community

Downtown Bakersfield Arts District Draws Visitors to Theaters and Galleries

The city's Downtown Arts District and country music heritage draw visitors to specific theaters, galleries and museums.

By Bakersfield Things-to-do Desk · Published July 24, 2026

How we reported this

This article was written by AI from the linked sources and was not reviewed by a journalist before publishing. The Daily Bakersfield is part of The Daily Network and follows our reasonable editorial care.

Bakersfield’s Downtown Arts District, centered around 19th and H Streets, serves as the city’s largest arts hub and includes the historic 1930 Fox Theater along with galleries such as Metro Galleries and Bellmoore Gallery.

The district supports live performances at venues including Spotlight Theatre and Stars Bakersfield Music Theatre. Bakersfield earned recognition as the birthplace of the Bakersfield Sound, the twangy country subgenre pioneered by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard that gave the city its title as Country Music Capital of the West Coast.

Performing Arts Venues

Six local theater venues operate across the city. These include the Gaslight Melodrama, one of only four professional melodrama theaters in California, and the Bakersfield Community Theatre, described as California’s oldest live community theater. Public art appears on painted traffic light utility boxes and murals throughout the Arts District.

Museums and Recurring Events

Cultural institutions feature the Kern County Museum, which houses over 1,000,000 artifacts and 50 historic buildings, the Buena Vista Museum of Natural History located in the Arts District, and the California Living Museum focused on local flora and fauna. The First Friday Art Walk takes place at 1020 18th St on a recurring schedule.

Visitors can attend the First Friday Art Walk or tour the self-guided maps of the Downtown Arts District that note coffee spots and music venues. The district remains open for gallery visits and performances at the listed theaters and the Fox Theater.

References Sourced but Not Limited to:

Your newsroom. Shaped by you.

The Daily Bakersfield is in beta. AI may assist with research, summarising and drafting. Automated checks assess sourcing, accuracy and editorial risk before publication, and sensitive material is held for human review. Spotted something off, or want us covering a topic? Tell us. Your feedback is entirely optional and helps shape what we publish next.