This place is a hidden gem in Palo Alto, in an industrial area surrounded by factories. It is a…read moremuseum of the work of Tony Foster, an artist from UK who paints beautiful watercolor landscapes. It's free, and a nice place to visit for an hour or so ... highly recommended.

We tried Story Time with Anna on Sunday. It was an hour experience that our grandson enjoyed. We…read moresigned up ahead of time and street parking was easy. There was also a sign that there is additional parking behind the museum. After checking in there was a craft/art activity with stickers and tempera paint sticks. Low mess :). Adjacent was a play area with colored scarves, a pretend campfire, felt board for the children to explore, and books. Before entering the museum area Anna gave an introductory talk describing what to expect. She made it interactive which was very nice. They also did a song to get their wiggles out. She then guided the group through the museum to the carpeted area with cushions for the kiddos. Ana talked about and asked questions about the art on the walls. She read Under the Same Sky to the children and made this an interactive experience also. It was just the right length of time, thirty minutes. This was just right for our 18 month old grandson.

I would highly recommend booking this museum in Los Altos for your wedding or any event, really…read more The venue is absolutely stunning for an outdoor wedding and has an indoor section too. We really wanted a cozy intimate backyard wedding vibe and that's exactly what we got here! Huge plus is my husband loves history, and you get free access to the museum for a year with a ton of other benefits once you have an event here + your donation is tax deductible. You also don't need much decor at all due to the natural beauty but we hired a decorator for the arches, stages, and table settings. Lisa will also give you a list of vendors partners you can work with just in case. Overall, she was really amazing to work with and super responsive because anytime we needed to do a tour walk through with vendors or a tour of the venue, she was there. Thanks Lisa for answering all my questions!! You can't go wrong having your wedding here. We had a spring wedding of close to ~200 folks and thank God it didn't rain but summer or even fall would be beautiful here. For photoshoot opportunities there's a ton onsite and a beautiful orchard just steps away from the museum for sunset shots. A magical day indeed.

If you're considering getting married at the Los Altos History Museum--do it, and make sure you…read morework with Lisa. She made us feel taken care of in every way. When it looked like rain, she calmly walked us through backup options and made everything feel manageable. When we needed help, she had answers before we even finished the question. The most memorable part? She hand-crafted the golf-themed signage for our wedding. It was a masterpiece and became one of the most talked-about details of the entire night. Lisa made our day magical, personal, and seamless. We are forever grateful.

Have some time & the itch to visit a museum? Head over to the Stanford campus to check out this…read morebeautiful center! * Location: Car accessible (free museum parking), or 20 min walk from Palo Alto Caltrain station. * Admission: Free! Walk-in & say hello to the front desk staff to get your center map via QR code and recommendations. * Exterior & interior architecture are beautiful in their own right, Rodin sculpture garden makes it even better. * Center is relatively compact but contains great range of collections - antiquities from around the world, 16th-18th century European art, modern 21st century, & more. Roaming the many halls is a fantastic way to spend an afternoon! Tip: Checkout their website for an overview of temporary exhibits and guest speakers.

This is a great free art museum on the Stanford Campus. We visited on a Saturday so there was ample…read morefree parking in the lots right in front of the building. It's a beautiful building and well laid out, it took us maybe an hour and a half to two hours to see most of the exhibits. They have a great collection of different eras and regions of art. Many artists I've heard of thought not their most famous paintings. I really enjoyed the modern gallery too. The highlight for me was the extensive collection of Rodin sculptures including details on how he constructed the spectacular "Gates of Hell" that is replicated outdoors. I visited the Rodin museum in Paris a long time ago and this collection, while small, was still really good and informative. I also love a good Richard Serra steel sculpture and there is one outdoors on the other side of the museum from the Rodin garden.

Spent a few hours at the Computer History Museum and didn't expect it to feel as reflective as it…read moredid. The museum walks you through the evolution of computing, from early mechanical calculators to modern microprocessors, software systems, and AI. You can see machines like ENIAC (one of the first general-purpose electronic computers) along with punch-card systems, the Apple I, and other machines that once felt futuristic and now look dusty and almost fragile. Everything here is built in layers, not in isolation: ideas evolving over time, people contributing in ways that are not always visible at first, yet shaping the outcome. Still, it is striking to see how these machines have become extensions of how we think nowadays (our brains). We offload memory, rely on algorithms to anticipate what we want, and increasingly hide behind screens. We run away from the real world and avoid real human connection. In some ways, it can feel easier to trust systems than real people because systems are predictable, responsive, dopamine-inducing, and do not require human effort or vulnerability. People do. People are messy. Here where the museum unexpectedly becomes even more reflective. It makes you wonder how easily we stay self-contained, avoid the messiness of real connection, and fill the space with endless technological distraction. Roughly 1 in 2 U.S. adults report experiencing loneliness, with in-person social interaction declining over time. Technology makes it easier to stay in your own world, away from uncertainty, risk, and the effort real closeness requires. So where does this lead us? What is our future? Is it for our good? If it feels easier this way, is it actually better? Are we becoming more connected, or just more efficiently alone? P.S. I think the admission for youth should be cheaper.

A fantastic journey through the history of computing! So…read moremuch to explore here and they even offer demonstrations. Always a great time.

Cute little gallery located in the heart of downtown Palo Alto! I think they feature local and…read moreinternational artists. I liked how it was very clean and informative - they had all the artist/painting information laid out as well as their books/prices. They have a main gallery room as well as another smaller side gallery. If you're exploring Palo Alto downtown or interested in art exhibitions, would recommend stopping by!

Qualia Contemporary Art Gallery is a welcoming breath of fresh air in a high tech heavy…read moremetropolitan area without much attention given to cultural developments. Ms Daxue Xu, the artistic director of the gallery, and the guest curator Professor Xiaoze Xie from Department of Art and Art History in Stanford have a keen sense for art works that reflect the current socio-political and cultural changes on the global stage with an emphasis on how the East and the West arrive at the same place from different starting points. The artworks selected for exhibitions express the artists' sentiments and thoughts in a lucid and poignant manner that it is hard for the audience not to be touched in some way. Ms Xu lives up to the apt name of the newly founded gallery. The first exhibition titled "Catastrophic Beauty: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene" curated by Professor Xie takes on an unanticipated angle of discovering beauty in catastrophe. Shang Yang is a leading avant-garde Chinese artist well versed in ink, oil and mixed media. Unlike his contemporaries who took on an idealist or disillusioned or cynical views on modernity in China, Shang Yang takes a less traversed path of bringing awareness to environmental impact of modernity by alluding to ancient ink paintings and socio-political objects. The Decay series exhibited is an extension of his signature Dong QiChang series in which his attenuated criticism towards environmental impact from modern reforms is directed towards the socio-political areana. The beauty lies in his tasteful manner of fusing ancient Chinese ink painting aesthetics and western styles. John Sabraw turned the environmental impact on its head by converting contaminated water into sustainable pigments used in his paintings reminiscent of Chinese ink wash techniques. The East and the West meet at multiple levels. The following solo exhibition highlighting Cate White and Sean Howe shifts gears to younger artists with contemporary styles. Cate White juxtaposes well known paintings with modern scenes of herself, her friends and family. Her stand on her self image, race and women's rights are vociferously displayed. The imaginative and childlike works of Sean Howe contrast the subtle messages on the impact of modernity on who we are and how we live. The most recent solo exhibition centers on foreign born American artists Stella Zhang and Yulia Pinkusevich. Stella Zhang was born into a Chinese artistic family, proficiently trained in traditional Chinese ink paintings since a young age. Her mature art works at times are in contemporary Western style; at times coalesce traditional Chinese aesthetics and philosophy with Western modern and postmodern styles. Her Internal Landscape series is a prime example of the latter. From a distance it resembles traditional ink landscape paintings. Close up one detects suggestions of human spine and nervous system with a vivid sense of qi flowing through - the ancient Chinse concept of energy source in all lives - brought about by heightened tension and release. An exemplary traditional Chinese ink landscape painting takes one to the ultimate state of serene transcendence. Stella Zhang's works are a captivating novel take leading one to an alternate transcendent state of aliveness, tension and release. Yulia Pinkusevich, a Ukrainian artist who lived through Cold War, expressed her intrigue of the dispassionate calculations of the impact of nuclear weapons with their calamitous implications in Isorithm series. The rationalization in the rational calculation of the damage by nuclear weapons is erringly tranquil in her works. There is this sense of dissociation watching chaos unfolding from the ruptures in Isorithm series that is perhaps too familiar to those traumatized by catastrophic events. This brings us back to the first exhibition where catastrophe meets beauty.

Remarkable sculpture in Stanford Memorial Court…read more I stopped by during a tour of the campus earlier this week, and stopped by again late in the evening to take pictures without being photo bombed! The sculpture depicts the heroic Burghers of Calais, and is hauntingly beautiful, depicting courage during moments of adversity and impending death. Worth a visit if you're on campus.

No need to grab your passport and head to Paris or fly to Philly for either's Rodin Museum when…read morethere's this fantastic Rodin Sculpture Garden free and at your footsteps in Palo Alto! Located adjacent to the Cantor Center's West Entrance, it features one of Auguste Rodin's "The Gates of Hell" bronze castings, which incorporates some of the characters/scenes from Dante's Inferno. It's worth it to examine the many groupings in this bronze because at the foot of this presentation of The Gates of Hell you'll find larger independent free-standing versions, such as The Three Shades (Le Trois Ombres). Note, Rodin's iconic The Thinker (aka Le Penseur or The Poet) originated as part of The Gates of Hell, positioned above the door panel. A spectacular independent, large version of The Thinker, however, is not in the Sculpture Garden but immediately inside the West Wing rotunda entrance. Additionally, there's an ongoing exhibit, "Rodin: The Shock of the Modern Body," also great to visit indoors. (The museum is also free.)

This is beautiful little spot on Stanford Campus. A true gem of cacti of all kinds. I've been here…read moreabout 3-4xs times now, and it's always lovely to just walk around. It's definitely a beautiful greenery backdrop for photos as I did a photoshoot for a client here a few months ago. We took a bunch of photos here, and then we walked over to the Quad for an outfit change and a change of scenery. We saw *the* Robert Downey Jr. at the Quad that day! That was awesome! :D I usually come here on a Saturday or Sunday and just park at the medical clinic, which is basically right next to this spot.

This review is long overdue from 2020; I for visited this spot in 2016 or so and loved it so I…read morebrought my husband here during the Covid shut down in 2020 and we took a nice walk, it was awesome to check it out, explore the vacations cacti and spend some time in nature. Parking can be difficult. Overall a great and well kept garden e

Gamble Garden is a lovely and quiet respite in Palo Alto. Whenever I'm in the area and have some…read moretime, I stop by for a stroll around the garden to see what's in bloom. There are benches to sit and gather. I've seen a wedding in their outdoor area and I believe you can rent the house for events. They have classes and you can volunteer in the garden too. At one time, it was also a location for photo shoots. One of my lifestyle photos was shot here. A space of beauty and peace. I appreciate that it's free for anyone.

This is a nice place to go checkout. I was originally turned onto this place by my neighbor who has…read moreworked her and volunteered for years. Several times I came out here just to check it out, I was amazed to say the least. For some reason, perhaps the setting or just the ambiance and the whole flowers her reminded me of other parks, even San Jose rosegarden, which is located in an upscale part of San Jose and preludes a very nice neighborhood of homes behind, reminicent of downtown Palo Alto. I have come out here on two occassions with friends of mine that are my neighbors that like to frequent this location. If you are looking to pass some time and enjoy looking at gardens...you have arrived. Thanks Gamble Garden!

Disclaimer: I give any free museum five stars. Well, it will cost you your zip code. I just gave…read morethem 58008, hoping they'd realize later what it spells upside down. This is one of the world's most outstanding private assemblies of postwar American art, gifted by Bay Area collectors Harry W. "Hunk" and Mary Margaret "Moo" Anderson and their daughter Mary Patricia Anderson Pence, who looks more like Moo but acts like Hunk. The museum, which opened in 2014, houses 121 paintings and sculptures and is known for its focus on movements like Abstract Expressionism, Color Field Painting, and Pop Art. The collection is celebrated for featuring canonical works by some of the 20th century's most significant American artists. Key figures and their works include: Jackson Pollock: The monumental drip painting "Lucifer," considered by many to be the outstanding drip painting still in private hands before it was gifted to Stanford. Mark Rothko: The signature color-field work, "Pink and White over Red." Clyfford Still: A large, imposing piece called "1957-J No. 1 (PH-142)." Richard Diebenkorn: Works like "Ocean Park #60," which displays his progression into abstract forms using geometric shapes and a subdued color palette. Other Masters: The collection also includes works by Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, and Helen Frankenthaler. The museum building itself is spacious, which means it feels mostly like space. The coolest thing was the meticulous library that felt too nice to even touch. Be sure to see the Cantor Arts Museum next door. Random Notes: One exhibit had a music video by Nick Cave on repeat, which was annoying and a little out of place, echoing throughout the museum. Oddly, it was not the Nick Cave you are thinking off (i.e. Bad Seeds). It was a different Nick Cave. Which is weird. It's like saying "Oh, yeah, no, that painting of the flower over there is actually Georgia O'Queef." 1. One of the collection's anchor pieces, a major painting by Clyfford Still, was acquired a jockey who had won the famous 1950s television quiz show, "The $64,000 Question," and then retired to open an art gallery in San Francisco. 2. Mark Tansey's painting "Yosemite Falls (Homage to Watkins)" (1993), depicts the famous waterfall, but instead of falling water, the cascade is made up of cameras and tripods. I looked into an art textbook to try to interpret it and apparently it means I am gay.

I chanced upon this spot while heading over to Cantor next door and this place totally won me…read moreover. The architecture is bright and calming (that grand staircase is an experience all its own), and the layout gives you freedom to wander and let pieces catch your eye--not the other way around. The collection? Incredible--think Rothko, Pollock, Diebenkorn, and fresh contemporary voices. Whether you're into thoughtful introspection or just enjoying the quiet beauty, this gallery is a gem.

MadeBy has quickly become one of my daughter's favorite places. She's 10 and very into arts,…read morecrafts, and hands-on projects, so this studio is right up her alley. We first checked it out during the grand opening and were impressed by how open, bright, and thoughtfully set up the space was. It feels much more spacious and creative than other DIY spots we've visited. We've since gone back for camps and casual weekend visits, and she always finds something new she wants to make. The custom comic book and stuffie stations are especially fun and unique. The staff has also been consistently kind, patient, and helpful every time we've been there. Such a fun place for creative kids.

You gotta take your kids here …read more. 1st - The kids get to do something tangible and creative 2nd - Tech/software shows kids they can do so many different things 3rd - the kids loved it, and didn't want to leave. Looking forward to doing a birthday there!