Danforth Art Museum at Framingham State University (formerly Danforth Museum of Art) is a museum and school in

Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston ...

. It is part of

Framingham State University Framingham State University (Framingham State or FSU) is a public university in Framingham, Massachusetts. The university, then known as the Normal School in Lexington was founded in 1839 as the first state-supported normal school in the United ...

History

The Danforth Museum Corporation was established on August 9, 1973, as a 501 non-profit institution by a local group of community activists, educators, and art lovers. The Art Museum was opened to the public on May 24, 1975, at 123 Union Avenue, Framingham, featuring galleries for temporary exhibitions and a community art school. In February 2013, the Museum purchased the Jonathan Maynard Building on Framingham's Centre Common, anticipating future renovation, as the institution's facilities on Union Avenue were increasingly outdated. The purchase proved timely; in May 2016, the building failed inspection and the Museum was evicted from its location. In 2016, the Museum began negotiations with its neighbor, Framingham State University (FSU), to form a partnership to preserve the Museum for the benefit and enrichment of the community at large—the culmination of 40 years of collaboration. In March 2018, the partnership with FSU was finalized. The Framingham State University Foundation assumed the care and ownership of the Museum's permanent collection. The Museum temporarily relocated so that construction to reopen the Museum's galleries could begin immediately. The Museum was closed to the public in August 2016. In early 2017, the Museum offices and school reopened in the Maynard building; its collection was placed into storage for safekeeping, and select exhibitions were moved off-site. The newly renovated Art Museum reopened in April 2019, featuring exhibitions that reflect on the Museum's history and its role within the greater

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and

MetroWest MetroWest is a cluster of cities and towns lying west of Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financia ...

communities.

Collections

The museum's permanent collection focuses on American Art from the 19th-century to the present, and includes work by

Gilbert Stuart Gilbert Stuart ( Stewart; December 3, 1755 – July 9, 1828) was an American painter born in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Rhode Island Colony who is widely considered one of America's foremost portraitists. His best-k ...

Charles Sprague Pearce Charles Sprague Pearce (13 October 1851 – 18 May 1914) was an American artist. Biography Pearce was born in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1873 he became a pupil of Léon Bonnat in Paris, and after 1885 he lived in Paris and at Auvers-sur-O ...

Eastman Johnson Jonathan Eastman Johnson (July 29, 1824 – April 5, 1906) was an American painter and co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance. He was best known for his genre paintings, paintings of ...

Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was no ...

, and Thomas Hart Benton, as well as work by the Boston Expressionists and contemporary artists such as

Faith Ringgold Faith Ringgold (born Faith Willi Jones; October 8, 1930 – April 13, 2024) was an American painter, author, Sculpture, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, and Intersectionality, intersectional activist, perhaps best known for her Narrativ ...

Richard Yarde Richard Yarde (1939–2011) was an American artist and professor, who specialized in watercolor painting.Barbara Grad Barbara Grad (born 1950) is an American artist and educator, known for abstract, fractured landscape paintings, which combine organic and geometric forms, colliding planes and patterns, and multiple perspectives.Yau, John. ''Barbara Grad – FAQ: ...

Andrew Stevovich Andrew Stevovich ( ; born 1948) is an American painter. He is best known for oil paintings and pastels that combine abstract formalities with a figurative narrative. He has also produced lithographs, etchings, and wood-block prints. Biography ...

, and

Jason Berger Jason Berger (January 22, 1924 – October 17, 2010) was a Boston landscape painter, connected to Boston Expressionismbr> He painted from nature, ''en plein air'', and used favorite motifs in abstract paintings, referred to as "studio paintings". ...

References

External links

* * * __NOTOC__ Framingham, Massachusetts Museums in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Art museums and galleries in Massachusetts Museums of American art Art schools in Massachusetts Boston expressionism {{Massachusetts-museum-stub