The Beaumont Art League (BAL) is the oldest non-profit art organization in the

Beaumont, Texas Beaumont is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat, seat of government of Jefferson County, Texas, Jefferson County, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur, Texas, Port Arthur Beaumont–Port Arthur metropolitan area, metropo ...

, USA, area. The BAL hosts art exhibitions, juried shows, and arts education for adults and children. It also maintains a permanent collection of art and art objects, primarily by local artists.

History

The league was founded in 1943 by a group of artists meeting weekly at the studio of Robert Stapp who decided to form a working group of painters to foster and stimulate fine arts and crafts in the Sabine area. Founding members included Will-Amelia Sterns Price and Tom Tierney. By 1944, the group moved to the

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

and held its first art exhibition. It continued to hold annual membership exhibitions, traveling exhibitions, workshops, lectures, and summer art colonies taught by such accomplished national artists as Frederic Taubes and

Jacob Getlar Smith Jacob Getlar Smith (1898 – October 28, 1958) was an American painter and muralist who worked mostly in New York City. Smith studied at the National Academy of Design in New York from 1919 to 1921. In 1929, Smith was awarded a Guggenheim F ...

. In 1949, the league raised the money to rent a house and formed the Beaumont Art Museum, now the

Art Museum of Southeast Texas The Art Museum of Southeast Texas (AMSET) is an art museum in Beaumont, Texas, United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in Nor ...

, which opened in 1950. The league organized many of the museum's activities over the coming years. In 1956, Colonel Sanford Perry Brown and his wife donated the money for a building (the Brown Gallery) at the Fairgrounds in North Beaumont. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the league moved several times while the museum remained at the Brown Gallery. The Browns donated funds for a second building in 1967 named the Scurlock Gallery. The league moved back to these buildings in 1968 and has remained there since. The museum expanded several times into other local buildings until finding its home in downtown Beaumont in 1987. In 1962, the league held the first Tri-State Exhibition, bringing in art from around Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. In 1998, this became the BAL National Exhibition, taking in art each year from around the US.

References

{{authority control Art museums and galleries in Texas Museums in Beaumont, Texas Art museums and galleries established in 1943 Museums of American art