The Hunter Museum of American Art is an art museum in

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. The museum's collections include works representing the

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...

, 19th century

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre) is the painting of genre art, which depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity ca ...

American Impressionism American Impressionism was a style of painting related to European Impressionism and practiced by American artists in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. The style is characterized by loose ...

, the

Ashcan School The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, was an artistic movement in the United States during the late 19th-early 20th century that produced works portraying scenes of daily life in New York, often in the city's poorer neighborhoods. T ...

, early

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

, regionalism, and post-

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

modern and

contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...

. The building itself represents three distinct architectural stages: the original 1904

classical revival Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassic ...

mansion designed by

Abram Garfield Abram Garfield (November 21, 1872 – October 16, 1958) was an architect who practiced in Cleveland, Ohio. He was the youngest son of President James A. Garfield and Lucretia Garfield, Lucretia Rudolph Garfield. He designed prominent residences a ...

, the son of president James A. Garfield, which has housed the museum since its opening in 1952, a

brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...

addition built in 1975, and a 2005 addition designed by Randall Stout which now serves as the entrance to the museum.

Location

The museum is situated on an bluff overlooking the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

and downtown Chattanooga. The Faxon House, built in 1904, was built where a Confederate battery had been emplaced. Once a prestigious address for Victorian houses, the area is now home to the Bluff View Art District. The museum sits on a bluff that overlooks the Walnut Street Bridge. The Ruth S. and A. William Holmberg Pedestrian Bridge provides a pedestrian-friendly connection to the nearby Walnut Street Bridge and riverfront attractions.

History

The Hunter Museum is named after George Hunter, who inherited the Coca-Cola Bottling empire from his uncle Benjamin Thomas. Thomas was one of the entrepreneurs who created Chattanooga's Coca-Cola bottling empire. Their nephew, George Hunter, later joined Anne Thomas to create a philanthropic organization in Hunter's memory named the Benwood Foundation. The foundation's mission was to "promote religious, charitable, scientific, literary and educational activities for the advancement or well being of mankind". The centerpiece of the Benwood Foundation's gifts to the community of Chattanooga is the Hunter Museum of American Art, originally known as the Ross Faxon House.

Expansion

In 2002 the Hunter Museum of American Art partnered with the City of Chattanooga, the

Tennessee Aquarium The Tennessee Aquarium is a non-profit public aquarium located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. It opened in 1992 on the banks of the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga, with a major expansion added in 2005. The aquarium, which ha ...

and the Creative Discovery Museum to finish the 21st Century Waterfront Plan. "The Hunter Museum portion of the project included a $22 million expansion and renovation, designed by Randall Stout that was completed in 2005. The project included 28,000 square feet of new construction, 34,000 square feet of renovation, a new entrance, a temporary exhibition space, restoration of the mansion, the creation of an outdoor sculpture garden, and a complete reinstallation of the Museum's permanent collection."

Present day

The Hunter Museum of American Art includes 100 years of architectures and the most complete collection of American art in the Southeast. The museum also travels nationally for exhibits and curated shows. "The collection spans from the colonial period to present day and covers a wide variety of media including painting, sculpture, contemporary studio glass, and crafts." In 2006 the museum received national recognition from the Innovative Design in Engineering and Architecture with Structural Steels awards program. "The award recognizes outstanding achievements in engineering and architecture on structural steel projects around the country. The Hunter Museum project earned Merit Award recognition in the category of Projects $15–$75 million." In June 2015, the Hunter Museum of Art announced on its website that it had chosen a new executive director, Virginia Ann Sharber.

References

External links

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Benwood Foundation
{{authority control Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Colonial Revival architecture in Tennessee Art museums and galleries in Tennessee Museums of American art Museums in Chattanooga, Tennessee Art museums and galleries established in 1952 1952 establishments in Tennessee Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Houses in Hamilton County, Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Chattanooga, Tennessee Brutalist architecture in Tennessee