Akron Art Museum facts for kids
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| Established | February 1, 1922 |
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| Location | One South High St., Akron, Ohio, United States |
The Akron Art Museum is a cool art museum located in Akron, Ohio, in the United States. It's a place where you can see amazing artworks!
The museum first opened its doors on February 1, 1922. Back then, it was called the Akron Art Institute. It started small, in just two rooms in the basement of the public library. A couple named Edwin Coupland Shaw and his wife Jennifer Bond Shaw helped start it. They even offered classes to help people learn about art. The museum moved to the Akron Public Library building in 1948 and stayed there until 1981. It has grown a lot since it first opened! A big new part of the museum opened on July 17, 2007. Today, it shows art from all over the world.
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Art Collections
The Akron Art Museum has a huge space, about 20,000 square feet, just for showing its art collection. This collection includes art made since the year 1850. The museum also brings in special art shows from other museums around the world.
Art from 1850 to 1950
On the first floor, you can see Western art created between 1850 and 1950. This part of the museum is inside an old building from 1899. It's built in a style called Italian Renaissance revival. The first rooms show art that looks very real, and also American impressionism. Other rooms explore art styles like modernism from 1910 to 1950. There's even a special room just for the art of William Sommer, who was an artist from northeast Ohio. You can see paintings by famous artists like Thomas Wilmer Dewing and Frederick Carl Frieseke here.
Art from 1950 to Today
Art made since 1950 is displayed in eight rooms in the museum's newer Knight building, which opened in 2007. These galleries show many different art styles from the late 1900s. You can see photorealism, which looks like a photograph, and Pop Art, which uses images from popular culture. Some famous artworks here include Linda by Chuck Close, which is a very large painting. You can also see Single Elvis and Brillo Boxes by Andy Warhol. There's also a cool wooden sculpture called The Wise and Foolish Virgins and Four Other Scenes by Ohio artist Elijah Pierce.
Special Art Shows
Big temporary art shows are held on the second floor of the Knight Building. These shows might be traveling exhibits, like American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell. Or, they might be shows put together by the museum itself, like A Shared Vision: The Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Photography Collection. The museum also has smaller spaces for showing art by new artists. They also feature community art projects and changing photography exhibits.
The Knight Building
The John S. and James L. Knight Building is a large, 63,000-square-foot addition to the museum. It was designed by an architecture company from Vienna called Coop Himmelb(l)au. They were chosen because they are good at adding new parts to old buildings. This building was their first public project in North and South America. Construction started on May 22, 2004.
The design of the Knight Building connects new gallery spaces, an auditorium, and a cafe with the museum's original 1899 building. It uses cool and surprising shapes:
- The "Crystal" is a three-story glass lobby. It's the main entrance and connects all parts of the museum.
- The "Gallery Box" holds the museum's main art collection and temporary shows.
- The "Roof Cloud" is a long, 327-foot steel and aluminum structure that hangs over both the old and new buildings. It makes the museum stand out in downtown Akron. One art critic even said it looked like "a mechanical alligator snarfing down a Beaux Arts post office."
This new building greatly increased the museum's ability to host big traveling art shows. It also allowed them to show important artworks that were rarely seen before. One example is Surf by Elliot Torrey, which was the very first artwork the museum bought in 1923.
Wolf D. Prix, who helped design the building, said that the design "embraces the past, rather than replacing or destroying it." He believes the building helps create a special public space in the city and a private space for people's feelings.
See also
In Spanish: Museo de Arte de Akron para niños
