The Wright Museum of Art is a small art

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

maintained and operated by

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and has ...

Beloit, Wisconsin Beloit is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 36,657 people. History Twelve men in Colebrook, New Hampshire, created the "New England Emigrating Company" in October 1836 and sent ...

. It houses a collection of approximately 6,000 objects, has five gallery spaces, and provides training for

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-lev ...

students in

museum studies Museology or museum studies is the study of museums. It explores the history of museums and their role in society, as well as the activities they engage in, including curating, preservation, public programming, and education. Terminology The w ...

. The building is also home to the department of studio art and

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

. The Wright Museum of Art was founded with the donation of Helen Brace Emerson's personal collection in 1892. Emerson continued to be involved in art appreciation and access at Beloit College. In 1894 she brought a collection of ancient Greek sculpture that had been displayed at the 1893

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. At the behest of Emerson other individuals gifted the College art and donations to further the art department. In the year 1930 Beloit College partnered with the city of Beloit to build the Wright Museum of Art. The initial funds of $139,000 constructed at building modeled after the

Fogg Art Museum The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Over the years new additions were added to the museum: a second floor in 1949, an annex in 1960, and general renovations in 1996 and 2009. The museum was named for Theodore Lyman Wright, an 1880 graduate and later professor of Greek and the fine arts. The objects housed at the Wright Museum are "mostly European and American prints and paintings, College portraits, 19th century historic architecture photos, Soviet political propaganda posters, and Asian decorative arts, icons, and woodblock prints."

References

External links

Beloit College website Wright Museum of Art website
Museums in Rock County, Wisconsin Buildings and structures in Beloit, Wisconsin Art museums and galleries in Wisconsin University museums in Wisconsin Plaster cast collections Beloit College {{Wisconsin-museum-stub