Type Art Museum Province Ontario | Website Official website Phone +1 905-525-9140 | |
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Established 1967: McMaster Art Gallery
1994: McMaster Museum of Art Location McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario Address 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L6, Canada Hours Open today · 11AM–7PMThursday11AM–7PMFriday11AM–5PMSaturday12–5PMSundayClosedMondayClosedTuesday11AM–5PMWednesday11AM–5PM Similar Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Guelph, Dundurn Castle, Canadian Warplane Heritage, Whitehern Profiles | ||
Mcmaster museum of art
The McMaster Museum of Art (MMA) is a non-profit public art gallery at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. The museum is located in the heart of the campus, attached to Mills Memorial Library and close to the McMaster Student Centre.
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New senior curator at mcmaster museum of art
History
McMaster University was founded in 1887, in Toronto, and the art collection began soon after as portraits of presidents and faculty accumulated. A donation of European prints by the Carnegie Institute in the 1930s led to more systematic collecting and programming. By the 1950s, regular art exhibitions were presented on campus in Mills Memorial Library.
In 1967, with the help of the Chair of the History Department, Dr. Togo Salmon, the McMaster Art Gallery was given a purpose-built facility in the east wing of Togo Salmon Hall. The Gallery moved across campus to its present larger location where it opened to the public under a new name, the McMaster Museum of Art, on June 11, 1994. Five year's later the building was renamed the Alvin A. Lee Building in honour of President Emeritus Alvin A. Lee, an influential champion of the MMA, whose efforts helped make the current building possible.
Programming
The MMA offers year-round exhibits consisting of historical, modern and contemporary art. In addition to hosting a graduate studio art class exhibit, the MMA also hosts a variety of public events including lunch and learn sessions, artist talks and workshops. The MMA's Education Gallery serves as a multipurpose room for lectures and study and is home to the Museum’s modest library made up of books, artist’s files and exhibition catalogues.
The MMA belongs to the Ontario Association of Art Galleries reciprocal program, through which members of participating galleries receive free admission to all galleries.
Collection
Many faculty members and the Wentworth House Art Committee, established to acquire contemporary Canadian and European art, guided the growth of the collection. Professors Karl Denner (German Department) and George Wallace (Art and Art History Department) are credited with the advancement of the German Expressionist art collection in the early 1960s.
The donation of over 200 European works in the 1980s by Hamilton jeweler Herman Levy O.B.E. put the Museum on the map in the Canadian art scene. He later bequeathed $15.25 million to the Museum with specific directions that the money must be spent within five years, on acquisition of art of non-North American origins. More recently, the Donald Murray Shepherd Trust provided funds for the purchase of contemporary European art from notable artists such as David Bomberg, Christian Rohlfs, and Natalia Goncharova.
The permanent collection, one of the finest University collections in the country, consists of over 7,000 objects. It includes:
The Museum’s Paper Centre contains over 4,000 prints, drawings, and watercolours that the public can view by appointment.
The MMA is also home to the Bruce Brace Coin Collection, which consists of coins and medallions from Rome and Greece. The Collection has been the focus of numismatic inquiry aimed at improving what is known about daily life and trade in ancient Rome and Greece from as early as the fifth century BC to the fall of the Roman empire.
Collaborative Projects
McMaster Museum of Art works with faculties across campus. Recent projects/exhibitions using University research and experts include: