Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about an organization that operates museums. For the foundation which supports scientific research, refer to the Carnegie Institution of Washington. For the center of higher learning which is now a part of Carnegie Mellon University, refer to Carnegie Institute of Technology.
- Main article: Culture of Pittsburgh
The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh are operated by the Carnegie Institute and are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Institute also runs the Three Rivers Arts Festival.
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[edit] Andy Warhol Museum
Opened on May 15, 1994, the Andy Warhol Museum is the largest museum in the world dedicated to one artist. The museum's collection includes over 4,000 Warhol art works in all media - paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, sculptures, and installation; the entire Andy Warhol Video Collection, 228 four minute Screen Tests, and 45 other films by Warhol; and extensive archives, most notably Warhol's Time Capsules. While dedicated to Andy Warhol, the museum also hosts many exhibits by artists who push the boundaries of art, just as Warhol did.
[edit] Carnegie Museum of Art
When Andrew Carnegie envisioned a museum collection consisting of the "Old Masters of tomorrow", the Carnegie Museum of Art became, arguably, the first museum of modern art in the United States. Founded in 1895, today it continues Carnegie's love of contemporary art by staging the Carnegie International every few years. The marble Hall of Sculpture replicates the interior of the Parthenon. The Hall of Architecture contains the largest collection of plaster casts of architectural masterpieces in America and one of the three largest in the world. The Heinz Architectural Center, opened as part of the museum in 1993, is dedicated to the collection, study, and exhibition of architectural drawings and models. In 2001 the museum acquired the archive of African-American photographer Charles "Teenie" Harris, consisting of approximately 80,000 photographic negatives spanning from the 1930s to the 1970s. Many of these images have been catalogued and digitized and are available online via the Carnegie Museum of Art Collections Search.
"Night Sky #2," painted by Vija Celmins, was on loan to the museum from the Art Institute of Chicago when it was slashed on May 16, 2008 by a contract security guard. The painting has an estimated value of $1.2 million. [1]
[edit] Carnegie Museum of Natural History
From the discovery of Diplodocus carnegii to the skull of Samson, the most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skull known to date, and the brand new, yet to be named, species of oviraptorosaur the Carnegie Museum of Natural History has one of the finest dinosaur collections in the world. Other exhibits include the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems, the Alcoa Foundation Hall of American Indians, Polar World: Wyckoff Hall of Arctic Life, the Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt, the Benedum Hall of Geology and the Powdermill Nature Reserve, established by the museum in 1956 to serve as a field station for long-term studies of natural populations. The museum also recently discovered the Fruitafossor windscheffeli.
[edit] Carnegie Science Center
Opened in 1991, but with a history that dates to October 24, 1939, the Carnegie Science Center is the most visited museum in Pittsburgh. Among its attractions are the newly constructed Buhl Digital Dome (which features the latest in projection), the Rangos Omnimax Theater, UPMC SportsWorks, the Miniature Railroad & Village, and the USS Requin, a World War II submarine.
Under the leadership of Robert Wilburn, Buhl Science Center merged with the Carnegie Institute and a new $40 million Carnegie Science Center was constructed.
[edit] References
- Toker, Franklin (1986, 1994). Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-8229-5434-6.
