Norton Museum of Art

The Norton Museum of Art was founded in 1941 by Ralph Hubbard Norton (1875–1953) and his first wife, Elizabeth Calhoun Norton (1881–1947). Norton, the former head of the Chicago-based Acme Steel Co., moved to West Palm Beach upon retirement and decided to share his collection of paintings and sculptures. The late Art Deco/Neoclassical building designed by Marion Sims Wyeth opened its doors to the public on February 8, 1941. Its mission statement is "to preserve for the future the beautiful things of the past."

In 2001, the Norton Museum of Art underwent a significant expansion when the 45,000-square-foot (4,200 m2) Gail and Melvin Nessel Wing was built and increased the size of the museum to 122,500 square feet (11,380 m2). In 2013, the museum unveiled a $60 million master plan designed by the British architect Norman Foster that would nearly double its gallery space and add an education center, auditorium and restaurant. The new West Wing added a 43-foot-high Great Hall. A parking lot next to the museum was converted into a 9,000-square-foot sculpture garden. A new entrance and forecourt along the main thoroughfare, South Dixie Highway, re-established the axial layout of Norton's original 1941 Art Deco building. As planned, the museum broke ground in 2016. The museum closed in July 2018 for renovations. It reopened on February 9, 2019, adding 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of gallery space, new classrooms, a restaurant, a 210-seat auditorium, and the sculpture garden. Norton Museum closed for eight months in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It reopened in November 2020 with new exhibits and safety precautions. The museum hosts several special programs, including Lectures & Conversations, Art After Dark, Special Performances, Art Classes and Workshops, Families & Teens, Students & Teachers, and the Artist in Residence Program. Its current hours are Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. It is closed on Tuesday. It is open Friday from 10 am to 10 pm and Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm. Art after Dark occurs on Friday nights.

2021–: Ghislain d'Humières 2019–2020: Elliot Bostwick Davis 2010–2019: Hope Alswang 1990–2009: Christina Orr-Cahall

The ground-level galleries showcase contemporary and 20th-century American and European art and a comprehensive collection of Chinese works. On the top floor of the museum are noteworthy paintings by late Medieval Italian painter Jacopo Da Firenze, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Joos van Cleve and Studio, Marcantonio Franceschini, Nicolas de Largillière, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, David Teniers and Studio, Jan Thomas Yperen, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and Giovanni Panini. There also are examples of Chinese export porcelain. In 2018, the Norton Museum of Art received a gift of more than 100 works from the collection of Howard and Judie Ganek, including pieces by Damien Hirst, Anselm Kiefer, Sigmar Polke, Ed Ruscha, Kara Walker, Donald Judd, Matthew Barney, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, and Pipilotti Rist.