Portland Museum of Art

Not to be confused withPortland Art MuseumorPortland Museum of Modern Art.

Portland Museum of Art

McLellan House, Portland Museum of Art
Location	Portland, Maine
Coordinates	43°39′13″N70°15′44″W
Type	Art Museum
Website	portlandmuseum.org

ThePortland Museum of Art,or PMA, is the largest and oldest public art institution inMaine.Founded as thePortland Society of Artin 1882. It is located in the downtown area known asThe Arts DistrictinPortland, Maine.

History

The PMA used a variety of exhibition spaces until 1908; that yearMargaret Jane Mussey Sweatbequeathed her three-story mansion, now known as theMcLellan House,and sufficient funds to create a gallery in memory of her late husband,Lorenzo De Medici Sweat,who was aU.S. Representative.NotedNew EnglandarchitectJohn Calvin Stevensdesigned theL. D. M. Sweat Memorial Galleries,which opened to the public in 1911.

Over the next 65 years, as the size and scope of the exhibitions expanded, the limitations of the museum's galleries, storage, and support areas became apparent. From 1960 to 1962,Donelson Hoopesserved as its director. In 1976, Maine nativeCharles Shipman Paysonpromised the museum his collection of 17 paintings byWinslow Homer.Recognizing the museum's physical limitations, he also gave $8 million toward the building of an addition to be designed by Henry Nichols Cobb ofI. M. Pei & Partners.Construction began on the Charles Shipman Payson Building in 1981, and within two years the $8.2 million facility was opened to the public.

Payson's gift of the Homer paintings served as a catalyst for the museum's expansion as well as for significant long-term loans and outright gifts to the museum. In direct response to the Payson gift, the 1979 gift of theHamilton Easter Field Art Foundation Collectionadded more than 50 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper by American modernists to the collection. In 1991, the Joan Whitney Payson Collection (owned by Charles Payson's wifeJoan Whitney,aWhitney familyheiress andNew York Citysocialite) of 20impressionistandpost-impressionistworks of art was given to the museum on permanent loan. In 1996,Elizabeth B. Noyce,art collector and Mainephilanthropist,bequeathed66 works ofAmerican art,which is the most extensive and diverse gift of American art ever presented to the museum.

The PMA attracts approximately 140,000 visitors a year, and has around 8,500 members.

Collection

The museum'scollectionincludes more than 22,000 artworks, dating from the 18th century to the present. The PMA's collection features works by artists includingWinslow Homer,Marsden Hartley,John Marin,Louise Nevelson,Andrew WyethandJohn Greenleaf Cloudman.The museum has the largestEuropeancollection in Maine. The major European movements fromimpressionismthroughsurrealismare represented by theJoan Whitney Payson,Albert Otten,andScott M. Blackcollections, which include works byGiambattista Pittoni,Mary Cassatt,Edgar Degas,René Magritte,Claude Monet,Edvard Munch,Pablo Picasso,andAuguste Rodin.TheElizabeth B. Noyce Collection,a bequest of 66 paintings and sculptures, includes paintings byGeorge Bellows,Alfred Thompson Bricher,Abraham Walkowitz,andJamie Wyeth,and masterpieces byChilde Hassam,Fitz Henry Lane,andN. C. Wyeth.

Facilities

The museum's three architecturally significant buildings unite three centuries that showcase the history ofAmerican artand culture.

Since its opening in 1983, theCharles Shipman Payson Buildinghas been the public face of the museum. Although the original vision of both the architect and the museum'sstrategic planwas to integrate all three buildings, the Charles Shipman Payson Building the L. D. M. Sweat Memorial Galleries, and the McLellan House only recently has the museum been positioned to achieve this goal. In January 2000, the museum launched a $13.5 millioncapital campaigntoraise fundsfor thepreservationand educational interpretation of its two historic structures.

The Portland Museum of Art in the Arts District of Portland.

The project to integrate the three buildings began in the fall of 2000 and was completed in October 2002. The McLellan House and L. D. M. Sweat Memorial Galleries have an emphasis on 19th-century American art, and the Payson Building houses European and American works from the 20th and 21st centuries. The project to "complete the Museum" returned the McLellan House to its original neoclassical elegance and the L. D. M. Sweat Memorial Galleries to theirBeaux-Artssplendor, in the process creating distinctive spaces for the museum's outstanding collection of 19th-century American art. The museum's expanded space allows a more complete presentation of the permanent collection, which in recent years has grown in quality and historical importance. In 2014,Scott Simons Architectswas engaged to develop a campus masterplan to help position the museum for growth.The museum is open from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every day except Monday and Tuesday.

In 2022, the museum presented plans for a 5,600 m²(60,000 sq ft) expansion, announcing four finalist teams led by international firmsAdjaye Associates,Toshiko Mori,MVRDV,and LEVER who created the winning design.

Main lobby of Museum

External links

• Official website