James A. Michener Art Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 1988 |
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| Location | 138 South Pine Street Doylestown, PA 18901 United States |
| Type | Art, sculpture garden |
| Visitors | 135,000 annually |
| Public transit access |  Doylestown:
Lansdale/Doylestown Line
 SEPTA bus: 55 |
The Michener Art Museum is a special place in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It opened in 1988 and is named after James A. Michener, a famous writer who won a Pulitzer Prize and lived in Doylestown. This museum is built inside the old stone walls of a 19th-century prison!
It has a great collection of art from Bucks County. You can also see American art from the 1800s and 1900s. The museum is especially known for its Pennsylvania Impressionism collection. This art style came from a group of artists who lived nearby in New Hope a long time ago. The museum also has new art shows all the time, from big international exhibits to local art.
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Museum Spaces and Features
The Michener Art Museum has lots of public areas to explore. It covers about 40,000 square feet! You can walk through a beautiful outdoor courtyard. There's also a cool glass building for events. An outdoor sculpture garden sits in what used to be the prison yard. The museum also has rooms for classes and meetings. Don't forget to check out the museum shop and a cafe. You can also visit the George Nakashima Reading Room.
A Look Back: Museum History
People in Doylestown wanted an art museum for a long time. As early as 1949, local artist Walter Emerson Baum and others thought about creating a place for Pennsylvania Impressionist art.
In the 1970s, a group called the Bucks County Council on the Arts started collecting artwork. They wanted to display art in government buildings. This collection later became part of the museum.
In 1988, the county decided to turn the old Bucks County Prison into an art museum. They approved $650,000 for the project. James A. Michener, who grew up in Doylestown, helped a lot. He gave $500,000 and some of his own paintings to start the museum's fund. He ended up donating $8.5 million in total!
Architects worked to change the prison into a museum. The old warden's house and control buildings became offices and art display areas. Parts of the prison walls are still there. They now make a cool background for the outdoor sculptures. The museum officially opened on September 15, 1988. James A. Michener and his wife, Mari, were there for the opening.
The museum grew bigger over the years. In 1993, new galleries and a storage vault were added. In 1996, the Mari Sabusawa Michener Wing opened. In 1999, the museum received a huge gift. Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest donated 54 Pennsylvania Impressionist paintings. They also gave $3 million for the museum's future. In 2007, the Syd and Sharon Martin Wing opened. This added 5,000 square feet of new gallery space.
Later, the Edgar N. Putman Event Pavilion opened. This is a modern glass building with a solid roof. It has sliding doors and hosts events like Jazz Nights and lectures. The museum also had a smaller location in New Hope, Pennsylvania, from 2003 to 2009.
The Old Prison Building
The Bucks County Prison, where the museum now stands, first opened in 1884. A Philadelphia architect named Addison Hutton designed it. It had a three-story warden's house and a guardhouse. The design was inspired by Quaker ideas about quiet reflection. It looked a bit like the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. The Bucks County Prison closed in 1985. The warden's house is an important historic building in Doylestown.
Art Collection Highlights
The museum's collection has over 2,700 pieces of art. These include paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. They all come from the Bucks County art tradition. You can see art from colonial times to today. The collection features artists from the Pennsylvania Impressionist or New Hope school. It also has early American painters and modern artists. The museum also gets art on loan from other places. These include works by abstract expressionists.
Besides the art that stays there, the museum puts on about 15 new art shows each year. These shows feature many different art styles and types of art.
Pennsylvania Impressionist Art
The museum has a fantastic collection of Pennsylvania Impressionism art. This art movement happened in the early 1900s. It was centered in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Artists like John Fulton Folinsbee, Walter Emerson Baum, Fern Coppedge, and Edward Redfield were part of it.
This art style is similar to French Impressionism. Artists often painted plein air, which means outdoors. They focused on showing the quality of light, color, and how things looked at different times of day.
Learning and Education
The Michener Art Museum offers many ways to learn. They have talks and workshops for adults. These often feature art experts and artists. There are also art classes and workshops just for kids! These are for all ages, from preschool to high school. They even have classes where kids and adults can learn together. The museum also works with local schools. They offer programs both at the museum and in schools. The museum also keeps a large collection of old documents and art records. These help tell the story of local artists.
Bucks County Artists Database
The museum has a cool online database about artists from the Bucks County area. You can also see it on a special screen at the museum. This database has over 1,700 pages of info and 1,300 images! It tells you about 371 different artists. These include architects, craftspeople, musicians, painters, photographers, poets, and writers. They are all part of the artistic history of New Hope and Bucks County. For example, you can learn about the painter Edward Hicks or the woodworker George Nakashima. You can even find info on the authors and illustrators Stan and Jan Berenstain.
Main Art Displays
The Michener Art Museum has several permanent exhibits you can always see:
- The Lenfest Exhibition of Pennsylvania Impressionism: This show features many beautiful paintings from the Pennsylvania Impressionist movement.
- The George Nakashima Reading Room: A quiet space honoring a famous woodworker.
- Daniel Garber's A Wooded Watershed: This is a huge 22-foot mural painting. It was made for a big event in Philadelphia in 1926.
- Intelligent Design: Studio Craft + Tradition: This exhibit shows amazing handcrafted items.
- "James A. Michener: A Living Legacy": This exhibit is all about the museum's namesake, James A. Michener. It looks like his office in Bucks County. You can see his desk, chair, typewriter, and other items. This is where he wrote many of his famous books, like Tales of the South Pacific.
