Phoenix Art Museum's north entrance
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Established | 21 November 1959 |
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Location |
1625 North Central Avenue |
Coordinates | 33°28′00″N 112°04′22″W / 33.466749°N 112.072655°WCoordinates: 33°28′00″N 112°04′22″W / 33.466749°N 112.072655°W |
Type | Art Museum |
Director | Amada Cruz, The Sybil Harrington Director |
Public transit access | #10, Central at McDowell (METRO Light Rail) |
Website | Phoenix Art Museum |
1625 North Central Avenue
The Phoenix Art Museum is the Southwest United States' largest art museum for visual art. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is 285,000-square-foot (26,500 m2). It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. A community center since 1959, it hosts year-round programs of festivals, live performances, independent art films and educational programs. It also features PhxArtKids, an interactive space for children; photography exhibitions through the museum’s partnership with the Center for Creative Photography; the landscaped Sculpture Garden; dining and shopping.
It has been designated a Phoenix Point of Pride.
Opened in 1959, the Phoenix Art Museum is located on the Central Avenue Corridor.
Shortly after Arizona became the 48th state in 1912, the Phoenix Women’s Club was formed and worked with the Arizona State Fair Committee to develop a fine arts program. In 1915, the club purchased Carl Oscar Borg's painting Egyptian Evening for US$125 and presented it to the city of Phoenix to begin a community art collection. In 1925, the State Fair Committee expanded its community responsibilities and formed the Phoenix Fine Arts Association.
The next major advance in the local art community came during 1936, when the Phoenix Art Center was created under the auspices of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project. Its director was the painter Philip C. Curtis. Its success led to the creation in 1940 of the Civic Center Association, which set about raising funds and planning a building on a 6.5-acre plot donated by the heirs of Adolphus Clay Bartlett. These heirs included Maie Bartlett Heard, who with her husband Dwight B. Heard founded the Heard Museum.