*** Welcome to piglix ***

Columbia Museum of Art

Columbia Museum of Art
ColumbiaMuseumOfArt.jpg
Location Columbia, South Carolina
United States
Coordinates 34°0′21″N 81°2′10″W / 34.00583°N 81.03611°W / 34.00583; -81.03611Coordinates: 34°0′21″N 81°2′10″W / 34.00583°N 81.03611°W / 34.00583; -81.03611
Type Art museum
Website columbiamuseum.org

The Columbia Museum of Art is an art museum in the American city of Columbia, South Carolina.

The building that housed the new museum had originally been erected as the private residence of the city's Taylor family. Situated at the edge of downtown Columbia, adjacent to the campus of the University of South Carolina and three blocks from the South Carolina State House, the Taylor House, through the addition of gallery wings and a round planetarium, was home to the Columbia Museum for almost 50 years.

The art collection that first went on view in 1950 consisted of the gifts and bequests of local collectors. It included ten Old Master paintings, including several executed by Joshua Reynolds, Scipione Pulzone, Juan de Pareja and Artus Wolffort.

This situation changed in 1954 when the Columbia Museum was included among the 95 institutions nationwide selected to receive donations of Renaissance and Baroque art from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Designated a regional center by the Kress Foundation, the Columbia Museum of Art and Science received, over the next twenty years, a total of 78 examples of fine and decorative art from the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Following the opening of the South Carolina State Museum in 1988, the Columbia Museum of Art and Science eliminated its science component to focus its interest and resources to its role as an art museum. Despite the additional gallery space made available by the removal of the science displays and the planetarium, by the 1990s the Columbia Museum of Art had outgrown the old Taylor House complex and the 7,000 square feet of exhibition space it afforded.


...
Wikipedia

...