James A. Michener Art Museum is a non-profit private museum in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania founded in 1988 and is named for Pulitzer Prize-winning writer James A. Michener, resident of Doylestown. It lies within the old stone walls of a historic 19th-century prison and houses the Bucks County visual arts collection, along with a collection of 19th and 20th century American art. It is noted for the Pennsylvania collection of Impressionism, an art colony centered near New Hope during the early 20th century, as well as a changing exhibition, from international to regional fairs.
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Facilities
The museum has 40,000 square feet (3,700 m 2 ) of public spaces, including a beautiful courtyard, a glass-covered, state-of-the-art event pavilion, an outdoor sculpture garden and a terrace built in prison yard, seminar and conference facilities, a museum and cafà © shop, and the George Nakashima Reading Room. The Martin Wing includes a collection and collection collection area.
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History
The idea of ​​a museum in Doylestown dedicated to the works of Pennsylvania Impressionists has existed since at least 1949, when local artist Walter Emerson Baum established an informal committee along with Bucks County Superintendent of Schools. Charles H. Boehm, and The Daily Intelligencer editor George Hotchkiss to explore the possibility of establishing such an institution.
In the 1970s, Bucks County commissioners established the Bucks County Council on the Arts, an institution set up to manage the federally funded artwork intended to be included in government development projects. Some of the artwork they collect is displayed at their headquarters in the offices of Neshaminy Manor in Doylestown Township. In 1974, the Council also helped establish a moving art exhibition, "Artmobile" from Bucks County Community College.
In mid-1988, Bucks County commissioners agreed $ 650,000 to build an art museum in recently closed Bucks County Prison. The Bucks County Council on the Arts is the organization that runs the institutions and their collected works as part of the museum's collection. James A. Michener, who grew up in Doylestown, leads in building endowment funds, donating $ 500,000 as well as some paintings from his own private collection (Michener will continue to contribute a total of $ 8.5 million to the museum). The site was renovated by architect O'Donnell & amp; Naccarato, Inc., from Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The warden's house and control buildings are converted into office space and exhibition halls. Part of the permanent jail wall, which is now the backdrop of space statues and the Museum's event pavilion. The museum was named the James A. Michener Art Museum and opened to the public on September 15, 1988 at a ceremony led by Michener and his wife, Mari Sabusawa Michener.
In 1993, the museum had the first major expansion designed by Lynn Taylor Associates of Doylestown, Pennsylvania which included a large exhibition gallery and storage warehouse. A few years later, in 1996, the Museum had a second major expansion which included the installation of Mari Sabusawa Michener Wing, also designed by Lynn Taylor Associates. In 1999 there was a huge expansion in museum collections when Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest donated 54 Impressionist Pennsylvania paintings along with $ 3 million for museum donations. In 2007, the Museum opened Syd and Sharon Martin Wing, designed by architect RMJM Hillier from Princeton, NJ. This includes a 5,000 square foot (460 m) gallery space and additional administrative offices.
The museum opens the Edgar N. Putman Event Pavilion designed by Kieran Timberlake, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The new 2,700 square foot (250 m 2 ) all-glass structure with sturdy roofs and sliding doors on its east and west sides hosts Jazz Nights, lectures and special events.
The Michener opened a satellite site in 2003, in New Hope, Pennsylvania, designed by Minno & amp; Wasko. This facility was closed in 2009.
Prison
The Bucks County Prison, formerly at the site of the Michener Art Museum, was originally opened in 1884. Philadelphia architect Addison Hutton designed an expanded facility that includes a three-story snail house and a guard control center in the form of "T", using a combination of Italian Revival and Romanesque styles. Its architecture was inspired by Quaker's notion of reflection and penance that dominated the American prison system in the 19th century. The whole prison design concept was modeled after the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, built in 1829. The Bucks County Prison was closed in 1985. The warden's home is a significant contribution property in the Doylestown Historic District, listed by the National Register of Historic. Place in 1985.
Collection
The museum's collection includes over 2,700 paintings, sculptures and paperwork from the Bucks County visual art tradition, dating from the Colonial era to the present day. The collection includes the works of painters from the Pennsylvania Impressionist or the New Hope School, American primitive painter, complementary and modernist. The abstract expressionist works are long-term loans from the Jack S. Blanton Art Museum, University of Texas at Austin, where James A. Michener and his wife, Mari, donate most of their personal art collection. In addition to the permanent exhibit, the Museum presents 15 exhibits that change every year. The exhibition features a broad spectrum of styles and artistic mediums.
Pennsylvania Impressionism
The museum has a collection of works of the Pennsylvania Impressionism school painter, a movement from the first half of the 20th century centered in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Artists in this movement include John Fulton Folinsbee, Walter Emerson Baum, George Sotter, Nate Dunn, Fern Coppedge, Edward Redfield, Daniel Garber and Walter E. Schofield. Similar to the French impressionist movement, this artwork is characterized by a plein air style that is attracted to the quality of color, light, and time.
Education
The museum presents an ongoing series of adult lectures and workshops featuring art scholars and artists. There are also children's classes and workshops for preschoolers through high school, intergenerational classes, and school and teacher programs planned in coordination with the district school district, offered both at the Museum and on the site at the school. The extensive collection of archives documenting the work of local artists, both past and present, is maintained and maintained by the Museum.
Bucks County Artists Database
The museum has an interactive online artist database from the Bucks County area, also available for viewing at kiosks at the Family Education Center. This database contains over 1700 pages of information and over 1300 images relating to 371 architects, craftsmen, musicians, painters, photographers, poets, graphicists, sculptors, stage and screen artists and fiction and non-fiction writers from the artistic tradition of New Hope and Bucks County. Some examples of the artists featured are Quaker Edward Hicks (1780-1849), wooden craftsman George Nakashima (1905-1990), sculptor Raymond Granville Barger (1906-2001), and writer and illustrator Stan and Jan Berenstain.
Permanent Exhibition
- Lenfest Exhibition from Pennsylvania Impressionism
- The George Nakashima Reading Room Daniel Garber "A Wooded Watershed" (22-foot murals painted for the Sesquicentennial Exposition of 1926 held in Philadelphia)
- Intelligent Design: Traditional Craft Studio
- "James A. Michener: A Living Legacy" - an exhibition dedicated to the name of the Museum, James A. Michener. The exhibit re-created his Bucks County office where he wrote South Pacific Stories . The exhibition features tables, chairs, typewriters, dictionaries and other objects from the Bucks County office of James A. Michener where he has lived and worked for over 35 years.
References
External links
- James A. Michener Art Museum - Official site
- Bucks Artists Database Bucks
- Breaking Ground - Ordinary Shovel
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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