Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute
Encyclopedia
The Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute (MWPAI) is a regional fine arts center
Arts centre
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 for musical performance, workshop areas, educational...

 founded in 1919 and located in Utica, New York
Utica, New York
Utica is a city in and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The population was 62,235 at the 2010 census, an increase of 2.6% from the 2000 census....

. The institute has three program divisions:
  • Museum of art
  • Performing arts
  • School of art

Museum of art

The museum of art has a substantial permanent collection of internationally recognized works. They are exhibited in the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute Museum of Art Building. It is an International-style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...

 building designed by architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...

 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 115 feet square and supported by eight external ferro-concrete piers, or two on each side. The exterior structural members are clad in bronze
Bronze
Bronze is a metal alloy consisting primarily of copper, usually with tin as the main additive. It is hard and brittle, and it was particularly significant in antiquity, so much so that the Bronze Age was named after the metal...

 and "black" Canadian granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

. 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
Auditorium
An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...

 seating 271. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 2010.

Next-door is a Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...

-era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 Italianate mansion called Fountain Elms
Fountain Elms
Fountain Elms is a historic home located at Utica in Oneida County, New York. It is part of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The original block was completed in 1852 in the "Italian Style". It is basically a cube with a center hall plan. The original rear wing was remodeled in 1883 and...

, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. It houses the MWPAI decorative arts 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
Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century...

's famous series of paintings titled The Voyage of Life, (the second set is at the National Gallery
National gallery
The National Gallery is an art gallery on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom.National Gallery may also refer to:*Armenia: National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan*Australia:**National Gallery of Australia, Canberra...

 Washington, DC.).

PrattMWP

The institute also has a program called Pratt at Munson-Williams-Proctor (MWP) which allows students to study for two years in Central New York
Central New York
Central New York is a term used to broadly describe the central region of New York State, roughly including the following counties and cities:...

, called a "Foundations Program", before completing their Bachelor of Fine Arts
Bachelor of Fine Arts
In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...

 degree at Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...

's main campus in Brooklyn, New York.

External links

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