The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts is an art museum serving 14 counties located in

San Angelo San Angelo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tom Green County, Texas, United States. Its location is in the Concho Valley, a region of West Texas between the Permian Basin to the northwest, Chihuahuan Desert to the southwest, Osage Plai ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The museum features a growing permanent collection and is home to traveling exhibitions. In addition, it features a research library, an education wing, a rooftop sculpture collection, and community meeting space.

History

In July 1981, members of the community of San Angelo came together with the goal of creating a museum of fine arts and established a nonprofit organization for this purpose. After sufficient funds were raised, the museum opened in the renovated former Quartermaster Building at historic

Fort Concho Fort Concho is a former United States Army installation and National Historic Landmark District located in San Angelo, Texas. It was established in November 1867 at the confluence of the North and South Concho Rivers, on the routes of the But ...

in San Angelo. The museum opened in the spring of 1985 and was home to traveling exhibitions from the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: *National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra *National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London, with s ...

, the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

, and the

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 ...

. In 1994, the decision was made to build a new dedicated building for the museum. Over $7.2 million were raised for its construction and the new facility opened on the banks of the

Concho River The Concho River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. ''Concho'' is Spanish for "shell"; the river was so named due to its abundance of freshwater mussels, such as the Tampico pearly mussel (''Cyrtonaias tampicoensis''). Geography The Conch ...

in September, 1999. The museum has won many awards, including the National Award for Museum Service from the

Institute of Museum and Library Services The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is an independent agency of the United States federal government established in 1996. It is the main source of federal support for libraries and museums within the United States, having the mis ...

in 2003. In 2005, the museum gained accreditation by the

American Alliance of Museums American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

. The museum now averages around 90,000 visitors a year. The permanent collection holds 277 items focusing primarily on Texas artists.

Facilities

The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts is directly across the Concho River from downtown San Angelo and adjacent to the city's River Front concert stage. A winding pedestrian bridge connects the museum to the other side of the river and the parks that run alongside it. The building was designed by the architecture firm

Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates' (HHPA) was an internationally recognized American architecture firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Established by Hugh Hardy, Malcolm Holzman and Norman Pfeiffer in 1967 in New York, HHPA was noted f ...

. The controversial design features a curved roof designed to resemble a saddle or Conestoga wagon and uses an eclectic mix of local materials including limestone and end-grain Texas

mesquite Mesquite is a common name for several plants in the genus ''Prosopis'', which contains over 40 species of small leguminous trees. They are native to dry areas in the Americas. They have extremely long roots to seek water from very far under grou ...

. The building features and two main gallery areas with 45-ft and 35-ft ceilings. It also includes two smaller galleries, a rooftop terrace that serves as a sculpture garden overlooking the river and downtown San Angelo, a research library, an education wing and office, and support space. The museum has purchased a block of once-dilapidated buildings and renovated them into gallery space, which it rents out to artists and a new Water Education Center which is operated jointly by the museum and

Upper Colorado River Authority The Upper Colorado River Authority or UCRA was created in 1935 by the Texas Legislature as a quasi-governmental entity to manage the Colorado River as a water resource in Tom Green County and Coke County, Texas. The authority has since been ext ...

Exhibitions and juried competitions

* EnPleinAir TEXAS, 2016, 35 artists from 18 states painted images from the area around San Angelo. * 21st San Angelo National Ceramic Competition, 2016 * 2014/2015 Third Annual Richard and Pam Salmon Sculpture Competition * 2005/2006 Retrospective of pop artist James Gill

References

External links

San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts
{{authority control Art museums and galleries in Texas Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Art museums established in 1985 Buildings and structures in San Angelo, Texas Museums in Tom Green County, Texas 1985 establishments in Texas