Since 1959, The Monterey Museum of Art has served the community, preserving and presenting the legacy of California art through enriching exhibitions, public programs, and art education initiatives. The Museum serves a diverse audience, including over 20,000 in-person visitors and program participants annually. Visitors and program participants travel to the Museum primarily from throughout Monterey County and other areas of California, with a smaller portion of visitors coming from international locations. The Museum continues to make exhibitions accessible to historically underserved communities—from throughout Monterey County and the state.

To engage historically underserved communities, the Museum continues to offer free admission to youth under the age of 18, college students, and military. The Museum also continues to offer a free school visit program for K-12 students from Title 1 schools. Each student who attends a Museum school visit goes home with free admission tickets to return to the Museum with their family. Additionally, the Museum provides free bussing for classrooms to visit—thanks to grant support. Free Family Days is another key way that the Museum reaches historically underserved communities. Combined, school visits and free Family Days serve over 7,000 K-12 students and youth and families each year (approximately 30% of the Museum’s total annual visitorship). Building relationships with schools, libraries, and other community organizations led to increased engagement with art at the Museum prior to COVID.

The Museum is now working to build back its accessible programming for and outreach to K-12 classrooms and youth and families—with an emphasis on free mobile pop-up art experiences that the Museum will offer at locations throughout Monterey County.