Museums & Interpretive

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

• Client: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Founded in 1916, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History reopened in 2018 after almost a year of renovations and facility upgrades.

Cinnabar, working with designer Gallagher & Associates and diorama fabricator Dixon Studios, fabricated entirely new exhibits, refreshed existing displays and updated many of the public-facing spaces of the Museum. These included renovating the Mammal Hall and Bird Habitat Hall, the Museum Backyard and Nature Club House, and creating the new Santa Barbara Gallery and Sprague Butterfly Pavilion. The reopened museum enjoys far greater accessibility and a more contemporary and cohesive feel, while celebrating its unique historically-recognized Spanish revival architecture.

Photographs by Bill Dewey.