| Speed Art Museum | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1927 |
| Location | 2035 South 3rd St. Louisville, KY 40208 (United States) |
| Type | Art |
| Director | Charles L. Venable |
| Website | Speed Art Museum |
The Speed Art Museum, originally known as the J.B. Speed Memorial Museum, now colloquially referred to as the Speed[1] by locals, is the oldest, largest, and foremost museum of art in Kentucky. It is located in Louisville, Kentucky in historic Third Street designed by Frederick Law Olmsted next to the University of Louisville Belknap campus.
The museum offers visitors a variety of unique art experiences outside of its world-class collection and international exhibitions, including the Speed Concert Series, the Art Sparks Interactive Family Gallery, and the popular late-night event, Art After Dark.[2]
Today, the Speed houses ancient, classical, and modern art from around the world. The focus of the collection is Western art, from antiquity to the present day. Holdings of paintings from the Netherlands, French and Italian works, and contemporary art are particularly strong, with sculpture prominent throughout.
Admission to the museum is free for members and $10 for non-members. The museum presently receives around 180,000 visitors per year and is supported entirely by donations, endowments, grants, ticket sales, and memberships.[3]
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The museum was built in 1927 by Arthur Loomis in the Neo-Classical style. Loomis was already well-known in Louisville for landmarks like the Louisville Medical College and Levi Brothers'. The original building was designed as an understated Beaux-Arts limestone facade giving great panache and encouragement to the wonderful experience of art the building sought to offer. Hattie Bishop Speed established the museum in memorial of her husband James Breckenridge Speed, a prominent Louisville businessman, art collector, and philanthropist[4] Ms. Speed set up the endowment to fund the museum, encouraging the museum to never charge admission.
Timeline[5]
1927 - The Speed Art Museum is built. More than 74,000 visitors fill the museum in the first year.
1933 - The museum is incorporated as a privately endowed institution and its board of governors was established.
1934 - The museum received its first major donation, a valuable collection of North American Indian artifacts given by Dr. Frederick Weygold.
1941- Dr. Preston Pope Satterwhite makes a significant gift to the museum - his collection of 15th century and 16th century French and Italian Decorative Arts including tapestries and furniture.
1944 - Satterwhite donates the English Renaissance room, which was moved in its entirety from Devon, England. Dr. Satterwhite’s gift necessitated an enlargement of the museum and in his will he provided for the addition that bears his name. Completed in 1954, it was the first of three additions to the original building.
1946 - Paul S. Harris becomes the first professional director of the museum. During his tenure, acquisitions to the collection were made mostly in the areas of decorative arts and furniture.
1964 - Recently donated paintings and furniture from the collection of Mrs. W. Blakemore Wheeler go on view including works by Mary Cassatt, John Constable, Gustave Courbet, Thomas Gainsborough, Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Maurice Utrillo, and James Abbott McNeill Whistler.
1966 - Charter Collectors Group forms to assist museum in the acquisition of pre-1940 art.
1970 - New Art Collectors Group forms to assist museum to acquire contemporary art.
1973 - The North Wing of the museum opens, giving new space for a theatre, offices, indoor sculpture court, and library.
1977- The Speed celebrates its 50th anniversary in 1977 with the acquisition of Rembrandt's magnificent Portrait of a Woman, one of the museum’s most significant acquisitions.
1983 - The 1983 Wing opens, designed by Robert Geddes of Princeton. The new wing adds much-needed gallery space for permanent collections and special exhibitions.
1996 - Mrs. Alice Speed Stoll dies, leaving behind an estate that bequeaths over $50 million to the museum. The Speed closes to undertake an extensive renovation and renaissance. Newer lighting, heating and cooling systes, bold wall colors, multi-layered labels about the collection, and the Laramie L. Learning Center, Art Sparks Interactive Family Gallery are put into place in order to create richer experience for visitors.
1997 - The museum reopens, sleeker and smarter than before, showing off assets to the very best advantage.
The Speed houses a collection of African Art, Ancient Art, Native American Art, American Art, European Art, and Contemporary Art.
Highlights of the collection include works by:
European Painting and Sculpture
Modernism
American Painting and Sculpture
Contemporary Art
In addition to a number of art camps offered throughout the summer season, the Speed offers a Youth Apprentice Program (YAP) for high school students 14 and up who are interested in arts and cultural careers. The program exposes teens to a first-hand look inside cultural and arts organization through dialogue, discussion, training, and mentoring in order to build confidence and job skills for those seeking future careers as professional arts staff. The teens are selected based on applications and interviews annually.
The Museum also maintains an award-winning children's center, the Art Sparks Interactive Family Gallery. Nearly everything in this hands-on environment is green and sustainable. Children interact with play spaces that relate to works in the museum's collection, such as a Dutch Ship from the East India Trading Company or an Engungun Costume from Africa. This Interactive Gallery aims to fosters excitement, shared memories, and confidence in young children within the museum environment.