Crocker Art Museum-Sacramento, CA
- Jonathan Elmore
- Jul 26
- 2 min read
Last year my wife and I took a trip to California. I was in the wine industry for a little over a quarter century so I was ready to hit some of my favorite wineries, LangeTwins being one at the top of my list. (Shameless self promotion: I wrote a book called "The No Bull$#!T Wine Book" on sale on Amazon, Barnes & Noble's website, and Author House at https://www.authorhouse.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/822478-the-no-bullt-wine-book please get a copy!) I did get to snoop around some of the wine country near Sacramento, but since I'm not as invested in that life as I once was, I needed other things to occupy my time while my wife went to her meeting. "Hmm, whatever could I possibly do?", he said knowingly. Go to a museum!
A quick internet search led me to The Crocker Art Museum. I GPSed my way down to it and was very impressed with what was waiting for me. A tiny bit of history, the Crockers lived in the house that sits beside the current museum. They went to Europe and bought a staggering amount of art which was the largest private collection in the US at the time. When they got back, they did a renovation on the house to include all the art. They then started letting people come see it. In 1885, Margaret Crocker donated the house and its contents to the City of Sacramento making their Art Gallery as it was called the first public museum West of the Mississippi River. Impressive!
The Crocker has an amazingly diverse collection including modern art, Native art, California artists, a few antiquities, a wildly impressive ceramics trove, and art from all across the world. At every turn, I was greeted with something I wasn't expecting. I love that! Since I had some time to myself, I really meandered through the museum. I'm sure some of the employees and other patrons were thinking, "This guy is stoned out of his gourd." But no, I wasn't. I was just peering into the past and envisioning the process that these artist were using, what they might have been thinking, and how they were getting this wonderful art to look the way it does. If people thought I was high as giraffe balls, so be it. I was having a great time.
If you're ever touring wine country in California, especially the counties North of the more famous ones, take an hour and visit The Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. It's fantastic.
216 O Street, Sacramento, CA
Jonathan Elmore ©2025
