Akron Art Museum

The Akron Art Museum is an art museum in Akron, Ohio, United States. Founded on February 1, 1922, as the Akron Art Institute, it has grown from two borrowed rooms in a public library basement into a major regional institution with an international architectural profile. The museum is distinguished by its collection of art produced since 1850, housed across a historic 1899 Italian Renaissance revival building and a dramatic 2007 expansion designed by the Viennese firm Coop Himmelb(l)au.

The museum opened on February 1, 1922, as the Akron Art Institute, located in two borrowed rooms in the basement of the public library. Edwin Coupland Shaw and his wife Jennifer Bond Shaw organized arts appreciation classes that formed the institute's educational foundation. In 1948, the institute found its first permanent home in the Akron Public Library, a Carnegie library building, where it remained until 1981. The institution grew considerably over the decades, and its focus shifted to modern art after 1850 beginning in 1970. The current museum facility opened to the public on July 17, 2007, following a major expansion project.

The museum's collection encompasses more than 5,000 permanent objects. Its 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2) of gallery space is dedicated to art produced since 1850. The collection is divided chronologically: Western art from 1850 to 1950 occupies the first floor of the 1899 building, while art since 1950 is displayed in eight rooms within the 2007 Knight Building. The museum also hosts visiting shows from national and international collections and organizes its own distinctive exhibitions.

The 1850-1950 galleries feature turn-of-the-century realism and American impressionism, with paintings by Thomas Wilmer Dewing and Frederick Carl Frieseke. Two rooms explore modernism and regionalism in northeast Ohio from 1910 through 1950, including a dedicated room for William Sommer. The post-1950 collection includes Chuck Close's oversize early painting Linda, Andy Warhol's silk-screened Single Elvis and Brillo Boxes, and Ohio carver and painter Elijah Pierce's animated relief sculpture The Wise and Foolish Virgins and Four Other Scenes. Elliot Torrey's Surf, the first work to enter the Akron Art Institute's collection in 1923, is also held by the museum.

The museum complex comprises two primary structures. The original 1899 Italian Renaissance revival building, formerly a post office, provides the historic core. The 63,000-square-foot (5,900 m2) John S. and James L. Knight Building, designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au following an international competition, opened in 2007 at a cost of 20 million US dollars. It was the firm's first public project in the Americas and won the American Architecture Award in 2005. The design integrates three distinctive elements: the Crystal, a three-story glass lobby serving as public entry and visual connector; the Gallery Box, containing the Arnstein, Haslinger, Bidwell and Isroff Galleries for collection and temporary exhibitions; and the Roof Cloud, a 327-foot (100 m) cantilevered steel and aluminum armature that extends over the old and new buildings and adjacent street. One critic described this dramatic overhang as resembling a mechanical alligator consuming a Beaux Arts post office.

The Akron Art Museum is located in downtown Akron, Ohio. The 2007 expansion dramatically increased the museum's capacity to present traveling exhibitions and display major, rarely seen works. Major temporary exhibitions are housed on the second floor of the Knight Building, while more than 2,000 square feet (190 m2) is reserved for intimate exhibitions of emerging or mid-career artists, community-based art projects, and changing exhibitions of photographic media. The museum attracts approximately 50,000 visitors per year. Its website is http://www.akronartmuseum.org/.