Gardena High School in Gardena, Calif. – a city in the South Bay region of Los Angeles – owns one of the most spectacular  assemblages of California art in the state.  It’s a stunning collection of paintings founded a hundred years ago, donated to the school by its graduating senior classes with funds they raised themselves, celebrated by the late Huell Howser in an episode of his Visiting television series, and today lauded by art experts as a unique gathering of some of the finest works by many of the Golden State’s finest artists. The Gardena High School Art Collection’s Centennial Celebration kicks off at the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University with GIFTED: Collecting the Art of California at Gardena High School, 1919-1956, a major exhibition that examines the famed art collection in a display of 70 paintings and archival materials – the largest exhibition of the collection yet publicly mounted, and the first time the collection in its near-entirety has been on display in more than 60 years.  

The exhibition opens Saturday, May 11 at 6 pm with an opening reception (6 to 8 p.m., free admission, open to the public).  It will run through October 19.  The Hilbert Museum of California Art is located at 167 N. Atchison Street in Orange, California.  Museum hours are Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.  Admission to the museum is free.  Free parking is available in front of the museum (with a permit obtained inside) and additional free parking is available in the new City of Orange parking structure one block east of the museum at 130 N. Lemon Street. More information: 714-516-5880 or www.hilbertmuseum.org.