Delaware Art Museum
Coordinates: 39°45′54″N 75°33′54″W / 39.765°N 75.565°W
| Delaware Art Museum | |
|---|---|
 Exterior view |
|
 Location in Delaware
|
|
| Established | 1912 |
| Location | 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, Delaware, 19806 USA 302.571.9590 |
| Type | Art museum |
| Director | Danielle Rice |
| Curator | Mary F. Holahan |
| Public transit access | Wilmington Amtrak Station |
| Website | DelArt.org |
The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 works. The museum was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the artist Howard Pyle, and is now celebrating its centennial.[1][2] The collection focuses on American art and illustration from the 19th to the 21st century, and on the English Pre-Raphaelite movement of the mid-19th century.
The museum building was expanded and renovated in 2005 and includes a 9-acre (36,000 m2) Sculpture Park, the Helen Farr Sloan Library & Archives, studio art classes, a children's learning area, as well as a cafe and museum store.
Contents |
[edit] History
The museum was founded in 1912 after Howard Pyle's death as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, with over 100 paintings, drawings, and prints purchased from Pyle's widow. Pyle, the best-known American illustrator of his day, died unexpectedly in 1911 while on a trip to Italy. He left behind many students and patrons in his home town of Wilmington, including Frank Schoonover, Stanley Arthurs, and Louisa du Pont Copeland, who wished to honor Pyle's memory through the museum. The museum's charter stated its purpose as "to promote the knowledge and enjoyment of and cultivation in the fine arts in the State of Delaware."[3]
Samuel Bancroft's collection of Pre-Raphaelite art and manuscripts was acquired from his family in 1935. Bancroft acquired the collection beginning in the 1890s and his collection is the "largest and most important collection of British Pre-Raphaelite art and manuscript materials in the United States."[3] His family also donated 11 acres on Kentmere Parkway as a site for a new building which cost $350,000 and opened in 1938. [4] At the same time the name was changed to Delaware Art Center. Expansions to the building were completed in 1956, 1987, and 2005.
The first educational programs were established in 1943 with the Wilmington Academy of Art, growing to 500 students by 1954. Studios and training facilities were built in 1956 thanks to a donation by H. Fletcher Brown.[3]
Starting in 1961 Helen Farr Sloan, the wife of artist John French Sloan, began donations that eventually totalled 5,000 objects. In 1972, after accreditation by American Association of Museums, the name was changed to Delaware Art Museum.[5][3]
Since the 1970s the museum has added works by modern artists, such as Jacob Lawrence, Louise Nevelson, Robert Motherwell, George Segal and Jim Dine.[3]
[edit] Collections
The permanent collections at the museum include the following:[6]
[edit] Pre-Raphaelite Collection
- The Samuel & Mary R. Bancroft Pre-Raphaelite Collection, including works by:
[edit] 19th Century American Art
- American Art of the 19th Century, including works by:
.jpg)
[edit] American Illustration
[edit] Howard Pyle and his students
- From the "Golden Age of Illustration:"
[edit] Other American Illustration
- Other American Illustration, including works by:
[edit] American Art of the Early 20th Century
- Ashcan School (The Eight), including works by:
- Other American Art of the Early 20th Century, including works by:
[edit] Post World War II American Art
- Post World War II American Art, including works by:
[edit] Helen Farr Sloan Library
Two separate libraries opened in the new Delaware Art Center building in 1938: one centered on the collection of Howard Pyle, and the other centering on Samuel Bancroft, Jr. and his collections of Victorian books and books on Pre-Raphaelite painting. In 1978 Helen Farr Sloan donated the collections of her husband, the John Sloan Manuscript and Library Collection. A consolidated library opened in 1985 in the new Pamela and Lammot du Pont Copeland wing and was named in honor of Mrs. Sloan. It contains over 30,000 volumes and 1,000 boxes of personal papers, photographs and other material related to John Sloan, Samuel Bancroft, Jr. and Howard Pyle and his students.[3] It recently acquired a copy of The Flower Book by Edward Burne-Jones.[7]
[edit] Copeland Sculpture Garden
The nine acre sculpture garden behind the museum includes nine large sculptures and an old reservoir converted into a labyrinth. Highlights include the 13-foot-tall bronze Crying Giant by Tom Otterness and Three Rectangles Horizontal Jointed Gyratory III by George Rickey, which moves in the wind. Joe Moss is represented by a sound sculpture which modifies and distorts nearby sounds.
[edit] Exhibitions
The museum presents about ten special exhibitions each year with topics ranging from nationally known modern artists to historical Delaware folk art. Since 2009 the exhibitions have included the works of Leonard Baskin, Delaware photographer Fred Comegys, Harold Eugene Edgerton, James Gurney, May Morris, Maxfield Parrish, Ellen Bernard Thompson Pyle, Frank Schoonover, ultra-realist sculptor Marc Sijan, and John Sloan, as well as works from the collection of the Royal Holloway, University of London, and African American Art from the American Folk Art Museum.[8]
Exhibitions scheduled for 2012 include the works of Mary Page Evans, Howard Pyle, Katharine Pyle, and Katharine Richardson Wireman, as well as The Flower Book by Edward Burne-Jones.[9]
[edit] Studio art education
The museum offers about 100 programs each year, ranging from 8-week classes to 1-day workshops, as well as open studios. Special classes are offered to adults, teenagers, and children in areas including drawing, painting, photography, jewelry making, and ceramics.[10]
[edit] See also
- List of museums in Delaware
- Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts
- Paul R. Jones Collection of African American Art
[edit] Art works
- Found (Rossetti)
- Lady Lilith
- Love's Messenger
- Mary Magdalene (Sandys)
- Mnemosyne (Rossetti)
- Veronica Veronese
[edit] References
- ^ Soulsman; Betsy Rice (November 13, 2011). "Art museum marks a century of culture". The News Journal (Wilmington). http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20111113/NEWS/111130337/Art-museum-marks-century-culture?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CHome.
- ^ Holme, Charles; Eglinton; Boswell, Peyton; McCormick,William Bernard; Whigham, Henry James, Guy (July 1916), The International Studio, 59 (233 ed.), New York: John Lane Company, p. LXXX, http://books.google.com/?id=yPsEAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=
- ^ a b c d e f Binkowski, Kraig; Delaware Art Museum (2004). Delaware Art Museum: Selected Treasures. London: Scala. pp. 136. http://books.google.com/books?id=RZtIAQAAIAAJ.
- ^ Cary, Elizabeth Luther (1933-03-26). [(microfilm) "Pre-Raphaelite Art for a Museum"]. New York Times (The New York Times Company): pp. IX 10:6. (microfilm). Retrieved 2012-02-02. "The Bancroft estate has now made the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts an offer of ground for a museum, almost three acres on a charming site, with the Brandywine Creek a for a rear boundary, the offer conditional on the erection of the museum in five years time. … if the museum is built, the Bancroft collection, consisting of many interesting items in addition to the pre Raphaelite material, will be housed within it…"
- ^ Sozansk, Edward J. (November 20, 2011). "Art: Delaware Art Museum show explores the versatility of Howard Pyle". Philadelphia Inquirer. http://articles.philly.com/2011-11-20/news/30422243_1_howard-pyle-kentmere-parkway-wilmington-society. Retrieved November 22, 2011.
- ^ Binkowski, Kraig; Delaware Art Museum (2004). Delaware Art Museum: selected treasures. Scala. pp. 136. http://books.google.com/books?id=RZtIAQAAIAAJ.
- ^ Delaware Art Museum A SECRET BOOK OF DESIGNS: THE BURNE-JONES FLOWER BOOK. Retrieved 1 February, 2012.
- ^ Delaware Art Museum Past Exhibitions. Retrieved February 9, 2012
- ^ Delaware Art Museum, Upcoming Exhibitions. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
- ^ STUDIO ART CLASSES, Delaware Art Museum. Retrieved February 6, 2012.
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Delaware Art Museum |
- Delaware Art Museum
- The Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Collection of Pre-Raphaelite Art
- Brandywine 10
- First for Friday, Howard Pyle and the Delaware Art Museum, WHYY-TV, November 4, 2011, video 28:50 minutes.
- Where In Wilmington – Delaware Art Museum – March 2008, a joint production of the City Council and the Mayor's office in Wilmington, DE, video 5:23 minutes.
