Exploring the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement

Years in the planning, St. Petersburg FL’s magnificent MAACM is the only museum in the world dedicated to the American Arts and Crafts Movement. MAACM is a destination museum for devotees of the design and craftsmanship of the decorative arts in America in the decades flanking the turn of the 20th century. […]

Portraiture: Alive & Well in America Today  

Every three years, the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) highlights the creativity and skill of contemporary portrait artists in America with the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and exhibition. This year’s finalists demonstrate the power of the genre and its capacity to make visual a broad range of life experiences. […]

Discovering America’s First Modern Art Museum

How many people – even art geeks like us – can name America’s first museum of modern art?  We suspect most would also be hard pressed to say where The Phillips Collection is located! Or where Renoir’s well-known and well-loved Luncheon of the Boating Party hangs. It was a surprise to us that The Phillips […]

Exploring Byzantine Art at Dumbarton Oaks

Mildred and Robert Woods Bliss began acquiring Byzantine art in the early 1920s. Within a single decade — as a result of their pioneering interest, their refined taste, and the connoisseurship of their advisers – the importance of their collection was already such that they were invited to lend numerous objects to the first major […]

Exploring Pre-Columbian Art at Dumbarton Oaks

The peoples of the Pre-Columbian world created a long and varied history before Europeans arrived in the “New World.”  Much evidence of large-scale architecture, stunning works of art, and complex writing and record-keeping systems remains today, testament to the sophistication of those early civilizations. Ensconced behind high brick walls in residential Georgetown (Washington, DC), Dumbarton […]

Van Gogh in America

“Van Gogh in America” celebrates the Detroit Institute of Arts’ status as the first public museum in the United States to purchase a painting by Vincent van Gogh, his “Self-Portrait” (1887). On the 100th anniversary of that milestone acquisition, 74 van Gogh works from collections around the world reveal the fascinating story of America’s introduction to this iconic […]

Discovering Art in Asheville: Black Mountain College Museum and Arts Center

I’ve heard much about Black Mountain College over the years, and often wondered about its current status. So, on a recent visit to Asheville NC, I was on a quest. What I found was a wonderful little storefront museum in the Downtown Arts District that celebrates Black Mountain College (BMC). For almost 30 years, the […]

Reynolda House Museum of American Art

I’ve been wanting to visit Reynolda House and its American art collection since I first learned about it 25 years ago. Finally made it! Set at the center of 180 acres in Winston-Salem NC, the Reynolda House Museum of American Art presents an acclaimed art collection in an historic and incomparable setting: the original 1917 […]

Discovering The Nasher Art Museum, Durham NC

When you think of Duke University, do you think “Basketball”? “Medical school”? Or do you think “Art”? Like any top university, Duke has built a Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies, and the Nasher Museum of Art is a classic adjunct to that program. Founded in 1969 with the acquisition of 200 medieval […]