Ogunquit Museum of American Art

Ogunquit became a magnet for artists in the early twentieth century, when influential teachers established summer art schools in the village and its Perkins Cove. Painters and sculptors came for the quality of the coastal light, the working harbor, and the rocky shore.

That colony gave Ogunquit an outsized place in American art history for such a small town, and the museum was founded in the postwar years to collect and celebrate the American art connected to the region and beyond.

This shore is part of the homeland of the Wabanaki peoples, whose long presence along the southern Maine coast predates the resort village and the artists who later came to paint it.

The museum was designed to make the most of its extraordinary site, with galleries oriented so that large windows frame the ocean and the rocks, letting the landscape become part of the viewing experience.

Outside, sculpture gardens are set into the grounds above the water, so visitors move between indoor galleries and outdoor art with the surf as a constant backdrop.

The result is a museum where the architecture, the collection, and the natural setting work together, a place as memorable for its location on the Atlantic as for the art it holds.

The museum focuses on American art, with particular strength in the modern American work and the artists connected to the Ogunquit and Maine art colonies, so the collection reflects the very setting the visitor is standing in.

Exhibitions rotate through the season, drawing on the permanent collection and special shows, so return visits reward with new work in the same luminous rooms above the sea.

Because it is a focused, human-scaled museum rather than a sprawling institution, a visit is unhurried and immersive, easy to pair with a walk on the nearby Marginal Way or a meal at Perkins Cove.

The museum is seasonal, typically open through the warmer months, so it rewards checking dates before a special trip. Its oceanfront grounds and sculpture gardens are as much a part of the visit as the galleries, so it is worth leaving time to wander outside above the surf.

Its location makes it a natural anchor for a day in Ogunquit. The Marginal Way runs nearby, the village beach and Perkins Cove are minutes away, and the museum's setting on the rocks ties the whole coastal outing together with the art colony's original inspiration.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.