Collection Highlights

Older and larger institutions collect broadly and in-depth. In contrast, the dominating principle for our Museum is the quality of the objects and their installation. We endeavor to create new connections between our collection’s works of art in a variety of various media, from diverse cultures and across centuries. This new installation of our collection galleries celebrates the foundational donation in 1989 by Dr. and Mrs. John Mayers of a distinguished collection of drawings and early 20th-century paintings. A choice collection of photographs gifted by Isadore and Kelly Friedman in 2007 formed an important and ongoing photography program, as had Elayne and Marvin Mordes’ support of building a contemporary sculpture collection. Dani and Jack Sonnenblick’s collection of studio glass and ceramics provided the impetus for a growing collection of contemporary art using glass and ceramics as a medium. 

We repositioned our collections of African Art and the Art of the Ancient Americas, a gift from David and Jean Colker, to better give visitors opportunities to see cultural links and compelling aesthetic connections between art from the distant past and the work of present-day artists.

This mix of cultures, media, and centuries, with sometimes unexpected juxtapositions, offers the visitor a fresh look at the continuum of art-making.

This reinstallation of the collection galleries has been made possible with generous gifts from Pat and Nick Ohnell and the Edith and Martin Stein Foundation.