The Fenimore Art Museum (formerly known as New York State Historical Association) is a museum located in

Cooperstown Cooperstown is a village in and county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in the ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

on the west side of Otsego Lake. Collection strengths include the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, American fine and folk art, 19th and early 20th century photography, as well as rare books and manuscripts. The museum's mission is to connect its audience to American and New York State cultural heritage by organizing exhibits and public programs that "engage, delight and inspire." The house organ was titled ''Heritage''. The Fenimore Art Museum is closely associated with The Farmers' Museum, also in Cooperstown.

History

Fenimore Art Museum was founded in 1899 as the New York State Historical Association. In 1939,

Stephen Carlton Clark Stephen Carlton Clark (August 29, 1882 – September 17, 1960) was an American art collector, businessman, newspaper publisher and philanthropist. He founded the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Biography Clark was the young ...

, an art collector interested in history who also served on the board of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum, helped organize a move to

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought ...

's former farmhouse in Cooperstown. In the mid-1990s, a new wing was added to the building to house the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection. Fenimore House was subsequently renamed Fenimore Art Museum. Having operated under a dba as Fenimore Art Museum since the 1990s, and in an effort to better describe its wide-ranging activities, the organization applied to amend its charter and change its corporate name in 2017. As such, the New York State Board of Regents approved the updated charter on March 10 of 2017, formally changing the organization's name from New York State Historical Association to Fenimore Art Museum.

Collections

Fine Art & Folk Art

The

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

and

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tr ...

collections were largely assembled by Stephen C. Clark and include works by Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Cole, William Sidney Mount, Benjamin West, Grandma Moses, Ralph Fasanella, and Lavern Kelley.

Thaw Collection of American Indian Art

Clare and Eugene Thaw donated their collection of indigenous American art to the Fenimore Art Museum in 1991. Items are continually added to the collection, which currently comprises more than 850 objects.

Photography

Fenimore Art Museum's photography collections feature a number of Cooperstown artists, the most well-known being the Smith & Telfer Collection. A portion of the firm's 60,000 piece archive has been digitized and is available online.

Research library

In 1968, a separate building was built to consolidate the library collections of both New York State Historical Association (as it was known at the time) and The Farmers' Museum. The Research Library supplements the missions and collections of both organizations by supporting research in local history, 19th century trades and agriculture, as well as art and material culture of Otsego County and surrounding areas of New York State.

Performing Arts

Since 2015 the museum has hosted outdoor theatrical productions in the Lucy B. Hamilton Amphitheater, located on the grounds overlooking Otsego Lake.

References

External links

*
Pathfinder - Fenimore Art Museum & The Farmers' Museum Research Library Catalog

"Writings of James Fenimore Cooper", broadcast from the Fenimore Art Museum
from

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

's ''

American Writers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

'' {{authority control 1899 establishments in New York (state) Art museums established in 1899 Folk art museums and galleries in New York (state) Historical society museums in New York (state) Museums in Otsego County, New York Native American museums in New York (state) Clark family Research libraries in the United States