James A. Michener Art Museum
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| Established | 1988 |
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| Location |
138 South Pine Street |
| Coordinates | 40°18′31″N 75°07′35″W / 40.3085°N 75.1265°W |
| Type | Art, sculpture garden |
| Visitors | 135,000 annually |
| Director | Lisa Tremper Hanover |
| Curator | Brian H. Peterson |
| Website | James A. Michener Art Museum |
138 South Pine Street
The James A. Michener Art Museum is a private, non-profit museum in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania founded in 1988 and named for the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer James A. Michener, a Doylestown resident. It is situated within the old stone walls of a historic 19th-century prison and houses a collection of Bucks County visual arts, along with holdings of 19th- and 20th-century American art. It is noted for its Pennsylvania Impressionism collection, an art colony centered in nearby New Hope during the early 20th century, as well as its changing exhibitions, ranging from international touring shows to regionally focused exhibitions.
The Museum has 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) of public space, including a landscaped courtyard, a glass-enclosed, state-of-the-art event pavilion, an outdoor sculpture garden and terrace built in the original prison yard, seminar and conference facilities, a museum shop and café, and the George Nakashima Reading Room. The Martin Wing includes preparation areas and collection storage spaces.
The idea of a museum in Doylestown dedicated to the works of the Pennsylvania Impressionists has been around at least since 1949, when local artist Walter Emerson Baum founded an informal committee along with Bucks County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Charles H. Boehm, and The Daily Intelligencer editor George Hotchkiss to explore the possibilities of the establishment of such an institution.
In the 1970s Bucks County commissioners established the Bucks County Council on the Arts, an agency set up to manage federal funded artwork intended to be included in government building projects. Some of the artwork they collected was put on display at their headquarters in the Neshaminy Manor office in Doylestown Township. In 1974 the Council also helped establish a mobile art exhibit, the "Artmobile" of Bucks County Community College.
In mid-1988 the Bucks County commissioners approved $650,000 to build an art museum in the recently closed Bucks County Prison. Bucks County Council on the Arts became the organization charged with running the institution and their collected works became part of the museum collection. James A. Michener, who grew up in Doylestown, took the lead in establishing the endowment, donating $500,000 as well as some of the paintings from his own private collection (Michener would go on to donate a total of $8.5 million to the museum). The site was renovated by architects O’Donnell & Naccarato, Inc., from Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The warden’s house and the control buildings were converted to office space and exhibition space. Part of the prison walls remain, which now provide a backdrop to the Museum's outdoor sculpture and event pavilion. The Museum was named the James A. Michener Art Museum and opened to the public on September 15, 1988 at a ceremony presided over by Michener and his wife, Mari Sabusawa Michener.
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