Crocker Art Museum

| tralev | sacramento | art |

The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento combines the old with the new to create a spectacular display of some of California’s best fine art. The original building, built in 1872, belonged to the Crocker family who commissioned a local architect named Seth Babson to construct the Italianate mansion. Since its inception it contained an expansive private art collection. It was donated to the city of Sacramento in 1885 by Margaret E. Crocker and has served as the center of fine art in the city ever since.

The museum is divided into two main sections. The original Crocker mansion houses a large collection of 19th century furniture, exquisite European paintings, and beautifully detailed decor.

Crocker Gallery 2

The modern wing of the museum contains more contemporary art along with rotating exhibits. We were fortunate to see the Hi-Fructose exhibit which celebrates the first ten years of the artists in the Hi-Fructose magazine.

Crocker Modern Gallery

Hawaii’s Queen Liliuokalani described her visit to the (then private) Crocker Mansion in her book “Hawaii’s Story”. She describes “a most elegant mansion”, how the art gallery made a lasting impression on her at the time, and how “the least detail of her grand and beautiful residence was nothing less than perfection.” She was pleased to learn that shortly after her visit the entire gallery was donated to the city for future generations to appreciate.

Classic Decor in Old Crocker Art Museum

Naturally being a few blocks away form the state capitol building encourages some provocative and politically charged art work to emerge. Some of my favorite pieces in the museum were related to California politics.

Capitol Hill Billy Goat Ale

Death Sentence

The Crocker at museum is a real treasure for the city of Sacramento and is a lasting testimony to love and appreciation that the Crocker family had for fine arts.

Thank you for reading! Share your thoughts with me on bluesky, mastodon, or via email.

Check out some more stuff to read down below.

Most popular posts this month

Recent Favorite Blog Posts

This is a collection of the last 8 posts that I bookmarked.

Articles from blogs I follow around the net

Pluralistic: Daniel de Visé's 'The Blues Brothers' (21 Jun 2025)

Today's links Daniel de Visé's 'The Blues Brothers': Far more than production gossip – an unmissable portrait of a turning point in American comedy and music. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. Object permanence: 2005, 2010, 2015, 20…

via Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow June 21, 2025

Hiding metrics from the web

In 2012, artist Ben Grosser released a browser extension called Facebook Demetricator. Once installed, it hid all metrics from Facebook’s interface: likes, comments, notifications, unread messages, and so on. “What’s going on here is that these quantifica…

via Manual do Usuário June 21, 2025

It's like surfing

The weird thing about engineering management is that you feel kinda useless. Yet if you stop, projects stop.

via swizec.com RSS Feed June 21, 2025

Generated by openring