The Ames Gallery was established in Berkeley, California in 1970 in the back room of a popular crafts shop.

In the spring of 1971, the Gallery moved "temporarily" to its present residential setting at the base of the Berkeley hills.

Initially exhibiting the work of academically trained artists, the Gallery soon began a shift toward folk art and the works of self-taught, naïve, intuitive, art brut, and visionary artists. The Ames Gallery is now the West Coast’s only gallery to feature contemporary self-taught and outsider art as well as antique Americana folk art. During its long history, the Gallery produced many innovative shows and, most notably, introduced outsider art to Californians.