Art museum

An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection. Paintings are the most commonly displayed art objects; however, sculpture, decorative arts, furniture, textiles, costume, drawings, pastels, watercolors, collages, prints, artists' books, photographs, and installation art are also regularly shown. Although primarily concerned with providing a space to show works of visual art, art galleries are sometimes used to host other artistic activities, such as performance art, music concerts, or poetry readings.

Types of galleries

The term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art. However, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere.

Akron Art Museum

The Akron Art Museum is an art museum in Akron, Ohio, USA.

The museum first opened its doors on February 1, 1922, as the Akron Art Institute. It was located in two borrowed rooms in the basement of the public library. The Institute offered classes in arts appreciation which were organized by Edwin Coupland Shaw and his wife Jennifer Bond Shaw. It has grown considerably since that time. The new museum was open to the public on July 17, 2007, and hosts visiting shows from national and international collections.

Collections

The Akron Art Museum features 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²) of gallery space dedicated to the display of its collection of art produced since 1850. The museum also hosts visiting shows from national and international collections.

1850–1950

Western art created between 1850 and 1950 graces the first floor of the museum’s 1899 Italian Renaissance revival style building. The first two rooms feature examples of turn-of-the-century realism and American impressionism. Two rooms explore modernism and regionalism in northeast Ohio from 1910 through 1950. A final room is dedicated entirely to the work of William Sommer, a northeast Ohio artist. These galleries include paintings by Thomas Wilmer Dewing and Frederick Carl Frieseke.