4 Best Sights in Palm Beach and the Treasure Coast, Florida

The museum (constructed in 1941 by steel magnate Ralph H. Norton and his wife, Elizabeth) has grown to become one of the most impressive in South Florida, with an extensive collection of 19th- and 20th-century American and European paintings—including works by Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Pollock, Cassatt, and O'Keeffe—plus Chinese art, earlier European art, and photography. To accommodate the growing collection, the museum expanded to include 12,000 additional square feet of gallery space in a new west wing, event spaces, a garden, and a great hall.

The popular Art After Dark, Thursday from 5 to 10 pm, is a gathering spot for art lovers, with wine and music in the galleries.

Works by one of Florida's foremost landscape artists and leader of The Highwaymen artist group, Albert Ernest Backus (1906–90), are on display at this museum. It also mounts changing exhibits and offers exceptional buys on paintings, pottery, and jewelry by local artists.

Changing-exhibition galleries on the first floor showcase internationally known artists—both past and present—at this museum in a spectacular building that's part of the Mizner Park shopping center; the permanent collection upstairs includes works by Picasso, Degas, Matisse, Klee, Modigliani, and Warhol, as well as notable African and pre-Columbian art. Daily tours are included with admission. In addition to the treasure hunts and sketchbooks you can pick up from the front desk, there's a roster of special programs that cater to kids, including studio workshops and gallery walks. 

The museum's five galleries and two sculpture gardens make it the largest arts facility on the Treasure Coast. It houses varying regional, state, and national art exhibits, plus it hosts a full schedule of films, lectures, workshops, and classes.