| Allen Memorial Art Museum | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1917 [1] |
| Location |
Oberlin College |
| Type | Art Museum [1] |
| Director | Stephanie Wiles |
| Website | Allen Memorial Art Museum |
The Allen Memorial Art Museum (abbreviated 'AMAM') is located in Oberlin, Ohio and is run by Oberlin College. Founded in 1917, its collection is one of the finest of any college or university museum in the United States, consistently ranking among those of Harvard and Yale. The Museum complex is noteworthy for its architecture, especially the Cass Gilbert main block and the Venturi and Scott Brown addition.[2]
In December 2009, the AMAM closed for renovations. It reopened in the fall of 2011.
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The AMAM is primarily a teaching museum, and it is a vital cultural resource for the students, faculty, and staff of Oberlin College as well as the surrounding community. Notable strengths include seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art, nineteenth and early twentieth-century European and contemporary American art, and Asian, European, and American works on paper. The collection is housed in an impressive Italian Renaissance-style building designed by Cass Gilbert and named after its founder, Dr. Dudley Peter Allen (B.A., 1875), a distinguished graduate and trustee of Oberlin College. It was built at a price of nearly $200,000, double its originally planned budget. The building was completed in 1918, and opened the day before commencement, where Gilbert received an honorary degree.[1]
Clarence Ward, a professor of art history and director of the AMAM from its inception through 1949, designed an addition to the AMAM, built in 1937. Today, this addition houses offices, classrooms, and workspaces.
In the 1970s, the College commissioned husband & wife team Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown to design another addition to the AMAM that represents one of the earliest and finest examples of postmodern architecture in the United States. The addition is recessed on the right side of the Gilbert building, in deference to that structure, but at the same time it features a modern veneer with a polychrome pattern that generates interest and creates a tension between the buildings. This addition on the south also established a dialogue, on the north, with the gas station on site at the time, where the Underground Railroad monument now sits.
The addition houses offices, classrooms, workspaces, and the Clarence Ward Art Library.
The Allen Memorial Art Museum has an outstanding collection of nearly 14,000 objects – including paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, prints, drawings and photographs – that provide a comprehensive overview of the history of art from a variety of cultures. The collection is particularly strong in European and American paintings and sculpture from the 15th century to today, and has important holdings of Asian paintings, scrolls, sculpture and decorative art, including a large group of Ukiyo-e prints. High-quality African, Pre-Columbian, and Ancient Art is also represented. The museum also houses the Eva Hesse archives, which includes the artist’s notebooks, diaries, photographs and letters, and is proud to oversee, along with the Art Department, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Weltzheimer/Johnson House.
The AMAM is also known for its art rental program which enables Oberlin College students to rent works of art by notable artists such as Renoir, Picasso, and Dalí for five dollars a semester.
The Art Rental program was the brainchild of Ellen Johnson, who worked at Oberlin College as an art librarian and later as a professor of modern art. In addition to her academic roles, Johnson formed close bonds with contemporary artists of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, and Robert Morris. She also taught one of the first ExCo (Experimental College). classes, and owned and lived in Oberlin's Frank Lloyd Wright designed house for many years. Her support for the arts was surpassed only by her love and support for her students and her commitment to enhancing their quality of life. To this end, Ellen Johnson began the Art Rental program
"Early on in my student days, in 1940, I believe, it occurred to me that if students could have works of art in their dormitory rooms, it would not only develop their aesthetic sensibilities, but might encourage ordered thinking and discrimination even in other areas of their lives.
I was given seven hundred dollars to purchase and frame reproductions of art masterpieces. So began one of the earliest, if not the first, college art rental collections in the country. Gradually, over the next decades, reproductions were completely replaced by originals... For many years, at twenty-five cents, and even now at five dollars, a student can hang in his or her room for a whole semester [works by Picasso, Matisse, Goya, Jasper Jones, or Jim Dine.][3]"
The legacy of the art rental program continues to this day, because of the integrity and respect of Oberlin College students. Commitment to the maintenance of the ideals Ellen Johnson set forth has ensured the success of the art rental program for decades, and guarantees the program will continue in the future.
The Weltzheimer/Johnson House at Oberlin College is a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian House that sits on a lot several blocks from campus. Designed in 1947 and completed in 1949, it is the first Usonian house in Ohio and one of the few in the nation open to the public.
The Weltzheimer family lived in the house until 1963 when the property was sold to developers and "remodeling" efforts scarred the space. However, in 1968, Art History Professor Ellen H. Johnson purchased the home and began the restoration process. In 1992 at her death, the house was given to Oberlin College to serve as a guesthouse for the Art Department and the Allen Memorial Art Museum. The house is now open to the public for tours and programs.
In 2009, the Weltzheimer/Johnson House begun seasonal closings to help better preserve the house, and protect it from extreme wear-and-tear. The house will now be closed through December through February, reopening for public open house tours in March.[4]
The AMAM’s 2010-2011 interior renovation follows the successful exterior renovation that concluded in 2005. The current building renovation and endowment effort will ensure that the museum continues to provide deep educational and aesthetic experiences for Oberlin College faculty and students and the public and to preserve the historic building and improve the way it is cared for and provide access to the art collections. The main goal of the most recent renovation is to replace the AMAM’s 30-year-old mechanical system to meet the museum’s complex climate control requirements. It also includes critical upgrades to gallery lighting, security and fire suppression. The renovations will also include the renovation and expansion of storage spaces for the AMAM’s internationally respected collection. Re-housing the collections in new and renovated storage areas will increase the museum’s capacity to safely store paintings and objects by more than 50%.[5] The renovation will also install eighteen geothermal wells for a more efficient climate control system.[6] The geothermal well system will optimize energy performance for the museum and significantly reduce carbon emissions. In addition to geothermal, the project includes water efficient landscaping; water use reduction; recycling of construction materials; and use of recycled and regional materials.[7]