As the only free fine-art museum in Balboa Park your support allows access for all to enjoy the gift of art.

Giving to the Timken ensures that people of all ages and backgrounds have free access to enjoy the gift of art. The Museum is the only free cultural institution in Balboa Park. Your financial support allows us to offer access to our world-class collection, dynamic exhibitions, and groundbreaking programs.

Free Admission

Perennially Free Admission

The Putnam and Timken families set the precedent that fine arts should be accessible to all. The Timken has guaranteed free admission since its doors opened in 1965 providing access to many disadvantaged groups and families who would not otherwise be able to view and experience fine arts.

Accessibiltiy

Accessibility

The Timken is committed to initiatives that foster an accessible and equitable experience for all visitors. It is our vision that visitors to the Museum will feel this sense of inclusion and will benefit from access to- and enjoyment of our collection in ways that inspire and stir engagement and learning. We currently offer a variety of resources and services in support of these initiatives. These include enChroma glasses for our colorblind visitors, free tours in American Sign Language, sensory kits, noise-canceling headphones, weighted lap pads, timed timers, and assisted communication devices. Currently under development is the Art in Touch: Fashion program, a tactile enhanced tour for visitors with low vision. To learn more, visit our Accessibility Page.

Collection and Care

Care of the Collection

The collection, spanning seven centuries of art, from the early Renaissance to the late 19th century, is composed of a select and well-edited group of European masters, Russian icons, and 18th- and 19th century American masters. Caring for the collection is at the heart of the Timken mission and achieved through conservation, an interdisciplinary profession that combines art, history, and science to preserve art for generations to come.

In 2023 the Timken embarked on an ambitious and extensive conservation project, Boucher: Conservation in a Park, the first public conservation project in San Diego. The exhibition offered visitors a rare glimpse into the field of art conservation witnessing a French Rococo masterwork being returned to its original splendor.

Community Art Programs

Community Art Programs

The Timken mission extends far beyond the walls of the Museum. Art programs provide a bridge to connect participants to art and their creative abilities helping them channel emotions, develop important cognitive processes, spark their curiosity, and expand critical thinking. These programs include Creative Choices, providing relief for juvenile hall students, and Creative Engagement to support U.S. veterans.

Free Docent-Led Tours

We are pleased to provide all visitors context for learning and understanding art through free docent-led tours. Tours are held Wednesdays through Sundays and focus on works in the Museum’s collection, and special exhibitions. These tours are given in English, Spanish, Russian, and American Sign Language. With free and easy access to fine arts and a supportive environment in which to encounter them, the Timken tour experience provides a fascinating way to pique curiosity and allow visitors to experience our collection on a whole new level.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions

The Timken presents exhibitions that contextualize its permanent collection, offering pathways for the widest conceivable spectrum of visitors to enjoy the Museum. At least three projects take place in the temporary exhibition space every calendar year. On an annual basis these projects may include a scholarly "focus" exhibition that illuminates a particular work, the ongoing "reconsidering" series which explores how creations by the Old Masters continue to inspire later artists, and the popular "artist in residence series," which began in 2018 by inviting contemporary artists to intervene in our permanent collection spaces every summer. While typically small in scale, all of these installations have lasting impact on visitor habits of viewing the Timken's widely acknowledged strengths.

To learn more about our Exhibitions programs, please visit the Timken Exhibitions Page.

Lectures and Workshops

Lectures and Workshops

Lectures and Gallery Talks, designed for first time visitors to art scholars, are focused to assist and enrich our audiences’ experiences by providing interpretation to art in an educational, cultural, and recreational way.

School Programs

School Programs

The Timken has fostered the art of innovation while continuing with our foundational programs of arts education and outreach. ARTS4Schools (formerly ARTS on Tour), brings the Museum’s art collection to San Diego Title 1 schools in the form of professional development opportunities for teachers, Museum tours and in-school art classes. Since its inception in 2017, ARTS4Schools has served over 17,500 students and over 700 educators in San Diego County.

The Literacy & Visual Arts (LVA) program is an extension of the Timken’s ARTS4Schools program. LVA is designed to increase literacy in Title 1 school 1st grade students through visual arts programming (Museum gallery discussions, nature walks in Balboa Park, and in-class writing projects).



How to Give

There are many ways to give to the Timken, with various benefits available to donors in appreciation for their generosity. Through these donations, the Timken continues to thrive.

Online

In Person

Donate onsite at the Front Desk. Staff is available to answer questions.

By Mail

Mail a check to:
The Timken Museum of Art
2550 Fifth Avenue, Suite 500
San Diego, CA 92103