Ima Hogg, despite her unfortunate name, stands among the greatest patrons of American art. Her philanthropic legacy is broad and varied, but Bayou Bay — her home, gardens, and American decorative arts collection — is perhaps the most tangible. […]
With a wink to Gene Autry and Tex Ritter who lauded the Lone Star state with the song, Deep in the Heart of Texas, I’m singing the praises of the Menil Collection, deep in the heart of Houston. In an idyllic tree-shaded art neighborhood covering 30 urban acres, the Menil campus includes five museum buildings, […]
The uncanny appeal of one of the premier folk artists in American art history is on view at the Mennello Museum of American Art, which holds the largest collection of Cunningham’s work in the nation. […]
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. […]
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 […]
In the early 1920s, philanthropist Mildred Bliss and landscape designer Beatrix Farrand began to create an extensive garden at the Bliss’ Washington DC estate. Collaborating for almost thirty years, the two planned every garden detail, each terrace, bench, urn, and border. Now open to the pubic, the garden is perhaps the last remaining landscape in North America that hews closely to the original Farrand design. In 2014 it was singled out by National Geographic as one of the ten best gardens in the world. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]