Santa Barbara Maritime Museum

Santa Barbara Maritime Museum opened its doors to the public in July 2000 in the historic Waterfront Center, formerly the Naval Reserve Building, with the unique mission to interpret the rich and diverse maritime history of the Santa Barbara Channel. Founded by a group of fishermen, divers, and sailors who are a part of this exciting history, SBMM is centered on interactivity, and the founders envisioned it as a place where the public could experience maritime culture without leaving the harbor.

Santa Barbara is a coastal community, with a strong, varied maritime history and the Santa Barbara Channel is an important part of our culture that is rich in history and natural resources. SBMM provides hands-on learning opportunities for all ages to delve into that history. Through interactive learning opportunities, SBMM hopes to instill a love and respect for our Santa Barbara Channel, for the people who make their living on its waters, for those who enjoy its recreational activities, and for the abundant marine life that calls these waters home.

The museum has nearly 8,000 square feet of exhibits, as well as docking space for three historic vessels. An additional 5,000 square foot warehouse off-site allows for artifact collection and storage. The 88-seat, high-definition Munger Theater also provides a venue for films, lectures, special exhibits, and panel discussions on all things maritime. SBMM currently has a membership base of nearly 2,000 members. Attendance approaches 40,000 visitors annually.

Exhibits

We have three new interesting exhibits for you to visit: Love Letters to the Sea, Whales Are Superheroes!, and The Peaceful Sea: Paintings by Kevin A. Short. We have also updated our existing Military Exhibit – A Maritime Power, A Maritime Nation, and the United States Navy. Coming soon!

Love Letters to the Sea Interactive exhibit: Love Letters to the Sea is an arts-enriched, creative letter-writing project, developed by Sondra Weiss (@lostartofloveletters) a longtime museum Art Educator & founder of Lost Art of Love Letters. Wanting to expand on the project, SBMM created an interactive exhibit incorporating a Love Letters to the Sea nook complete with a writing table, art supplies, writing tools, and samples of student art and words. Building on provided prompts, visitors will be able to take a moment to reflect on various issues, create artistic and persuasive letters and envelopes, and thus use their art and words as power for global change. You can learn more, watch an instructional video & download materials here.

Whales Are Superheroes! This exhibit shows visitors how whales help maintain the stability and health of the ocean and help minimize the impact of climate change. It focuses on whale diversity in the Santa Barbara Channel, climate connections and the role whales play in climate change. Taking its aesthetic inspiration from comics and graphic novels, the exhibit incorporates text panels and drone footage to illustrate how whales are helping to save the environment. Whales Are Superheroes! is also part of a countywide alliance of museums, the Santa Barbara Zoo, and the Botanic Gardens to present programming addressing climate change

The Peaceful Sea: Paintings by Kevin A. Short, an exhibition featuring more than 30 seascapes and ocean-themed landscapes by the renowned contemporary painter and Santa Barbara native. Now internationally recognized for his contemporary landscapes of the Pacific Coast, Short is considered a particularly intelligent observer of the ocean who paints the surfing and coastal subcultures using his signature heavy, impressionist brushstrokes and rich, saturated color palettes. His paintings capture his lifelong passion for the sea, conjure specific moments in time, both imagined and remembered, that we all experience, and celebrate all the living colors of the sea.

Other exhibits at SBMM will take you on a winding journey through two floors where you will learn about: Early Explorers, the Chumash, Whaling, History of the Waterfront, Commercial Diving and Technology, Commercial Fishing, Dwight Brooks working ship models, Surfing, Navigation, Shipwrecks, Channel Island Ranching, the Honda Disaster, area shipwrecks, climate change, whales and dolphins of the Channel, First Order Fresnel Lens from Point Conception Lighthouse, and Santa Barbara Lighthouse Women Keepers.

You’ll also enjoy the History of Oil in the Santa Barbara Channel exhibit. Oil has been a part of our maritime history for thousands of years. The Chumash utilized the natural seeps in our channel for their tomols and baskets, the world’s first offshore oil well stood off Summerland Beach, commercial diving technology flourished in Santa Barbara due to oil production, and the modern environmental movement grew out of the 1969 Oil Spill. Today, oil affects every facet of our lives, even as we move towards renewable energy sources and debate what to do with decommissioned oil platforms

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