The Longview Museum of Fine Arts (LMFA) is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. A ...

in downtown

Longview, Texas Longview is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, and county seat of Gregg County; a small part of Longview extends into the western portion of neighboring Harrison County. Longview is located in East Texas, where Interstate 20 and U.S. Highways ...

. It was founded in 1958 by the Junior Service League of Longview. Since 1998, it has been on Tyler Street in downtown Longview. The LMFA's permanent collection consists of over 700 works of art and its primary focus is

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

art from Texas,

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. The museum also hosts both traveling and temporary exhibitions while also offering a variety of

art education Visual arts education is the area of learning that is based upon the kind of art that one can see, visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, de ...

classes.

History

The LMFA was established in 1958 by the Junior Service League of Longview. In 1959, it hosted its first annual Invitational Exhibit, with

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...

director Jerry Bywaters serving as both the consultant and the juror for the exhibit. During its early years, the LMFA was operated by the staff of the Nicholson Memorial Library. In 1970, the Junior Service League's art collection was placed at the LMFA on permanent loan and it was granted a museum charter by the State of Texas. Since its foundation in 1958, the LMFA has been physically located at five different sites. Jane Akins, one of the women involved with the museum at its inception, noted that the Junior Service League members would transport paintings from site to site themselves in their personal

station wagon A station wagon ( US, also wagon) or estate car ( UK, also estate), is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door ( ...

s. On January 17, 1998, the LMFA's current location on Tyler Street in downtown Longview opened with a workshop and lectures by photographers

Ruth Bernhard Ruth Bernhard (October 14, 1905 – December 18, 2006) was a German-born American photographer. Early life and education Bernhard was born in Berlin to Lucian Bernhard and Gertrude Hoffmann. Lucian Bernhard was known for his poster and typeface ...

and Michael Kenna, after the building had been renovated the previous year. In 2005, the LMFA opened its Judge J. T. Smith Sculpture Garden on the corner of Tyler Street and Fredonia Street. In 2012, the museum opened the ArtWorks Creative Learning Center, an educational annex that offers space for classes previously taught in the museum building itself.

Collections

Selections from the LMFA's permanent collection are on display in its main gallery, the Wrather Gallery. The collection, which consists of over 700 etchings, paintings, photographs, woodcuts, and more pieces of art, is too large to display in its entirety and is thus rotated into and out of the gallery. The primary focus of the permanent collection is

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

created by Texas artists as well as those from around the region in the states of

, and

Exhibitions and events

The LMFA hosts both traveling and temporary exhibitions for up to six weeks in its Martin-Stoudt Gallery (Premier I) and Barrow-Cave Gallery (Premier II). The Sculpture Garden hosts rotating exhibits on a yearly basis. Exhibitions at the LMFA have featured the work of African American artists (including

Arthello Beck Arthello Beck Jr. (July 17, 1941 – November 5, 2004) was an American artist. He often painted scenes of places he had visited, using a variety of mediums, including oils, watercolors, and charcoal. Beck was born in Dallas, Texas, and attende ...

and

Leamon Green Leamon Green (born 1959) is an Americans, American visual artist who works in different types of media. Biography Green was born in 1959 in the town of Anniston, Alabama. His education includes a Master of Fine Arts at Temple University, Philade ...

), the photography of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'', an

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

exhibition, and the museum's annual Student Invitational, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2020. During the summer, the LMFA also hosts a variety of

classes, including children's art classes, adult sculpture classes, and photography classes that are open to adults and high school students.

Gallery

File:Longview Museum of Fine Arts July 2018 3 (The Garland Proscenium).jpg, The Garland Proscenium File:Longview Museum of Fine Arts July 2018 7 (The Dallas Nine).jpg, ''The Dallas Nine'' gallery File:Longview Museum of Fine Arts July 2018 6 (JD Miller- Reflectionist).jpg, '' JD Miller: Reflectionist'' temporary exhibit File:Longview Museum of Fine Arts July 2018 8 (Texas Bank and Trust Lecture Hall).jpg, Texas Bank and Trust Lecture Hall

References

External links

* {{authority control 1958 establishments in Texas Art museums established in 1958 Art museums and galleries in Texas Contemporary art galleries in the United States Longview, Texas