A 40-foot-long mosaic, “Pleasures Along the Beach,” designed and created by California artist Millard Sheets, will adorn the new entrance.

This mural, comprised of thousands of small Italian glass tiles, called tesserae, was gifted to the museum by the owners of a former Home Savings Bank in Santa Monica, where it had been displayed until recently, when the building was slated for demolition.

“We’re very pleased to have played a role in conserving this dazzling mosaic so many more generations can enjoy its beauty,” Platt said in a statement.

Mark and Jan Hilbert are expected to fund the entire expansion cost of $12 million. “We will be able to show almost three times as many paintings from our collection of more than 3,000 artworks,” Mark Hilbert said. “And we also will continue to borrow from other great collections and museums. Now we will have much more space to do all this – it is very exciting.”

He added in a statement: “Our quest is to become one of the leading university-based art museums in the nation.”

The Hilberts’ collection of more than 3,000 California Scene paintings, works of movie and animation art, and American illustration forms the core of the museum’s holdings. The collection includes pieces by Rex Brandt, Phil Dike, Emil Kosa Jr., Roger Kuntz, Joan Irving, Ruth Peabody, Phil Paradise and Milford Zornes.

The new space will also showcase cultural objects that the Hilberts have collected – including Navajo weavings and Pueblo pottery – in a new Founders Gallery.

I found that the painting's description, which I have placed under most works, gave me a new insight into the painting itself.  In  "Red Cap Gossip" above, a lot is to be learned about the black porters in passenger railroading.