: As if transformed from a diamond in the rough to a sparkling
jewel, the New Britain Museum of American Art (NBMAA) has
undergone a monumental metamorphosis with the opening of a new
spacious and state-of-the-art building where it will show off its
impressive collections from this day forward. Acknowledged as the
first museum in the country to have been dedicated to solely
collecting American art, NBMAA has long been regarded as a
preeminent cache for artworks that span the past 300 years of
American history.
This gem of a museum was hindered by its cramped confines in the
Landers House, a Victorian home donated by the late Grace Judd
Landers in 1937, for most of the past century. The museum was
founded in 1903 when a group of private citizens began compiling
an art collection for the enjoyment and education of the public.
Although quaint and appealing, the setting subjected the museum
to limited gallery space, as well as presenting environmental and
preservation concerns.
Many of the most prestigious works in New Britain's collection
are well known by art enthusiasts from around the world, although
rarely have they been on display at the museum itself. Odds are
that those familiar with the museum's stellar works of art by the
likes of Thomas Hart Benton, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper and
Andrew Wyeth have viewed them elsewhere, more than likely as part
of major exhibitions touring the United States.
"We have this really great art collection, and people would come
from California or Washington, D.C., and ask 'Where is the
Bierstadt? Where is the Church?'" stated museum director Douglas
Hyland. "We kept rotating our best things through the collection,
but almost always people were disappointed that something they
expected to be on display was not."
The Thomas Hart Benton murals, a staple of the collection, are
iconic pictures that are considered to be one of Benton's most
masterful series of murals and among his finest work. "The Arts
of Life In America" includes the "Arts of the West," 1932, 96
by 156 inches.
NBMAA houses one of the most distinguished and comprehensive
collections of American paintings, sculpture and works on paper in
the country. Liberated from the cramped setting it had grown
accustomed to over the past century, the museum now has on display
the core of its impressive collection. No longer will patrons who
have traveled from afar to see the cornerstones of its collection
be disappointed by being told that the pieces they wish to see are
either traveling or not currently on view.
When Hyland arrived at NBMAA in 1999, there was a recognized need
for expansion. He went about outlining the project and setting it
into motion almost immediately. Amenities such as an auditorium,
parking and a restaurant were lacking. Public programs also
suffered, according to Hyland. "When children were doing finger
painting, it was right next to a $5 million Mary Cassatt
painting," he said, "so the time had come for us to make some
changes."
