A. arts and culture this week Los Angeles Times. The museum's acquisition by UC Irvine was completed in September 2025. In February 2026, Kathryn Kanjo became the inaugural director of the new museum.
Exhibitions The Orange County Museum of Art has organized exhibitions of contemporary art, including the first surveys of Vija Celmins (1980), Chris Burden (1988), and Tony Cragg (1990), as well as major exhibitions of work by Lari Pittman (1983), Gunther Forg (1989), Charles Ray (1990), Guillermo Kuitca (1992), Bill Viola (1997), Inigo Manglano-Ovalle (2003), Catherine Opie (2006), Mary Heilmann (2007), and Jack Goldstein (2012). Thematic exhibitions of contemporary art have ranged from Objectives: The New Sculpture (1990) which presented the work of Grenville Davey, Katharina Fritsch, Robert Gober, Jeff Koons, Annette Lemieus, Juan Muñoz, Julian Opie, and Haim Steinbach; Girls' Night Out (2003), which presented work by Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Elina Brotherus, Dorit Cypis, Rineke Dijkstra, Katy Grannan, Sarah Jones, Kelly Nipper, Daniela Rossell, Shirana Shahbazi, and Salla Tykka;Karen Jacobsen, Girls' Night Out: Exhibition Catalogue, 2003. Orange County Museum of Art and State of Mind: New California Art circa 1970, presenting an in-depth study of California artists in the 1960s and 1970s.
The museum has also organized and hosted exhibitions of modern art and design such as Edvard Munch: Expressionist Paintings, 1900–1940(1983), The Interpretive Link: Abstract Surrealism into Abstract Expressionism: Works on Paper, 1938–1948 (1986), The Figurative Fifties: New York Figurative Expressionism (1988), American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age (2001), Picasso to Pollock: Modern Masterpieces from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (2004), Villa America: American Moderns 1900–1950 (2005), Birth of the Cool: Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury (2007), and Illumination: The Paintings of Georgia O'Keeffe, Agnes Pelton, Agnes Martin, and Florence Miller Pierce (2009).