Chaffey Community Museum of Art was founded in the spring of 1941. The first Invitational Purchase Prize Art Exhibit opened on October 25, 1941 and included work from 61 artists. In the catalogue for the exhibit it stated, “Two paintings will be purchased this year-an oil and a watercolor. In ten years we fully expect to have in Chaffey’s Permanent Collection the finest showing of contemporary American art on the Pacific Coast”.

The paintings in this exhibit are the purchase prize award winners and paintings that were gifted by artists to Chaffey during the first ten years.