McNay Art Museum Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
McNay Art Museum
Entrance to the original McNay home and museum
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Established	1950
Location	6000 N. New Braunfels Ave. San Antonio, Texas United States
Type	Art Museum

The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, is a special place. It was the very first museum in Texas to focus on modern art. The museum opened in 1954.

It all started with a generous gift from Marion Koogler McNay. She was an artist and teacher. When her father passed away, she inherited a lot of money from his oil business. Marion loved art and wanted to share it.

She gave most of her money and her amazing art collection to create this museum. She also gave her beautiful home. It's a huge 24-room mansion built in a style called Spanish Colonial Revival. This means it looks like old Spanish buildings. The house sits on 23 acres (about 9 hectares) of land. The grounds are lovely, with fountains, big green lawns, a Japanese-style garden, and a fishpond.

The McNay's History
What You Can See at the McNay
New Additions to the Museum
Collection Highlights
See also

The McNay's History

Marion McNay built her home in 1927. It was designed by architects Atlee Ayres and his son Robert M. Ayres. When Marion passed away, she left her house to the City of San Antonio. Her wish was for it to become a museum. That's how the McNay Art Museum began.

Over the years, the museum has grown a lot. It now has art from the medieval and Renaissance periods. It also has a much larger collection of 20th-century European and American modern art.

What You Can See at the McNay

The museum mainly shows art from the 1800s and 1900s. You can see works by famous artists like Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, and Henri Matisse. There are also pieces by American artists such as Georgia O'Keeffe, Mary Cassatt, and Edward Hopper. You might even see art by Diego Rivera.

Today, the McNay has more than 20,000 art pieces. It's known as one of the best collections of modern art and sculptures in the Southwestern United States. The museum also has a special collection called the Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts. This is one of the top collections of its kind in the U.S. It includes items related to plays and performances. There's also a research library with over 30,000 books.

New Additions to the Museum

In 2008, the McNay Art Museum added a new building. It's called the Jane and Arthur Stieren Center for Exhibitions. This new part was designed by architect Jean-Paul Viguier. It was built to show off the museum's modern art collection.

The Stieren Center is very large, about 45,000 square feet. It has bright galleries with lots of natural light for special art shows. There's also a gallery with a glass front that displays sculptures. Other areas include a gallery for art on paper, cases for small objects, a lecture hall, and learning centers. The new building looks different from the old mansion, but its design and materials still fit well with the original Spanish Colonial Revival style.