Munson (Formally Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute) is a regional fine

arts center An art centre or arts center is distinct from an art gallery or art museum. An arts centre is a functional community centre with a specific remit to encourage arts practice and to provide facilities such as theatre space, gallery space, venues fo ...

founded in 1919 and located in

Utica, New York Utica () is the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most populous city in New York, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 census. It is located on the Mohawk River in the Mohawk Valley at the foot of the Adiro ...

. The institute has three program divisions, museum of art, performing arts and school of art.

Museum of art

The

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

of art has a substantial permanent collection of internationally recognized works. They are exhibited in the Munson Museum of Art Building. It is an International-style building designed by

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect who designed modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 ...

and completed in 1960. A model of the building was exhibited in the United States Pavilion at the Brussels' World's Fair of 1958. It is a 60,000 sqft square and supported by eight external ferro-concrete piers, or two on each side. The exterior structural members are clad in

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

and "black" Canadian

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

. The windowless cube is set above windowed office areas recessed in a dry moat, giving a "floating" effect. The interior features a two-story central courtyard, illuminated by a skylight, known as the Edward Wales Root Sculpture Court. It also holds an

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoriums can be found in entertainment venues, community halls, and t ...

seating 271. ''Note:'' This includes an
''Accompanying five photographs''
It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 2010. Next-door is a

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

era An era is a span of time. Era or ERA may also refer to: * Era (geology), a subdivision of geologic time * Calendar era Education * Academy of European Law (German: '), an international law school * ERA School, in Melbourne, Australia * E ...

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

mansion called '' Fountain Elms'', listed on the

in 1972. It houses the Munson

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose aim is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. This includes most of the objects for the interiors of buildings, as well as interior design, but typically excl ...

collection. It is connected to the Museum of Art building by an education wing built in 1995. The museum has an extensive collection of European and American art. A highlight of the permanent collection is the first of the two original sets of

Thomas Cole Thomas Cole (February 1, 1801 – February 11, 1848) was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for hi ...

's famous series of paintings titled ''

The Voyage of Life ''The Voyage of Life'' is a series of four paintings created by the American artist Thomas Cole in 1840 and reproduced with minor alterations in 1842, representing an allegory of the four stages of human life. The paintings, ''Childhood'', ''Youth ...

'': The second set is at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

In 2023, as part of a rebranding effort facilitated by a Brooklyn-based design agency, the museum rebranded itself simply "Munson". The museum president stated that despite its familiarity, few people knew the entire 10-syllable name of the museum.

School of art

The art school was begun 1936, when The Arts Guild of New York City moved its school to a remodeled garage on the ground of the Institute and, under the name of the ''School of Related Arts and Sciences'', began to offer courses in visual arts, the history and philosophy of art, and comparative symbolism. In 1999, Munson became a satellite campus of the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

. A program called ''Pratt at Munson-Williams-Proctor'' or PrattMWP allows students to study for two years in

, called a "Foundations Program", before completing their

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students pursuing a professional education in the visual arts, Fine art, or performing arts. In some instances, it is also called a Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA). Background ...

degree at

's main campus in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. PrattMWP is accredited by the

National Association of Schools of Art and Design The National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), founded in 1944, is an accrediting organization of colleges, schools and universities in the United States. The organization establishes standards for graduate and undergraduate degrees ...

Middle States Association The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, also referred to as the Middle States Association or MSA, is an accreditor in the United States. Historically, it has accredited schools in the Mid-Atlantic states region of the northeast ...

, and

New York State Education Department The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the supervision for all public schools in New York and all standardized testing, as well as the production and administration ...

References

External links

Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts InstitutePrattMWP
{{Authority control Museums on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) School buildings completed in 1960 Buildings and structures in Utica, New York Arts organizations established in 1919 Museums in Oneida County, New York Art museums and galleries in New York (state) University museums in New York (state) Philip Johnson buildings Arts centers in New York (state) Museums of American art 1919 establishments in New York (state) University art museums and galleries in New York (state) National Register of Historic Places in Oneida County, New York