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The Baltimore Museum of Art, located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. Its main building was built in 1929, in the "Roman Temple" architectural style, under the design of famous architect John Russell Pope. The Museum is home to an internationally renowned collection of art that spans centuries and a number of periods; from early Byzantine to current Contemporary, many diverse artistic styles are represented. Originally known as the Municipal Art Museum, the B.M.A. today has over 90,000 works of art—including the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world. It is located between the Charles Village, to the east, Remington, to the south, Hampden, to the west; and south of the Roland Park neighborhoods, immediately adjacent to the Homewood campus of The Johns Hopkins University, though the museum is an independent institution that is not affiliated with the University. The highlight of the museum is perhaps the Cone Collection, brought together by famed Baltimore collecting sisters Dr. Caribel (1864–1929) and Miss Etta Cone (1870–1949). Accomplished collectors, these sisters amassed a wealth of works by artists including Matisse, Picasso, Cézanne, Manet, Degas, Giambattista Pittoni, Gauguin, van Gogh, and Renoir, nearly all of which were eventually donated to the Museum. Since Sunday, October 1, 2006, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the older Walters Art Museum (formerly Walters Art Gallery), have had free admission year-round as a result of grants given by Baltimore City and Baltimore County, excepting for special exhibitions. The Baltimore Museum of Art is the site of Gertrude's Restaurant, owned and operated by chef John Shields. ==History== In February, 1904, a major fire destroyed much of the central part of the downtown business district of the city of Baltimore. In response, the municipal government established a City-Wide Congress to develop a master plan for the city's recovery and future growth and development. The congress, headed by Dr. A.R.L. Dohme, decided among other things that a major deficiency of the city was the lack of an art museum. This decision led to the formation of an eighteen-person Committee on the Art Museum led by art dealer and industrialist Henry H. Wiegand as the Chairman. Ten years later, the museum was officially incorporated on November 16, 1914.〔http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-bma-20141123-story.html〕 Along with Minneapolis and Cleveland, Baltimore's museum was "modeled after two prominent 1870s predecessors, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston".〔http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/arts/artsspecial/four-museums-plan-their-centennials.html?_r=0〕 According to a booklet published at the time of incorporation, it was stated that Baltimore lagged behind other cities “in regard to matters of esthetic interest.” Still without a permanent site, the fledgling Museum was founded with but a single painting, William-Sergeant Kendall's ''"Mischief"'', which was donated by Dr. Dohme himself. As the Museum's founders were confident more art would eventually be acquired, the nearby Peabody Institute agreed to hold the museum's collection for a time until a permanent home was established.〔http://www.baltimoremagazine.net/2014/10/20/fall-arts-preview-bma-turns-100〕 At this time, the committee began planning a permanent home for the museum's holdings. In 1916, a building was purchased on the southwest corner of North Charles and West Biddle Streets as a possible location for the museum. Although an architect was employed to remodel it, it was never occupied. In 1915 the group had by then decided to permanently house the museum in the Wyman Park area, west of the then named Peabody Heights, (later Charles Village) neighborhood. By 1917 the group had received a promise from The Johns Hopkins University for the land further south of the new Georgian Revival architecture-Federal styled campus they were in the process of moving to. This prospective plot was near the old Homewood Mansion of 1800 and the later Italianate style mansion of "Wyman Villa" of a Hopkins donor and trustee, William Wyman, which would see them leave their downtown site at North Howard Street and West Centre, which they had occupied since 1876. However, before finally moving into its permanent home in 1929, the Museum was temporarily moved in July 1922 to the former home of their prime benefactor and foundress, Mary Elizabeth Garrett, (1857-1915) at 101 West Monument Street, on the southwest corner with Cathedral Street, (facing West Mount Vernon Place and the Washington Monument). Miss Garrett, a famous philanthropist in her own right who also further endowed the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, was the only daughter of John Work Garrett (1820-1884), the famous Civil War-era President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, supporter of President Abraham Lincoln and scion of the noted Robert Garrett banking firm in the city. In 1923 the museum’s inaugural exhibition opened there with attendance topping 6,775 during its first week.〔https://artbma.org/documents/press/BMAHistoryHighlights_1914-2014_final.pdf〕 The house was offered by Miss M. Cary as a home for the "collections" and a meeting place for the board of trustees. The old Garrett mansion was acquired in 1925 by the group of art enthusiasts who bought the property for the purpose of keeping the museum intact. Despite having limited space, the Museum offered accommodations to art associations and a hall for meetings. Meanwhile, back at Wyman Park, prominent architect John Russell Pope, (1874-1937), was engaged to design the museum's permanent home. With his years of study in Europe, John Russell Pope is considered to be the main examplar of the classical revival style that proved so popular with traditional American architects. He's credited with a number of major buildings along the American east coast and abroad including the National Archives Building in Washington, New York's American Museum of Natural History, and the Tate Gallery Sculpture Hall in London.〔http://biography.yourdictionary.com/john-russell-pope〕 His distinct brand of classicism, both serene and monolithic at once, was perhaps the perfect choice for such an ambitious project. The cornerstone was laid on October 20, 1927, facing the future Art Museum Drive and running diagonally from North Charles Street. The systems engineering for the building's original design was completed by Henry Adams, noted local mechanical engineer. The building consists of three floors and includes several rooms that were reconstructed and/or replicated from six local Maryland historic houses before their loss or razing.〔http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/59462,0,2882861.venue〕 The building phase was marked by controversy over its location, cost, and the quality of workmanship, but on April 19, 1929, it opened on schedule without much fanfare. The first visitors were greeted by Rodin's ''"The Thinker"'' in the Sculpture Court and most of the objects on display were lent by Baltimore and Maryland collectors. An average of 584 visitors attended the museum each day during the first two months of its opening. When the Museum opened in 1929, the library was on the ground floor, equipped with shelves to house several thousand volumes, reading tables, and chairs. In 1983, the Library was reinstalled in its current location, on the third floor of the Cone Wing.〔http://www.marylandartsource.org/institutions/detail_000000014.html〕 By the 1930s, the public reception was such that then-director Roland McKinney, in a letter to board chairman Henry Treide, noted, “People seem to feel that the Museum belongs to them and show that they are sincerely proud of it and its activities.” Unfortunately, these “people” were mostly upper- crust, privileged, and white, a fact duly noted in a 1937 Carnegie Corporation report. “() cultural institutions (outside of the library and the schools) have appealed to, been intended for, and been supported by a pretty small minority. . . .they need to be opened up, for the viewpoint of the entire community and its needs” it concluded. Local artists were feeling slighted, as well. “We, the living, resent being left to work in a vacuum of indifference and neglect while so much of the dead past is exhausted (the BMA ),” the president of the Artists’ Union of Baltimore complained to The Evening Sun in 1937. The writer of the letter was Morris Louis, whose work, decades later, would become a cornerstone of the BMA’s contemporary collection. Treide responded with an extensive community outreach survey and, in 1939, the city’s first exhibition of African-American art. The show drew over 12,000 visitors in two weeks.〔 Many of the objects lent to the museum when it opened were eventually donated to The Baltimore Museum of Art. Among the generous donors who have shaped the museum's collection are Blanche Adler, Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone, Jacob Epstein, Edward J. Gallagher, Jr., John W. and Robert Garrett, Mary Frick Jacobs, Ryda H. and Robert H. Levi, Saidie Adler May, Dorothy McIlvain Scott, Elsie C. Woodward, and Alan and Janet Wurtzburger. The growing collection is reflected in the three major expansions that occurred in the 1950s: the Saidie A. May Wing in 1950, the Woodward Wing in 1956, and the Cone Wing in 1957. The three additions were all designed by local architects Wrenn, Lewis and Jencks to harmonize with the original Pope Building. Today, The Baltimore Museum of Art's collection includes more than 90,000 objects, making it the largest art museum in Maryland. It is governed by a private Board of Trustees and receives funding from the City of Baltimore and the following surrounding suburban counties: (Baltimore County, Anne Arundel, Harford, Carroll, Howard and Frederick Counties), the State of Maryland, various corporations and foundations, federal agencies, individual Trustees, and many private citizens. The Baltimore Museum of Art welcomes more than 200,000 visitors annually. In addition to its impressive art collection, it organizes and hosts traveling exhibitions and serves as a major arts center through its programs. Most recently, the first phase of the B.M.A.'s $28 million multi-year renovation was completed with the reopening of "Contemporary Wing" in November 2012. The next phase of the renovation encompassing the "American Wing", galleries for African and Asian art, a new learning and creativity center, and lobby and shop has already been completed in 2015 and the full completion of the renovations will be on October 25, 2015 with the grand opening of the new $4.5 million, 5,500 SF "Center For People & The Arts". Also in April 2015, 17-year Museum Director, Dr. Doreen Bolger announced she would be retiring as Museum Director effective June 30, 2015. On June 25, 2015, the BMA appointed two Museum Co-Directors on an interim basis until a permanent replacement for Dr. Bolger is found, current Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs, Mr. Jay Fisher and current Deputy Director for Finance and Administration Ms. Christine Dietze. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Baltimore Museum of Art」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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