Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art facts for kids

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Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The original 1933 Nelson-Atkins Museum Building and the new Bloch Building
Established	1933
Location	4525 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri, United States

The Nelson with the new Bloch addition

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is a famous art museum located in Kansas City, Missouri. It's known for its huge collection of art from almost every continent and culture around the world. A special highlight is its amazing collection of Asian art.

In 2007, Time magazine called the museum's new Bloch Building one of the "10 Best Architectural Marvels" in the world. This shows how special its design is!

The museum is open five days a week:

Monday: 10 am - 5 pm
Tuesday and Wednesday: Closed
Thursday: 10 am - 9 pm
Friday: 10 am - 9 pm
Saturday and Sunday: 10 am - 5 pm

The best part? Admission is completely free!

Museum History: How It Started
Amazing Art Collections
See also

Museum History: How It Started

Cafe in the museum

Shuttlecock sculpture outside the museum

The museum was built on land that used to be the home of William Rockhill Nelson. He was the publisher of The Kansas City Star newspaper. When he passed away in 1915, his will said that after his wife and daughter died, all his money should be used to buy art for everyone to enjoy.

Around the same time, in 1911, a woman named Mary McAfee Atkins also left money to start an art museum. She was a former schoolteacher and the widow of a real estate investor. Her gift grew quite a bit over the years.

Originally, there were plans for two separate museums. But the people in charge of both estates decided it would be better to combine the money. This way, they could create one really big and important art institution for Kansas City.

Building the Museum

The museum building was designed by famous Kansas City architects, Wight and Wight. They also designed parts of the Liberty Memorial. Construction began in July 1930, and the museum officially opened its doors on December 11, 1933.

The building's style is called Beaux-Arts architecture. It looks a bit like the Cleveland Museum of Art. One of the designers, Thomas Wight, said they used classic styles because they had proven to be good over hundreds of years. He felt it was too risky to try something completely new with such a large and expensive project.

When it first opened, the museum cost about $2.75 million. This would be like $54 million today! It was a huge six-story building, much larger than the Cleveland Museum of Art.

For many years, people called it the Nelson Art Gallery. It was actually two museums inside one building until 1983. The east side was the Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and the west side was the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art. Finally, they officially combined the names to become the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Outside the building, there are 23 limestone panels created by Charles Keck. These panels show the story of civilization moving from east to west, including wagon trains heading west from Westport Landing. The metal designs on the doors even have oak leaf patterns, remembering William Nelson's home, Oak Hall.

Because William Nelson gave money instead of his own art collection, the museum's experts could start from scratch. This was during the Great Depression, a time when many artworks were for sale cheaply, but few people could afford to buy them. This meant the museum's buyers found many amazing pieces available. The collection grew very quickly, and soon the Nelson-Atkins had one of the largest art collections in the country.

Museum Directors

The museum has had several directors who have guided its growth. The current director is Julián Zugazagoitia, who started in 2010. Before him, Marc Wilson served as director from 1982 to 2010.

One important past director was Laurence Sickman, who led the museum from 1953 to 1977. He had a special interest in Asian art and helped build one of the best Asian collections in the United States. He even helped bring a major exhibition of Chinese art to Kansas City in 1975, which was a huge event!

Bloch Building: A Modern Addition

North façade of the original building (1930-33), with the Bloch Building (1999-2007), left.

The Thinker sculpture, now on the south side of the museum.

In the 1990s, the museum decided it needed more space. They planned to increase the museum's size by 55 percent! In 1999, architect Steven Holl won a competition to design the new addition.

Holl's idea was to build five glass structures, which he called "lenses," to the east of the original building. These lenses sit on top of a large underground building called the Bloch Building. It's named after Henry W. Bloch, a co-founder of H&R Block.

The Bloch Building opened on June 9, 2007, and cost about $95 million. It holds the museum's modern art, African art, photography, and special exhibits. It also has a new cafe and the Isamu Noguchi Sculpture Court.

Many people loved the new design. The New York Times art critic Nicolai Ouroussoff praised it, saying it showed that "art and architecture can happily coexist." He also noted how the glass lenses let natural light into the underground galleries, which was a new idea for museums.

The museum even has a reflecting pool on its north side with 34 round openings, called "oculi." These let natural light into the parking garage below! The famous The Thinker statue, which used to be at the north entrance, was moved to the south side of the museum.

Amazing Art Collections

The Nelson-Atkins Museum has many different types of art from around the world.

Ancient Art

This collection features art from ancient times, including Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the Near East. It opened in 2010.

Egyptian Art: You can see portraits of pharaohs and queens like Sen-useret III and Ramses II.
Near Eastern Art: Look for jewelry from ancient kings and queens at Ur and sculptures from palaces in Nimrud and Persepolis.
Greek Art: Most pieces are statues and pottery from 5th to 1st century BCE, showing Greek gods and heroes like Helios and Heracles.
Roman Art: There are statues of emperors like Alexander Severus and Hadrian, plus early Christian works.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the museum offered a virtual tour of their Queen Nefertari exhibit. This exhibit featured 230 pieces of art about Nefertari and other important women of ancient Egypt.

Metjetji statue, Saqqara, Old Kingdom
Statue of Hadrian
Vase, from Tepe Sialk (Iran), 1000 BCE
Portrait of Mentuemhat, Thebes, 665-650 BCE
Cycladic Idol, from Cyclades Greece, 3000 BCE
Classical/Ancient Art Collection Hall

European Art

The museum has a highly valued collection of European paintings. You can see works by famous artists like Caravaggio, El Greco, Rembrandt, Claude Monet, and Vincent van Gogh.

Les Boules de Neige by Pierre Bonnard

In 2016, a small painting called The Temptation of St. Anthony was confirmed to be by the artist Hieronymus Bosch himself, after careful study. This is very exciting because there are only about 25 known Bosch paintings in the world!

The museum also has beautiful Late Gothic and Early Italian Renaissance paintings. You can also find German and Austrian Expressionist paintings by artists like Max Beckmann and Emil Nolde.

The Nelson-Atkins also works with art pieces from the Nazi era (1920s-1940s). Many of these pieces were taken from Jewish families. The museum researches these artworks and works with the families of the original owners or artists. Sometimes, the art is returned to the families, or it stays on display with their permission. One famous example is a painting called Les Boules de Neige by Pierre Bonnard.

Jacopo del Casentino "Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple"
Hieronymus Bosch "The Temptation of St. Anthony"
Gherardo Starnina "The Adoration of the Magi"
Giovanni Bellini "Madonna and Child"
El Greco "Penitent Magdalene" a c.1580–1585 version

Asian Art

The museum is very famous for its large collection of Asian art. This includes pieces from Imperial China, as well as from Afghanistan, India, Iran, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, and other parts of Southeast and South Asia. Much of this art was bought for the museum in the early 20th century by Laurence Sickman, who was studying in China.

The museum has one of the best collections of Chinese antique furniture in the country. It also has a special group of glazed pottery statues called luohans from around the year 1000.

Besides Chinese art, the collection includes art from Japan, such as screen paintings and woodblock prints by artists like Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige. There are also sculptures, ceramics, and textiles.

Huanghuali wood furniture, China
Yixian glazed pottery Luohans
Testered Bed with Alcove, Ming Dynasty, 15th-16 century, huanghuali wood
Salim Quli - Leaf from the Muraqqa Gulshan- The Poet and the Prince
Statue of Shiva Nataraja from Tamil Nadu (in center) in Indian Collection Hall
Tawaraya Sôtatsu "llustration from 'Tale of Ise' "

African Art

Horse and Rider, 16th century

Most of the artworks in the museum’s African collection come from artists in West and Central Africa. These include countries like Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are also some pieces from East and South Africa.

The Nelson-Atkins started collecting African art in the 1930s. In 1958, they acquired two important brass objects from the Benin Kingdom in Nigeria.

Today, the African art gallery has about 400 objects made from wood, brass, beads, and other materials. The museum uses videos and photos to show visitors how these objects are used in ceremonies or daily life. You can see a royal stool from the Asante people, a Standing Male Figure by a Hemba artist, and a Royal Beaded Throne from the Bamileke kingdom.

The museum has also hosted special exhibits, like 'Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500–Present'. This exhibit explored how African artists showed their interactions with Europeans.

Commemorative Head of an Oba, Nigeria 16th century
Soul washer's badge, Ghana, 19th century
Mask of the Bwadi bwa Kifwebe Society, Democratic Republic of Congo, late 19th century.
Elephant Tusk with Scenes of African life, Congolese
Reliquary Guardian Figure (Mbulu Ngulu or Mbulu Viti), Gabon, Kota people, 19th century
Royal Stool of the Asante people 1860

Native American Art

In 2009, the museum opened new galleries for Native American art. These galleries are very large and display about 200 pieces at a time. The collection includes works by both ancient and modern Native American artists.

You can see pottery, baskets, beadwork, quillwork, textiles, and paintings. These come from many different tribes, including the Arikara, Mississippian, Algonquian, Plains, Lakota, Kiowa, Cheyenne, Chumash, Navajo, and Pueblo tribes.

The Nelson-Atkins works closely with Native American groups and tribes. They follow the NAGPRA law. This means they make sure Native American art is displayed in a culturally respectful way. They also return items to tribes if they are claimed and connected to grave sites or important ceremonies.

The museum also hosts cultural performances. These events share and celebrate Indigenous cultures, often featuring singing, dancing, and storytelling from local Native American communities.

Native American Collection Hall (pottery)
Native American Collection Hall (textiles)
Mary Ebbetts Hunt, Chilkat robe
First Phase Chief Blanket, Navajo Tribe, 1850
Coat, Ojibwa, Ontario, ca. 1789. Gift of Ned Jalbert in honor of the 75th anniversary
Shield, Arikara artist, North Dakota, ca. 1850

American Art

The American gallery features art by American artists who are not Native American. It has the largest public collection of works by Thomas Hart Benton, who lived in Kansas City.

You can also find paintings by other famous American artists like George Bellows, Winslow Homer, and John Singer Sargent.

The museum has hosted important exhibits like "30 Americans." This show explored African American life through the eyes of 30 different artists, including works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kerry James Marshall.

In 2023, the museum won the painting "Sailing" by Thomas Eakins. This happened after the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl against the Philadelphia Eagles in a friendly bet with the Philadelphia Museum of Art!

Thomas Eakins "Monsignor James P. Turner"
John Singer Sargent "Mrs. Cecil Wade"
Raphaelle Peale "Venus Rising From the Sea—A Deception"
William Sidney Mount "Winding Up"
Marsden Hartley "Himmel"

Modern Art

This collection includes art created from the 1860s to the 1970s. It features styles like Cubism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Dada, Surrealism, Bauhaus, and Abstract Expressionism.

You can see works by world-famous artists such as Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, and Henry Moore. Many of these pieces were acquired thanks to donations from local groups and foundations.

Photography

The Photography galleries in the Bloch Building show the history of photography, from early daguerreotypes to modern 21st-century photos. The exhibits change about three times a year.

The museum also has the oldest known photo of enslaved people in the US, taken in 1850 by an unknown artist.

In 2006, the chairman of Hallmark Cards, Donald J. Hall, Sr., donated the entire Hallmark Photographic Collection to the museum. This huge collection covers the history of photography from 1839 to today. It includes works by famous photographers like Dorothea Lange and Andy Warhol.

Gustave Le Gray "Brig on the Water"
Dorothea Lange "Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California"
Alvin Langdon Coburn "House of a Thousand Windows"
Charles D. Fredricks "Fredricks’ Photographic Temple of Art, Broadway, New York"
Albert Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes "Harriet Beecher Stowe"
Charles Sheeler "Criss-Crossed Conveyors–Ford Plant"

Contemporary Art

Contemporary art is located in the Bloch Building and includes art from 1960 to the present day. This collection features styles like Pop, Minimalism, Conceptual, and Realism from different cultures around the world.

You can see artworks by Andy Warhol, Anish Kapoor, Robert Rauschenberg, Duane Hansen, and many others.

The Noguchi Sculpture Court, at the south end of the Bloch Building, displays contemporary sculptures. This is the third largest collection of Isamu Noguchi's work outside of New York and Japan.

Design and Decorative Arts

Armor for Man and Horse, Italy c. 1565

This collection includes a wide range of objects, from medieval stained glass to 21st-century furniture made by Kansas City artists. Some special pieces include a full set of armor for both a knight and his horse from 16th-century Italy. There are also over 1,300 examples of English pottery in the Burnap Collection.

Many pieces are from the 18th century, including pottery, porcelain, silver, and furniture. The museum also has works from the 19th to 21st centuries, covering design movements like Art Nouveau and Bauhaus. These decorative arts are displayed throughout the galleries, helping visitors understand how these items were used in daily life.

Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park

Nelson Atkins Park Panorama

Outside on the museum's large lawn, you'll find the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park. This park has the biggest collection of large bronze sculptures by Henry Moore in the United States.

The park also features works by other artists like Alexander Calder, Auguste Rodin, and Mark di Suvero. But perhaps the most famous artworks in the park (and the museum!) are the Shuttlecocks. These are four giant badminton shuttlecocks, each 18 feet tall, created by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. They are a fun and iconic sight!