Toledo Museum of Art facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Toledo Museum of Art

Toledo Museum of Art exterior
Established	1901
Location	2445 Monroe Street Toledo, Ohio
Visitors	383,685 (2019)
Public transit access	TARTA

The Toledo Museum of Art is a famous art museum in Toledo, Ohio. It is located in the Old West End neighborhood. The museum holds a huge collection of over 30,000 art pieces.

It has 45 galleries and covers a large area of 280,000 square feet. The museum is currently making its campus even bigger. Edward Drummond Libbey, a glassmaker from Toledo, started the museum in 1901.

The museum moved to its current main building in 1912. This building was designed in a Greek revival style. It has been made larger twice since then. Other buildings were added in the 1990s and 2006.

The main building has a lot of space, with 4 1/2 acres of floor area. It includes 15 classroom studios for art classes. There is also a large concert hall called the Peristyle, which seats 1,750 people. The museum also has a lecture hall, a café, and a gift shop.

About 380,000 people visit the museum each year. In 2010, it was voted America's favorite museum by readers of a visual arts website. The current director of the museum is Adam M. Levine.

Art Collection

The Medieval Cloister

The museum has amazing collections of glass art. It also has many European and American artworks from the 1800s and 1900s. There are smaller, but important, collections of Renaissance, Greek, Roman, and Japanese art.

Some famous paintings include The Crowning of Saint Catherine by Peter Paul Rubens. You can also see Blind Man's Bluff by Fragonard. Another well-known piece is Houses at Auvers by Vincent van Gogh.

The collection also features works by famous artists like Rembrandt and El Greco. Modern art pieces by Willem de Kooning, Henry Moore, and Sol LeWitt are also on display. Other artists in the museum's collection include Holbein, Cole, Cropsey, Turner, Tissot, Degas, Monet, Cézanne, Matisse, Miró, Picasso, Calder, Bearden, Close, and Kiefer.

The Peristyle Concert Hall

The Peristyle

The Peristyle is a large concert hall located in the east part of the museum. It can seat 1,750 people. This hall is the main place where the Toledo Symphony Orchestra performs. It also hosts the museum's special Masters series concerts.

The Peristyle was added in 1933. Its design is in a classical style, matching the outside of the museum. The seats are arranged in a half-circle, similar to old Greek theaters. At the back of the seating area, there are 28 Ionic columns. These columns give the concert hall its name.

In 2001, a sculpture garden was added. It features mostly modern art pieces created after World War II. This garden runs along the museum's Monroe Street side. Older sculptures are shown inside the museum.

Special Buildings

Toledo Glass Pavilion

Interior of the Glass Pavilion

The Toledo Museum of Art has two other special buildings. These buildings help the museum offer more to its visitors and students.

Center for the Visual Arts

A building called the Center for the Visual Arts was added in the 1990s. It was designed by the famous architect Frank Gehry. This center holds the museum's library. It also has studios, offices, and classrooms. These spaces are used by the art department of the University of Toledo.

The Glass Pavilion

In 2000, the museum chose the SANAA architecture firm to design a new building. This building would be home to the museum's amazing glass collection. It was the first project for SANAA in the United States.

Window by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1912

The Glass Pavilion cost $30 million to build. Much of the money came from a large fundraising effort in Toledo. The building's unique curved glass walls were brought from China.

The Glass Pavilion opened in August 2006. It is 74,000 square feet in size. Many art critics praised its design. One described it as a "striking symbol of cultural power." Another said its "elegant maze of curved glass walls" was like a modern Hall of Mirrors.

The building is designed to fit well with the older museum buildings. It is low and horizontal, so it does not take away from the original museum's grand look. The Pavilion hosts about 700 public glass blowing shows each year. It also holds community events. These events include "Re)New Year's Days" and "Art of the Cut," which celebrates Black barbers.

The Glass Pavilion shows off the museum's original glass collection. It also features new glass artworks. One famous piece is a large glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly.

Famous Artworks

See also

In Spanish: Museo de Arte de Toledo para niños