Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Programs: Exhibitionin its 53-year-history, the amon carter museum has presented over 600 exhibitions devoted to american art. Exhibitions, especially those that are displayed in the museum's special exhibition galleries, are costly to produce. However, they achieve the museum's objectives of not only bringing repeat audiences to the museum but also offering unique programming and marketing opportunities to attract new audiences and positively impact new segments of the community. Exhibitions make available to diverse audiences of all ages some of the finest works of american art ever created and provide meaningful context for them. They shed light on the importance and relevance of the amon carter's collection of american art and promote its availability as a free resource for entertainment and learning. Through onsite tours, public programs for adults and families, and live, two-way videoconferences, special exhibitions connect thousands of individuals from this community, around the state, and around the country to inspiring, important artworks that they may not otherwise have the opportunity to see. During fy 2014, the amon carter presented six special exhibitions and five exhibitions from its permanent collection. Dozens of free education programs related to these exhibitions were offered. Admission to the amon carter is free, even for special exhibitions. Exhibitions highlights:color! American photography transformed. October 5, 2013january 5, 2014hotel texas: an art exhibition for the president and mrs. John f. Kennedy. October 12, 2013january 12, 2014james mcneill whistler: lithographs from the steven l. Block collection at the speed art museum. January 25april 27, 2014art and appetite: american art, culture and cuisine. February 22may 18, 2014archibald motley: jazz age modernist. June 14september 7, 2014

collectionthe amon carter museum opened in 1961 in a building designed by architect philip johnson and has always been open free to the public. Over the last 53 years, it has expanded its collection to include nearly 8,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, and watercolors and almost 45,000 exhibition quality photographic prints. The amon carter is now one of the world's preeminent museums devoted exclusively to the study of american art with premier masterworks by great american artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through a series of acquisitions, scholarly catalogues, special exhibitions, and public programs, the amon carter early on established its reputation as a national leader in collecting and advancing american art scholarship. In addition to its special exhibitions, the museum presented several exhibitions from the permanent collection between october 2013 and september 2014, including: john albok's neighborhood, hombre! Prints by jose guadalupe posada, june wayne: the tamarind decade, and enriching the collection: gifts from joan and john richardson. These installations allow the amon carter to fulfill its mission by offering visitors insight into the american experience through great works of art. Works from the amon carter's collection are frequently loaned to other arts institutions around the country. During fy 2014, the museum loaned 29 objects, including mary cassatt's woman standing, holding a fan for the exhibition degas/cassatt at the national gallery of art in washington, dc; marsden hartley's american indian symbols to the los angeles county museum of art for marsden hartley: the german paintings; william j. Mccloskey's wrapped oranges to the art institute of chicago for art and appetite: american painting, culture and cuisine. Works from the collection were also loaned to the museo nacional de arte in mexico city, the dallas museum of art, national museum of the american indian and the metropolitan museum of art, among others. The amon carter is in the midst of a major initiative to digitize its collections with the goal of a fully digitized, cataloged, searchable, and accessible online collection database and internet site to make the collections available to its expanding audiences and to promote the exploration, scholarship, and understanding of american art and art history. As of the close of fy 2014, the online collection database provided access to 56,000 artworks and several new interpretive collection guides through a new interface funded by a grant from the national endowment for the humanities. The amon carter contributed 3,000 records and images for inclusion in the artstor digital library and joined the american art collaborative linked open data working group in fy 2013; the amon carter artworks contributed to the google art project last year are viewed an average of 360 times each day and continue to reach new, international audiences. The amon carter added over 500 works to its collection in fy 2014, including photographs by alfred stieglitz, william eggleston, alex prager, richard haas, andy warhol and dave heath; a print by james abbott mcneill whistler; and a paintings by edward kuntze and raphaelle peale.

educationthe amon carter has developed a broad range of award-winning educational programming for people of all abilities, ages, and backgrounds and continues to create new arts learning programs, while improving and extending the reach of existing ones. Some examples of successful arts learning programs include:school tours program. Tours for students are led by a team of professional gallery teachers who design them to correlate to curricular standards and incorporate inquiry-based strategies that engage students in discussions about works of art. The tours are multidisciplinary in approach, bringing together topics from social studies, language arts, visual art, and science, among others - all of which support the texas essential knowledge and skills (teks) learning objectives, as well as national education standards. In fy 2014, 21,661 students were served during 401 tours. Professional development programs for educators. Offered throughout the year, these programs provide in-depth looks at the museum's permanent collection and special exhibitions through discussions led by museum educators and activities that refine participants' observation and critical-thinking skills. Participating educators receive a cd with related digital images and classroom activities tied to state and national teaching standards for classroom use. The amon carter is certified by the texas state board of education certification to provide teachers with continuing professional education credit hours for their participation. In fy 2014, 2,025 educators were served during 48 professional development programs held both at the museum and offsite. The teaching resource center (trc) is a well-stocked lending library of free resources on american art, history, and art-making techniques in a wide range of formats, including teaching guides, videos and dvds, books for adults and children, and artwork reproductions. The amon carter is one of three texas art museums that has a teaching resource center and one of two texas museums that is a repository for teaching resources from the national gallery of art. Digital images from the amon carter's permanent collection are also provided to educators for classroom use through the trc. In fy 2014, 10,298 users borrowed 539 items, and 9,274 digital resources of the collection were shared. Distance learning program. This innovative initiative brings works from the amon carter's collection into classrooms and senior residential living facilities across the country and internationally. The live, interactive broadcasts engage students, educators, and seniors with museum staff in discussions and activities exploring art, history, culture, language arts, and science. Programs may be broadcast from a studio in the education department's offices or directly from the museum's galleries using a mobile unit. In fy 2014, 6,866 individuals participated in 128 distance learning programs. New initiative for fy 2014: three new videoconference programs made their debut. The series the fine art of reading uses works of art to supplement reading instruction and allows students to practice reading comprehension strategies in a text-free environment before practicing the same skills using related text. Part one focuses on making connections and questioning, part two focuses on visualizing and inferring, and part three focuses on determining importance and synthesizing. Public programs. The amon carter's free public programs provide people of all ages and abilities the opportunity to discover more about american art. For adults, highlights include gallery talks, interactive tours, and lectures, which bring renown artists, curators, historians, and scholars to the museum, and docent-guided tours and ask about art carts, which provide interactive gallery experiences. Families spend time together exploring artworks during programs like storytime and new parents tours. In fy 2014, 3,141 visitors participated in 60 adult public programs; 9,146 visitors participated in 643 docent-guided tours; 1,750 visitors participated in 128 ask about art cart sessions; and 9,141 visitors enjoyed 32 public programs for families. Interpretation. A variety of interpretive tools are designed for use by visitors of all ages and abilities to explore and understand the amon carter's collections and special exhibitions. In fy 2014, tools were created for the following exhibitions: archibald motley: jazz age modernist; art and appetite: american painting, culture, and cuisine; color! American photography transformed; frederic remington and charles russell permanent collection galleries; hombre! Prints by jose guadalupe posada; hotel texas: an art exhibition for the president and mrs. John f. Kennedy; meet me at the trinity: photographs by terry evans; and the permanent collection galleries of paintings and sculpture.

publicationsthe amon carter museum of western art actively publishes books that support its mission, collections, and exhibitions. During the museum's fifty-three years of operation, the publications department has produced nearly 200 books. Over the course of the year, the department produces about 150 printed pieces (including ads, press releases, rack cards, invitations, brochures, signage, etc. ); edits more than 800 labels; provides the museum's graphic design; maintains the museum's website and social media presence; produces two issues of the members' magazine, program; and compiles each year's annual report. Research and studythe amon carter museum of western art's curatorial department organizes a number of exhibitions each year highlighting exemplary works of american art from the amon carter's own collection, as well as works from fellow fine arts institutions. In addition to their work on the organization of exhibitions, the curatorial staff of the amon carter makes scholarly contributions to the field of american art through lectures, symposiums, and publications. The museum serves the needs of both in-house and visiting researchers through its research library, a nationally known center for the study of american art, photography, and history. The facility houses about 140,000 items, including 50,000 book volumes and over 60,000 pieces of microform; archival collections constituting museum documents and several special artists' archives; subscriptions to more than 130 periodicals; a large collection of rare books with many key illustrated titles relating to the american landscape, natural history, and indigenous people; and 14 million primary source documents through the smithsonian institution's archives of american art. The library's reading room, which offers free wi-fi service, is available to visiting scholars, students, and the general public. Throughout the year, the following usage metrics were generated:the library hosted 2,120 visitors in the reading room; 1,095 were students at various levels. Library and archives staff answered 2,116 questions from the public and staff. Library and archives staff, working with the education department, hosted over 1,200 4th to 6th graders from palo pinto county schools, introducing them to the museum library and collections. The library lent 172 items to 63 other libraries, and we borrowed 78 items. 2,476 items were used from the library's collection by staff and visiting researchers. We cataloged 1,966 items. 17 volunteers, interns, and practicum students gave 1,600 hours of their time.