The museum's permanent collection includes more than , objects, and features notable strengths in the areas of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica , Native American art , the art of Asia, Africa, and Oceania , and California plein-air painting.
The Bowers organizes and hosts special exhibitions from institutions throughout the world, and travels exhibitions nationally and internationally. The museum has a second campus two blocks south of the main site, Kidseum, a children's museum with a focus on art and archaeology. Ada Elvira Bowers and her husband, Charles W. The building was completed in but was not fully operational for almost four years due to the economic downturn of the Great Depression.
The Charles W. Bowers Memorial Museum finally opened its doors in as a city-run museum in a Mission Revival -style building devoted to the history of Orange County. The expansion was kicked off by earlier bequests from Evylena Nunn Miller and Nan Preble, with additional funding coming from a countywide drive, the Museum Foundation, and the city of Santa Ana.
Bowers Museum Corporation to form a new governing board to run the museum and to handle fundraising. In February , the Bowers' board president announced a new direction for the museum's collection and programming as "the cultural arts of the Pacific Rim ".
Keller, Ph. The Bowers Museum was recognized in the July issue of U. Kennedy, an executive of the First American Corporation , and his wife.
