Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History & Sea Center

Founded in 1916, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History reconnects more than 100,000 people each year (including their 6,200 members) to nature, indoors and outdoors.

We're not your typical structured museum with stiff curators, cold halls, and strict rules. We like to go outside and get our hands dirty, pick things up and take a closer look, laugh, skip or maybe even jump for joy. Because learning is messy and we learn by doing, not sitting. That's why we offer a different approach to discovering the natural world: one where you're free to wander, ask ''silly'' questions and explore on your own terms. And when you come here you'll see we're a museum unlike anything else. In a nutshell, we're naturally different.