Last updated: 1/14/2010
2200 South Van BurenAmarillo, TX 79109
P.O. Box 447Amarillo, TX 79178
Tuesday - Friday
10 AM - 5 PM
Sunday, Saturday
1 PM - 5 PM
Also open each month for Third Thursday from 6:30-9 pm. Join us for free Starbucks coffee & refreshments, live music, a short film, and an art activity!
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Graziella Marchicelli
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Kim Mahan
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Alex Gregory
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Kay Kennedy
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Charlie Vaughan
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Julie Talley
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Erin Holland
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Amarillo Museum of Art in Amarillo, TX is one of more than 15,400 museums in the MuseumsUSA directory. Find an exciting museum to visit where you live or vacation today.
For many years, people in the Texas Panhandle dreamed of a regional art museum that would satisfy the area's need for cultural enrichment. This need for cultural stimulation should be placed in the context of Amarillo, a city of 170,000 and the business and cultural center of a 26-county, 225,000 square mile area roughly the size of Illinois with a population in excess of 400,000. Before the establishment of the Amarillo Art Center, the nearest art museum was 260 miles to the west in Santa Fe or 344 miles to the southeast in Fort Worth. This data is provided, not as Texas braggadocio, but in an effort to communicate the isolation of the area.
In 1966, several art groups united their efforts and founded the Amarillo Art Center
Association, which was incorporated in January 1967 as a non-profit organization for the purpose of creating and maintaining a fine art museum in Amarillo. In 1970, the Amarillo Art Center Association joined with Amarillo College, a two-year community college chartered in 1926, to raise funds for the construction of a community Fine Arts complex on the college campus to serve the Panhandle region. The Association raised private funds for construction of the Art Center, a facility designed by noted architect Edward Durrell Stone.
The Art Center opened to the public in September 1972. From the beginning, its purpose has been to encourage active participation in and appreciation of the visual arts. Over the years, the Center has served the Panhandle region through a variety of programs.
In 1979, the Board moved from its original positioning of the Amarillo Art Center as a non-collecting institution to establishing a collections policy emphasizing 20th-century American art. However, the primary focus continues to be on presenting a variety of quality temporary exhibitions. Through the leadership of its founders and trustees, the Art Center established a commitment to contemporary art by presenting five to eight contemporary art exhibitions yearly. Many of these exhibits feature artists working in Texas with the exhibits being organized by the Art Center.
The Amarillo Art Center was accredited by the American Association of Museums in 1979 and reaccredited in 1987 and 2002. In 1994, the institution underwent a name change to its current name, the Amarillo Museum of Art.
1340 objects in the collection: 500 are photographic holdings centered on the lifework of Russell Lee, a Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographer, and other FSA photography from the 1930s. The remainder of the photographs are contemporary with a small holding of pieces by important early photographers (Steiglitz, Strand, etc.).
There are approximately 600 works on paper (drawings, papers, prints, mixed media), primarily American pieces since 1900. Some pieces are modernist (O'Keeffe). The emphasis is post-1945.
The special collections contain 17th and 18th-century European paintings, including Guardi, and fifteen 18th-century French pieces.
There are 15 pieces or sculpture, mostly exterior large-scale pieces by contemporary artists.
The remainder are post-1945 American pieces.
(1) Julius Woeltz collection (muralist of 1940 Amarillo Post Office) (2) exhibit publications from the more than 600 exhibits presented at the museum in 30 years.
Art school for all ages (mostly children); three to four sessions all year long.
Docent program with 80 active docents with a weekly training session. New docents take an art history survey course. Docents give tours, assist in the education lab, and assist with the outreach program.
Workshops: eight full-day workshops for elementary, middle, and high school , Region 16 Education Service Center gifted and talented workshops, Teacher workshops
Tours: Regular tours for all types of groups, AISD gifted & talented tour every year, Expanded tours (tour and hands-on activity) for individual groups.
Other: Programs with Girl Scouts and Campfire, Public lectures, symposia; Films, Special programs, on request
Available for tour/loan; rental fee; brochures, books, video for purchase.
Quarterly newsletter, exhibition catalogues (with funding and sponsorships), brochures, posters, class descriptions.
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