Baltimore Museum of Art

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is an art museum in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1914, the BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of modern art, as well as one of the nation's finest holdings of prints, drawings, and photographs. The galleries currently showcase collections of art from Africa; works by established and emerging contemporary artists; European and American paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts; ancient Antioch mosaics; art from Asia, and textiles from around the world. The 210,000-square-foot (20,000 m2) museum is distinguished by a neoclassical building designed in the 1920s by American architect John Russell. History 20th century In February 1904, the Great Baltimore Fire destroyed much of the central part of the Baltimore 's downtown business district. In response, the municipal government established a city-wide congress to develop a master plan for the city's recovery and future growth and development. The congress, headed by Dr. A. R. L. Dohme , decided that a major deficiency of the city was the lack of an art museum. This decision led to the formation of an 18-person Committee on the Art Museum, with art dealer and industrialist Henry H. Wiegand as chairman. Collections African art The BMA was one of the first museums in the United States to obtain a collection of African art . A large part of the collection was donated by Janet and Alan Wurtzburger in 1954. It contains more than 2,000 objects whose sources range from ancient Egypt to contemporary Zimbabwe , and includes works from many other cultures, including Bamana , Yoruba , Kuba , Ndebele . The collection includes many different forms of art, including headdresses , masks , figures , royal staffs, textiles , jewelry , ceremonial weapons , and.