Akron Art Museum

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Akron Art Museum

Established	February 1, 1922
Location	One South High, Akron,Ohio
Website	[http://www.akronartmuseum.org

The Akron Art Museum is an art museum in Akron, Ohio, USA.

The museum first opened its doors on February 1, 1922 as the Akron Art Institute. It was located in two borrowed rooms in the basement of the public library.^[1]

1 Collections
2 Knight Building Architecture
3 Referencess
4 External links

[edit] Collections

The Akron Art Museum features 20,000 square feet of gallery space dedicated to the display of its collection of art produced since 1850. The museum also hosts visiting shows from national and international collections.

• Akron Art Museum Collection: 1850-1950^[2]

Art created between 1850 and 1950 graces the C. Blake McDowell, Jr. Galleries, located on the first floor of the museum’s 1899 Italian Renaissance revival style building. The first two rooms feature examples of turn-of-the-century realism and American impressionism. Two rooms explore modernism and regionalism in northeast Ohio from 1910 through 1950. A final room is dedicated entirely to the work of William Sommer, northeast Ohio’s most important historical artist. These galleries include paintings by Thomas Wilmer Dewing and Frederick C. Frieseke.

• Akron Art Museum Collection: 1950 to Now^[3]

Art since 1950 is featured in the Sandra L. and Dennis B. Haslinger Family Foundation Galleries. These eight rooms are located in the museum’s 2007 John S. and James L. Knight building. These galleries reflect the eclectic style of late twentieth-century art through examples of postmodern painting and sculpture, photorealism and Pop Art. On view are Chuck Close’s Linda, a monumental early painting; Andy Warhol’s witty silk-screened Single Elvis and Brillo Boxes; and Ohio carver and preacher Elijah Pierce’s animated relief sculpture The Wise and Foolish Virgins and Four Other Scenes.

• Akron Art Museum: Temporary Exhibitions

Major temporary exhibitions are housed in the Karl and Bertl Arnstein Galleries, located on the second floor of the John S. and James L. Knight Building. These exhibitions include traveling shows, such as American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell, and shows organized by the museum, such as A Shared Vision: The Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Photography Collection. The museum also features more than 2,000 square feet used for intimate exhibitions of emerging or mid-career artists, community-based art projects and changing exhibitions of photographic media.

[edit] Knight Building Architecture

The 63,000 square foot John S. and James L. Knight Building was designed by the Viennese architectural firm Coop Himmelb(l)au following an international competition. The firm was chosen in part for its adaptive use of historic buildings, and the Knight Building is the firm’s first project in the Americas.^[4]

Coop Himmelb(l)au’s design integrates additional gallery space, an auditorium and café with the museum’s 1899 building utilizing contrasting, surprising and fanciful visual elements.

• The “Crystal,”^[5] a three-story glass lobby that serves as the public entry and as the focal visual space connecting the museum’s artistic, educational, administrative, and public programming;

• The “Gallery Box,”^[6] comprising the Arnstein, Haslinger, Bidwell and Isroff Galleries, accommodates the museum’s collection and temporary exhibitions;

• The “Roof Cloud,”^[7] a 327-foot-long cantilevered steel and aluminum armature extends over the old and the new, creating a striking landmark for Akron’s downtown.

The expansion dramatically increases the museum’s ability to present traveling exhibitions and to organize its own distinctive exhibitions. The expansion also allows for the display of major, rarely-seen works, including Elliot Torrey’s Surf, the first work to enter the Akron Art Institute’s collection in 1923.^[8]

“The design embraces the past, rather than replacing or destroying it,” said Coop Himmelb(l)au founder, and principal architect for the project, Wolf D. Prix. “It uses architecture to create a public space within the city and a private space within our own souls-reinventing both the city and ourselves at the same time. With such a project, there is a great opportunity to make a living contribution to a city.”

Ground Breaking for the new building was held on May 22, 2004. The new Akron Art Museum was open to the public on July 17, 2007 with a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony by Mayor of Akron Don Plusquellic and Museum Director and CEO Mitchell Kahan.