 Walker Art Building | |
 | |
| Established | 1894 |
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| Location | Brunswick, Maine |
| Coordinates | 43°54′30″N69°57′49″W / 43.90828°N 69.96371°W /43.90828; -69.96371 |
| Type | Art Museum |
| Director | Anne C. Goodyear, Frank H. Goodyear |
| Architect | McKim, Mead, and White |
| Owner | Bowdoin College |
| Website | www |
TheBowdoin College Museum of Art is anart museum located inBrunswick, Maine. Listed on theNational Register of Historic Places, the museum is a part ofBowdoin College and has been located in the Walker Art Building since 1894. The museum is historically strong in classical art. Admission to the museum is free for all visitors.
The museum's collection originated from separate donations of art fromJames Bowdoin III in 1811 and 1826. Having been housed in a number of different locations during its history, the museum found a permanent home in the Walker Art Building in 1894.[1]
Commissioned in 1891 and completed in 1894, thisRenaissance Revival building was designed byCharles Follen McKim and commissioned by Mary Sophia Walker (1839–1904) and Harriet Sarah Walker (1844–1898) in memory of their uncle, Theophilus Wheeler Walker (1813–1890), who supported the creation of the first small art gallery at Bowdoin in the mid-nineteenth century. The Walker sisters also donated a collection of art and antiquities, including Greek and Roman ceramics and glass purchased with the aid ofEdward Perry Warren. The lunettes of the building's domed rotunda features four murals representing antiquity:Rome byElihu Vedder,Venice byKenyon Cox,Athens byJohn La Farge, andFlorence byAbbott Thayer. The building also contains a large bronze tablet portrait of Theophilus Wheeler Walker byDaniel Chester French. At the entrance are a pair ofMedici lions copied from those inLoggia dei Lanzi,Florence.[2]
While the Walker Art Building had been renovated once in 1974,[1] the $20.8 million renovation by architectsMachado and Silvetti Associates ofBoston that finished in 2007 garnered praise for its creation of a new modern entrance to the museum while preserving the structural integrity of the original building. The new entrance features a glass and bronze pavilion, a floating steel staircase, and a glass curtain wall to displayAssyrian reliefs, along with an additional 2,000 square feet of gallery space. In 2008, the renovation received theAmerican Architecture Award alongside other awards from theBoston Society of Architects, theIlluminating Engineering Society, theAmerican Institute of Architects New England, and the Maine Preservation Society.[3][4]
The museum's permanent collection comprises more than 30,000 objects[5] and is especially strong in antiquities and works on paper. It holds more than 1,800 Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Chinese objects. According to the museum's website, this "constitutes one of the most comprehensive compilations of ancient art in any academic museum."[6] The museum's extensive European art holdings include about 700 Dutch and Flemish artworks dating from 1500 to 1800,[7] along with American, Asian, global, and contemporary art. The museum seeks balance by acquiring works by artists who are female, indigenous, people of color, or from underrepresented regions such as Latin America.[8] Visitors can search the entire collection online, and the majority of the objects have been digitized.[5]
Media related toBowdoin College Museum of Art at Wikimedia Commons
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