History

The Foster Museum was founded by Jane Woodward as a means to hold artist-explorer Tony Foster’s recent watercolor wilderness Journeys intact as the whole works of art that Tony envisions as he creates them. His first 14 Journeys were exhibited and then the component artworks were sold to individual collectors.

Fulfilling its mission to unite, understand and share Tony Foster’s watercolor wilderness Journeys and ignite connection to art and the natural world, The Foster Museum shares two recent Journeys, Sacred Places: Watercolour Diaries from the American Southwest and Exploring Beauty: Watercolour Diaries from the Wild, as well as two new exhibitions in 2023.

Travels with and without a Donkey in the Cévennes follows the 120-mile adventure that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about in his 19th-century classic work, which influenced Tony Foster’s first Journey one hundred years later. With companion and renowned photographer James Ravilious joining Foster on their own exploration of the region, this special exhibition includes all three artists’ reflections of the French countryside. Another new exhibition, Protecting Place, is an interactive look at environmentally threatened locations through Foster’s Falls the Shadow and rainforest artworks.

The Foster Museum supports the artist-explorer’s current work for his 19th Journey, Exploring Time—From Moments to Millennia, and celebrates the introduction of Watercolour Diaries from the Green River. This 18th Journey opened at Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, in May 2023 and travels to three additional museums within the United States before opening at The Foster Museum in 2025.

Land Acknowledgment

The Foster Museum respectfully acknowledges the Ramaytush Ohlone, the original inhabitants of what is now the San Francisco Peninsula.

Indigenous communities have lived in and moved through this land over hundreds of generations and Indigenous peoples from many nations make their home in this region today. Please join us in recognizing and honoring their ancestors, descendants, and all other members of their communities.

Our Building

The Foster Museum at 940 Commercial Street, Palo Alto, California opened in February, 2016. In addition to serving as a presentation place for Tony Foster’s artwork, the museum also serves as a venue for art, wilderness, education, and community programs and events.  

Prior to 2014, our building was an ambulance garage for the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital. The 14,000 square foot facility was transformed from an industrial warehouse into a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certified building, with new heating, ventilation and cooling systems, new lighting and electrical systems, and new interiors, to house the watercolor wilderness Journeys of Tony Foster. Our design and construction team included: Fergus Garber Young Architects, Palo Alto, CA; McLarney Construction, San Jose, CA; and Paul Salisbury, who served as Consulting Architect and Designer.

Amenities

The Foster Museum’s lobby entrance, exhibition spaces and restrooms are all on one level. A limited number of portable stools and one wheelchair are available for those who may need them during their visit.