Choose three favorites
One piece you would happily live with, one you don’t understand yet, and one you would tell a friend about. Compare notes over lunch.
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Desert Luxury Estates · Things to Do
Palm Springs Art Museum
A little art. A whole new way to see the desert. Galleries, a modernist landmark and a downtown afternoon, with the pool still waiting at home.
Your next favorite afternoon
Trade the pool view for a new perspective.
A painting that stops you mid-sentence. A building that makes the mountains part of the show. An afternoon with no score to keep and no trail to finish.
Palm Springs Art Museum has been part of downtown since 1938, and its galleries, its architecture and its second site on Palm Canyon Drive make it an easy outing to fit around a desert stay. Make it the main event, pair it with a long lunch, or let a free Thursday evening roll straight into the street fair.
The useful details first
Palm Springs Art Museum tickets & hours
Pick an open day, check the shows you want to see, and keep the rest of the outing unhurried.
Admission
| Visitor | Price |
|---|---|
| Adult | $25 |
| Senior, 62+ | $23 |
| Student or teacher | $17 |
| Under 18 | Free |
One ticket, two buildings. General admission covers the main museum and the Architecture and Design Center on the date you choose, and you can come and go all day.
Also always free: active-duty military and their families, and NARM and ROAM members. No reservation needed; buy at the door. The museum has been cashless since October 15, 2026.
Buy tickets & check today’s hoursOpening hours
- Thursday
- Noon – 8 p.m.
- Friday – Sunday
- 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
- Monday – Wednesday
- Closed
The Architecture and Design Center keeps the same days and hours.
Free Thursday Night: general admission is free from 5 to 8 p.m., funded by the City of Palm Springs. It does not include the special exhibitions Lita Albuquerque: Cosmic Land or The Grammar of Jim Dine, which need a regular ticket.
Ticket FAQSource: Palm Springs Art Museum visitor information. Hours, prices and holiday arrangements can change.
Follow what catches your eye
You don’t need an art-history degree.
Start with whatever you notice first. Look at it from across the room, then up close, and read the label only once you have made up your own mind. Half the fun is finding out how differently the people you came with see the same thing.
The collection leans toward contemporary California art, classic Western American art, Native American and Mexican art, modern European sculpture, contemporary studio glass, American photography, and midcentury architecture and design. Displays rotate, so check the current galleries if one area is the reason you are going.
Look past the frame
The scale of the rooms, the materials, the way the desert light comes in. The building is part of the visit, not just the box it comes in.
Keep it playful
Hunt for a color, a shape or a favorite landscape, and finish while everyone still wants more. Under-18s are free, which makes a short visit an easy yes.
On the calendar
Exhibitions worth planning around
What is on, and coming, from the museum’s own calendar.
Lita Albuquerque: Cosmic Land
Through May 3, 2027
Last open day: Sunday, May 2
Nearly six decades of painting, sculpture, installation and film, shown together for the first time. Albuquerque pushes Light and Space and Land Art outward, connecting the California desert with the cosmos.
Included with regular admission; not included with Free Thursday Night or other free programs.
Exhibition detailsAlternative Palm Springs: Other Desert Architectures
Through January 4, 2027
Last open day: Sunday, January 3
The Palm Springs that was never built, or built off the grid: unbuilt visions by well-known architects, counterculture designs, and the private and public worlds of the city’s LGBTQ+ community, in models, drawings and photographs.
Included with general admission, which covers both locations on the same day.
Exhibition detailsThe Grammar of Jim Dine
November 21, 2026 – April 19, 2027
Last open day: Sunday, April 18
About 200 works from the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation by one of the best-known American artists of the Pop era, tracing the hearts, tools and robes he has reinvented for decades, and his long love of printmaking.
Included with regular admission; not included with Free Thursday Night or other free programs.
Exhibition detailsThe full program, talks and events: the museum’s exhibition calendar. Checked October 23, 2026.
The building belongs in the story
A museum with a modernist side.
It opened in 1938 as the Palm Springs Desert Museum, all natural science and Cahuilla artifacts, and took its present name in 2005. The main building is by E. Stewart Williams, one of the architects who defined desert modernism, and opened in 1976.
Williams built it in concrete, hammering the long panels to expose the stone in the mix, and chose cladding in colors that sit easily against the mountain behind. Give the outside a minute before you go in. If clean lines and good details are your kind of sightseeing, the museum has three more stops for you.
Architecture and Design Center
300 S. Palm Canyon Drive. The Edwards Harris Pavilion is a former Santa Fe Federal Savings and Loan, also by E. Stewart Williams, now home to the museum’s architecture and design shows. The Vault Store sits in the original bank vault. Same ticket, same day, a short hop down Palm Canyon. A&D Center
Aluminaire House
Beside the main museum, free. Albert Frey and A. Lawrence Kocher’s all-aluminum-and-glass prototype house, first shown in New York in 1931 and rebuilt here where the south parking lot used to be. You view it from outside; interior access isn’t permitted. Open the museum’s days and hours. Aluminaire House
Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden
72-567 Highway 111, Palm Desert, free. Four acres, 14 outdoor sculptures and more than 60 kinds of desert plants, open every day from sunrise to sunset. It is down valley, not downtown, so pair it with a Palm Desert day or El Paseo. Sculpture garden
Hoping to see Frey House II, Albert Frey’s own home? The museum currently lists it as temporarily closed; check the locations page for tours.
Sources: Our Story and the museum’s buildings. In town in February? Plan the rest around Modernism Week 2027.
Make a little room in the day
Three ways to make it yours.
Our ideas, not museum packages. Start with the opening days and build out from there.
Art, lunch, pool
Arrive at 10 on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, give your favorite galleries the time they deserve, then lunch downtown. The museum’s café is closed for now, so our restaurant guide is the place to start. The afternoon belongs to the pool and the book you brought.
Gallery to street fair
Walk in free at 5 p.m. (a regular ticket for the special exhibitions), then stroll down to VillageFest, the Thursday street fair on Palm Canyon Drive from 6 to 10 p.m.: art, crafts, food and music. Dinner wherever the evening takes you.
Follow the architecture
The main museum and Aluminaire House in the morning, lunch, then the Architecture and Design Center and a browse in the Vault Store on the same ticket. Finish with a drive past the midcentury neighborhoods on the way home.
Getting there
Start with the right address.
The main museum is at 101 Museum Drive, Palm Springs, CA 92262, a block west of Palm Canyon Drive and the downtown restaurants. The Architecture and Design Center is a separate stop at 300 S. Palm Canyon Drive. And if your map suggests the Palm Springs Air Museum, that is the aviation museum out by the airport.
Accessibility
Every gallery is reachable by elevator, with accessible entrances from the north and south parking lots and accessible parking beside the building. Standard wheelchairs are free from Security, and the north lot has a passenger drop-off in front of the Box Office, about 15 feet from an elevator. Accessibility details · 760-322-4800
Good to know
- Backpacks and big bags can be checked with Security.
- No food or drinks in the galleries, bottled water included.
- Photos for personal use are welcome unless a gallery says otherwise; no flash, tripods or selfie sticks.
- Service animals only. Staying in a pet-friendly home? Leave your dog at the house, not in the car.
- Bring a card or phone wallet: the museum is cashless.
The galleries are a cool escape on a hot afternoon; the walk from the car and the sculpture garden are not. Our weather guide has the forecast. Full rules: the museum FAQ.
Palm Springs Art Museum FAQs
When is the Palm Springs Art Museum open?
Thursday noon to 8 p.m., and Friday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It is closed Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so plan a long weekend around it rather than a midweek visit.
How much are tickets?
$25 for adults, $23 for seniors 62 and over, $17 for students and teachers, and free for anyone under 18. One ticket covers the main museum and the Architecture and Design Center on the same day.
Is the museum free on Thursdays?
General admission is free from 5 to 8 p.m. every Thursday. Special exhibitions can be excluded, and right now Lita Albuquerque: Cosmic Land and The Grammar of Jim Dine are not part of it.
Do we need to book ahead?
No. Advance reservations are no longer required for general admission; buy at the door. Tours and events are booked separately.
How long should we spend there?
We suggest 1½–2½ hours for the main museum, and another hour if you add the Architecture and Design Center. A focused visit to one exhibition is a lovely hour, too.
Is the Architecture and Design Center in the same building?
No, it is at 300 S. Palm Canyon Drive, a few minutes away. The same ticket gets you into both on the date you chose, with the same opening hours.
Is there somewhere to eat at the museum?
The museum café, Livs, is temporarily closed. Downtown Palm Springs is steps away; our restaurant guide has suggestions.
Can we combine it with the Aerial Tramway?
Easily: the museum is downtown and the tramway is just north of town. The museum makes a good plan B on a windy day when the tram isn’t running, too. Our Aerial Tramway guide.
Keep the good design going
Art downtown. Your own desert modern after.
Spend the day with the architecture, then go home to some. Our Architectural Homes collection is where the low rooflines, the glass and the garden coming indoors are still the point, and our Palm Springs homes keep the museum, the restaurants and VillageFest a few minutes away.
Planning source: Palm Springs Art Museum. Prices, hours and exhibitions checked October 23, 2026; confirm current details before your visit. Desert Luxury Estates is not affiliated with the museum; tickets are sold by the museum.
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