84th Regional Exhibition

May 31 through August 8, 2012

84th REGIONAL EXHIBITION

Entry Registration: May 10, 11, and 12

Opening Reception and Awards: Thursday, May 31, 5:30–8:00 pm

The MMA’s Regional Exhibition holds a respected position within Michigan’s art tradition, representing the best in our artistic community. This year, in honor of the MMA’s centennial year and its long-standing commitment to Michigan artists, the invitation to enter artwork is extended beyond West Michigan to artists throughout the state for the very first time. Registration is open to all artists 18 years and older who reside in Michigan. Artworks must be physically brought to the Museum Thursday, May 10 through Saturday, May 12 or shipped to arrive by May 9. Digital entries are not accepted. Up to two artworks may be submitted for juror selection. Download Entry Forms and information.

This year’s Regional Exhibition will run from May 31 through August 8.

This year’s juror is Andrew Winship, a professor of fine art at the Herron School of Art and Design since 2005. Prior to teaching at Herron, Winship taught for the School of Fine Art, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN; The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and DePaul University, Chicago, IL. He is a continuing faculty member at Ox-Bow School of Art, Saugatuck, MI. His most recent shows have taken place in Chicago at the Beacon Street Gallery and Roots & Culture Contemporary Art Center, as well as the Muskegan Museum of Art. Winship is an active professional and teacher in printmaking, painting, and drawing.

The 84th Regional Exhibition is underwritten by Shape Corporation. Awards are underwritten by Huntington Bank. Media sponsors are WGVU Public Radio and MLive/Muskegon Chronicle.

New Art for the New Century

May 4 through October 7, 2012

100 for the 100th—The MMA’s all new Centennial Collection marks the beginning of the MMA’s next century

The Muskegon Museum of Art will unveil its Centennial Collection—an entirely new collection of artworks—to the public on May 4, 2012, marking a fresh chapter in the Museum’s 100-year history. This installation of the new collection as one group, titled New Art for the New Century, will be on display through October 7, 2012.

Seven years of strategic planning and collecting have resulted in the creation of the Centennial Collection—a group of more than 100 noteworthy acquisitions—in honor of the MMA’s 100th anniversary. New Art for the New Century will fill much of the original part of the Museum building, which first opened to the public on June 21, 1912 as the Hackley Art Gallery.

The works of art in the Centennial Collection have been acquired through the generosity of the MMA’s patrons in the form of gifts, promised gifts, and purchases. The Collection includes American and European paintings, sculpture, glass, ceramics, and works on paper dating from the 17th century to the present. Some of the artists represented in New Art are Robert Henri, Hughie Lee-Smith, Annabel Livermore, Daniel Clayman, Whitfield Lovell, and Bessie Potter Vonnoh.

 
The MMA may be relatively small in scale, but its history makes for an exceptional story. Nineteenth-century lumber baron Charles Hackley dreamed big for all of Muskegon, and part of his vision was to found an art museum in the young city where he made his home. The Muskegon Board of Education, to which Hackley’s vision was entrusted, carried forward his ideals of service to the community, finding remarkable directors over the course of the century that could help them with this monumental task. Every MMA director has made memorable strides in acquiring works of art to the height of their abilities and opportunities.

This solid foundation was a formidable one to live up to, as the Museum prepared to enter its second century. With its 100th Anniversary but a glimmer on the horizon in 2005, MMA Executive Director Judith Hayner, the MMA staff, and the Museum’s collections committee, with the support of the Muskegon Public Schools Board of Education (of which the Museum is still part of), embarked on an ambitious acquisition plan for the future. The goal was to set a course to match, and perhaps even exceed, the collections strengths that had been accomplished in the Museum’s first 100 years.

The dream of all said constituents was to assemble a group of exceptional objects that would even more substantially fulfill Charles Hackley’s original charge to the Muskegon Board of Education to collect “pictures of the best kind.” The Centennial Collection has taken on proportions unimaginable to the group in 2005. The anticipated result of acquiring only a handful of works, based on stringent high-quality objectives was greatly surpassed thanks to the motivation to patrons near and far of the MMA’s impending 100th anniversary.

The New Art for the New Century exhibition is underwritten by SPX Corporation, the MMA’s 100th Year Centennial Partner; the Hines Corporation, and Warner, Norcross & Judd LLP.

MMAsterpieces

Through late September 2012

MUSEUM FAVORITES, SALON STYLE
Cooper Gallery

The Muskegon Museum of Art has gone sky-high to bring you a selection of some of the best and brightest works of art from our first 100 years—works that have defined this institution since its opening to the public on June 21, 1912. The Ernest and Marjorie Cooper Gallery has been transformed in true Paris Salon fashion. More than 40 paintings rise to the ceiling in all their finery—including works by John Steuart Curry, Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, Alfred Sisley, Joos van Cleve, Pierre Bonnard, Camille Pissarro, Charles Hawthorne, and so many others. This summer, we think more is more, and more is better!

This abundant showing of MMA masterpieces in the Cooper Gallery and the Marble Hall is our way of keeping Charles Hackley’s dream—his 1905 bequest of $150,000 to collect “pictures of the best kind”—at the forefront of our year-long presentation of artwork celebrating the Museum’s 2012 Centennial. Our beloved “old standards” continue to hold court, even though their usual display locations—the Bettye Clark Cannon Gallery, the Theodore and Joan Operhall Gallery, and the Thelma and Paul Wiener Gallery—have been temporarily displaced. Now, the Cannon, Operhall, and Wiener galleries are filled with exceptional works that mark the Museum’s second century, New Art for the New Century—more than 100 artworks that have been acquired for the permanent collection in honor of the Museum’s 100th Anniversary.

Enjoy these all-time favorites and, as part of the Museum’s special offerings, spend time with the beautiful Mary Cassatt, Baby on Mother’s Arm. The Cassat is on loan to the MMA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, in generous exchange for our lending Henry Ossawa Tanner’s The Holy Family to PAFA’s nationally traveling exhibition Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit.

Underwritten by SPX Corporation, 100th Year Centennial Partner