The museum is housed in two buildings designed by Irving Gill and Frederick Fisher, modernist architects from Southern California.

The museum also hosts or sponsors classes, lectures, tours, concerts, films, events, and chartered travel to other cultural art exhibits.

[5] In 2014, special exhibitions included "Spitting in the Wind," a collection of works by four contemporary artists, John Baldessari, Richard Allen Morris, Robert Matheny and the late Russell Baldwin.

[8] In 2016, the museum was awarded a $150,000 grant from the James Irvine Foundation to endow a series of interactive and public artist-in-residence programs at a variety of locations in San Diego County.

[9] From June 25 to October 29, 2016 the museum exhibit "California Fibers: Eclectic Threads" features "two-dimensional and three-dimensional pieces of fiber and textile arts in media such as silk, cotton, bamboo, palm, wool wire and paper using techniques including weaving, basketry, quilting, embroidery and felting.