Roswell Museum and Art Center
Encyclopedia
The Roswell Museum and Art Center is located in Roswell, New Mexico
, and features exhibits about the art and history of the American Southwest. Exhibits include fine art, sculpture, prints, decorative arts, and historic artefacts.
The Museum also operates the Patricia Lubben Bassett Art Education Center, which opened in 1998 as a premier learning facility in the State of New Mexico. This facility supports a museum-school-community creative exchange that provides arts education opportunities for all ages.
The Robert H. Goddard Planetarium
was built through an initiative shared by the Museum and the Roswell Independent School District in 1968. Once considered the largest planetarium in New Mexico, it is capable of reproducing the night sky as seen from any geometric point on earth. The multimedia laboratory features an Astronomy Resource Center and hosts the Roswell Astronomy Club “Star Parties”.
Today, the Planetarium continues its partnership with the Museum and School District through both educational and public programming – including such activities as Space Camp, NASA
’s Hubble Space Telescope
’s informal science education resource “ViewSpace,” and other family science events and activities.
from New Mexico, Taos Modernists, Taos & Santa Fe Art Colonies
, Native American
Collection, 20th Century Art
, 20th Century Sculpture, Southwestern Art, Contemporary Art
, American West
Historical Collection, Liquid-Propellant Rocketry Collection, International Print Collection, Peter Hurd
& Henriette Wyeth
Collection, WPA
-era Art, Decorative Arts, Spanish Colonial historical items, Landscape Artists, and Regional Artists.
Featured artists include the following artists, as well as the many contributing artists from the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program (RAiR).
(WPA), Federal Art Project
(FAP), Chaves County
Archaeological and Historical Society, and Roswell Friends of Art. The Museum opened on October 6, 1937 as one of numerous federal art centers established by the WPA during the Depression
era. Only a handful of these centers are in operation today.
In commemoration of the Museum’s opening, celebrated author and Museum board member, Paul Horgan
stated: “Civilization began when the materials of life were not only used, but understood…” Early museum exhibits included those traveled by the FAP; artifacts; paintings by Peter Hurd and Henriette Wyeth (daughter of N.C. Wyeth); and other regional archaeological and ethnographic
objects.
In the 1940s
, the City of Roswell assumed control of the Museum and a significant donor program brought in works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley
, Stuart Davis
, John Marin
, and others. Esther Goddard also gifted the Museum with one of its most significant historical collections: Dr. Robert H. Goddard
’s material research on liquid-fuel rockets. Dr. Goddard’s rocket tower now stands in the Museum’s courtyard. In the Robert H. Goddard
exhibit, visitors may see a moon rock donated by Harrison Schmitt
from the Apollo 17
Mission.
In 1967, the Roswell Artist-in-Residence (RAiR) program was established through the generous support of local artist and philanthropist Donald B. Anderson. The first Artist-in-Residence was American painter and Taos
resident, Howard Cook.
In the 1990s, the Museum received a substantial collection of western art and historical artifacts donated by Rogers and Mary Ellen Aston.
The Museum has been accredited by the American Association of Museums
since 1978.
Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell is a city in and the county seat of Chaves County in the southeastern quarter of the state of New Mexico, United States. The population was 48,366 at the 2010 census. It is a center for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It is also...
, and features exhibits about the art and history of the American Southwest. Exhibits include fine art, sculpture, prints, decorative arts, and historic artefacts.
The Museum also operates the Patricia Lubben Bassett Art Education Center, which opened in 1998 as a premier learning facility in the State of New Mexico. This facility supports a museum-school-community creative exchange that provides arts education opportunities for all ages.
The Robert H. Goddard Planetarium
Planetarium
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
was built through an initiative shared by the Museum and the Roswell Independent School District in 1968. Once considered the largest planetarium in New Mexico, it is capable of reproducing the night sky as seen from any geometric point on earth. The multimedia laboratory features an Astronomy Resource Center and hosts the Roswell Astronomy Club “Star Parties”.
Today, the Planetarium continues its partnership with the Museum and School District through both educational and public programming – including such activities as Space Camp, NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
’s Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was carried into orbit by a Space Shuttle in 1990 and remains in operation. A 2.4 meter aperture telescope in low Earth orbit, Hubble's four main instruments observe in the near ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared...
’s informal science education resource “ViewSpace,” and other family science events and activities.
Collections
The featured art collections are Early ModernistsModernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
from New Mexico, Taos Modernists, Taos & Santa Fe Art Colonies
Art colony
right|300px|thumb|Artist houses in [[Montsalvat]] near [[Melbourne, Australia]].An art colony or artists' colony is a place where creative practitioners live and interact with one another. Artists are often invited or selected through a formal process, for a residency from a few weeks to over a year...
, Native American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
Collection, 20th Century Art
20th century art
20th-century art and what it became known as — modern art — really began with modernism in the late 19th century. Nineteenth-century movements of Post Impressionism and Art Nouveau led to the first twentieth-century art movements of Fauvism in France and Die Brücke in Germany. Fauvism in Paris...
, 20th Century Sculpture, Southwestern Art, Contemporary Art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
, American West
Western United States
.The Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
Historical Collection, Liquid-Propellant Rocketry Collection, International Print Collection, Peter Hurd
Peter Hurd
Peter Hurd was an American artist, born Harold Hurd, Jr., in Roswell, New Mexico.Nicknamed "Pete" by his parents, he later legally changed his name to Peter.-Life:...
& Henriette Wyeth
Henriette Wyeth
Henriette Wyeth Hurd was an American artist noted for portraits and still life paintings. She was the wife of artist Peter Hurd, daughter of illustrator N.C. Wyeth and sister of artist Andrew Wyeth. She was also the mother of artist Michael Hurd...
Collection, WPA
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
-era Art, Decorative Arts, Spanish Colonial historical items, Landscape Artists, and Regional Artists.
Featured artists include the following artists, as well as the many contributing artists from the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program (RAiR).
- Karel AppelKarel AppelChristiaan Karel Appel was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s...
- Stuart Arends
- Joseph BakosJoseph BakosJoseph Bakos was an American painter of Polish origin, mainly of western landscapes.Was one of Los Cinco Pintores who worked in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Bakos studied art with John E. Thompson at the Albright Art Institute in Buffalo, New York. He later followed Thompson to Colorado and taught at the...
(“Jozef”) - Ernest Blumenschein
- Robert ColescottRobert ColescottRobert H. Colescott, was an American painter. He is known for satirical genre and crowd subjects, often conveying his exuberant, comical, or bitter reflections on being African-American. He studied with Fernand Léger in Paris...
- Howard Cook
- Andrew DasburgAndrew DasburgAndrew Michael Dasburg was an American modernist painter and "one of America's leading early exponents of cubism".-Biography:...
- Stuart DavisStuart DavisStuart Davis or Davies may refer to:* Stuart Davis * Stuart Davis , or his album, Stuart Davis * Stuart Davis , Australian rugby league footballer* Stuart Davies, Welsh rugby union fotballer...
- Salvador DaliSalvador DalíSalvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
- Eugène DelacroixEugène DelacroixFerdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
- Albrecht DürerAlbrecht DürerAlbrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
- Fremont Ellis
- Harmony HammondHarmony HammondHarmony Hammond is an American artist and writer.-Biography:Harmony Hammond earned a B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1967. She co-founded the A.I.R. Gallery in 1972; it was the first women's cooperative art gallery in New York...
- Bob HaozousBob HaozousBob Haozous is a Chiricahua Apache sculptor from Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is enrolled in the Fort Sill Apache Tribe.-Background:Bob Haozous was born on 1 April 1943 in Los Angeles, California. His parents are Anna Marie Gallegos, a Diné-Mestiza textile artist, and the late Allan Houser , a famous...
- William GoodmanWilliam GoodmanWilliam Goodman may refer to:* Billy Goodman, baseball infielder* William Goodman, American cricketer...
- Marsden HartleyMarsden HartleyMarsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist.-Early life and education:Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, where his English parents had settled. He was the youngest of nine children. His mother died when he was eight, and his father remarried four years later to Martha...
- William Penhallow HendersonWilliam Penhallow HendersonWilliam Penhallow Henderson was an American painter, architect, and furniture designer....
- Robert HenriRobert HenriRobert Henri was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art.- Early life :...
- Victor Higgins
- Hans HolbeinHans HolbeinHans Holbein may refer to two German painters:* Hans Holbein the Elder father of Hans the Younger* Hans Holbein the Younger , better known of the two, court artist to King Henry VIII of England...
- Michael HurdMichael HurdMichael Hurd can refer to:*Michael John Hurd , English composer*Michael J. Hurd, psychologist, author, and talk radio host...
- Peter HurdPeter HurdPeter Hurd was an American artist, born Harold Hurd, Jr., in Roswell, New Mexico.Nicknamed "Pete" by his parents, he later legally changed his name to Peter.-Life:...
- Robert IndianaRobert IndianaRobert Indiana is an American artist associated with the Pop Art movement.-Life and work:Robert Indiana was born Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana. His family relocated to Indianapolis, where he graduated from Arsenal Technical High School...
- Luis JimenezLuis JiménezLuis Jiménez may refer to:*Luis Antonio Jiménez, Chilean football player*Luis Jiménez , Venezuelan baseball player*Luis Jiménez , Dominican Republic baseball player*Luis Jiménez , Mexican Olympic fencer...
- Raymond JonsonRaymond JonsonRaymond Jonson was an American-born Modernist painter known for his paintings of the American Southwest.- Biography :Raymond Jonson was born in Chariton, Iowa in 1891, but grew up in Portland, Oregon. At twenty, Jonson attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Later, he continued the...
- Alex KatzAlex KatzAlex Katz is an American figurative artist associated with the Pop art movement. In particular, he is known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints and is represented by numerous galleries internationally.-Life and work:...
- Barbara Latham
- Ken LittleKen LittleKen Dawson Little is a modernist San Antonio-based sculptor who was born in Canyon, Texas in 1947. After graduating from Texas Tech University in 1970 with a BFA in painting, he received an MFA from the University of Utah in 1972. There, his interest in painting waned in favor of ceramics. In...
- William Lumpkins
- Agnes MartinAgnes MartinAgnes Bernice Martin was an American abstract painter, often referred to as a minimalist; Martin considered herself an abstract expressionist.She won a National Medal of Arts from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1998....
- Maria MartinezMaria MartinezMaria Montoya Martinez was a Native American artist who created internationally known pottery...
- John MarinJohn MarinJohn Marin was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors.-Biography:...
- Willard MidgetteWillard MidgetteWillard Franklin Midgette was an American painter and printmaker associated with the second generation of Contemporary American Realist painters.Midgette was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Ernst Midgette and Mary Midgette...
- Peter Moran
- Walter Mruk
- Louise Berliawsky NevelsonLouise Berliawsky NevelsonLouise Nevelson was an American sculptor known for her monumental, monochromatic, wooden wall pieces and outdoor sculptures. Born in Czarist Russia, she emigrated with her family to the United States in the early 20th century when she was three years old. Nevelson learned English at school, as she...
- Georgia O’Keeffe
- Pablo PicassoPablo PicassoPablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
- David ReedDavid Reed (artist)David Reed is a contemporary American conceptual and visual artist.-Art:David Reed is known as a colorist and for creating long, narrow abstract paintings on canvas that are hung either lengthwise or vertically and feature several images resembling enlarged photographs of swirling brushstrokes...
- Milton ResnickMilton ResnickMilton Resnick was a major abstract expressionist painter and teacher known for his mystical, abstract and figurative paintings. Born in Bratslav, Russia, he emigrated to the United States in 1922.-Biography:...
- Georges RouaultGeorges RouaultGeorges Henri Rouault[p] was a French Fauvist and Expressionist painter, and printmaker in lithography and etching.-Childhood and education:Rouault was born in Paris into a poor family...
- Fritz ScholderFritz ScholderFritz Scholder was one of the most renowned Native American artists of the 20th century. Born in Breckenridge, Minnesota, Scholder was one-quarter Luiseño, a California Mission tribe. Scholder's most influential works were post-modern in sensibility and somewhat Pop Art in execution as he sought...
- Elmer Schooley
- Joseph Henry SharpJoseph Henry SharpJoseph Henry Sharp was an American painter and a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists, of which he is considered the "Spiritual Father". Sharp was one of the earliest European-American artists to visit Taos, New Mexico, which he saw in 1893 with John Hauser when he visited in 1893...
- Will Shuster
- Paul Suttman
- Luis Tapia
- Jim Waid
- Henriette WyethHenriette WyethHenriette Wyeth Hurd was an American artist noted for portraits and still life paintings. She was the wife of artist Peter Hurd, daughter of illustrator N.C. Wyeth and sister of artist Andrew Wyeth. She was also the mother of artist Michael Hurd...
History
The museum was founded in 1935 through an agreement between the City of Roswell, Works Progress AdministrationWorks Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
(WPA), Federal Art Project
Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project was the visual arts arm of the Great Depression-era New Deal Works Progress Administration Federal One program in the United States. It operated from August 29, 1935, until June 30, 1943. Reputed to have created more than 200,000 separate works, FAP artists created...
(FAP), Chaves County
Chaves County, New Mexico
-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*70.9% White*2.0% Black*1.2% Native American*0.6% Asian*0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*3.2% Two or more races*22.0% Other races*52.0% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...
Archaeological and Historical Society, and Roswell Friends of Art. The Museum opened on October 6, 1937 as one of numerous federal art centers established by the WPA during the Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
era. Only a handful of these centers are in operation today.
In commemoration of the Museum’s opening, celebrated author and Museum board member, Paul Horgan
Paul Horgan
Paul Horgan was an American author of fiction and non-fiction, most of which was set in the Southwestern United States. He was the recipient of two Pulitzer prizes in History...
stated: “Civilization began when the materials of life were not only used, but understood…” Early museum exhibits included those traveled by the FAP; artifacts; paintings by Peter Hurd and Henriette Wyeth (daughter of N.C. Wyeth); and other regional archaeological and ethnographic
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
objects.
In the 1940s
1940s
File:1940s decade montage.png|Above title bar: events which happened during World War II : From left to right: Troops in an LCVP landing craft approaching "Omaha" Beach on "D-Day"; Adolf Hitler visits Paris, soon after the Battle of France; The Holocaust occurred during the war as Nazi Germany...
, the City of Roswell assumed control of the Museum and a significant donor program brought in works by Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist.-Early life and education:Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, where his English parents had settled. He was the youngest of nine children. His mother died when he was eight, and his father remarried four years later to Martha...
, Stuart Davis
Stuart Davis
Stuart Davis or Davies may refer to:* Stuart Davis * Stuart Davis , or his album, Stuart Davis * Stuart Davis , Australian rugby league footballer* Stuart Davies, Welsh rugby union fotballer...
, John Marin
John Marin
John Marin was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors.-Biography:...
, and others. Esther Goddard also gifted the Museum with one of its most significant historical collections: Dr. Robert H. Goddard
Robert H. Goddard
Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American professor, physicist and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926...
’s material research on liquid-fuel rockets. Dr. Goddard’s rocket tower now stands in the Museum’s courtyard. In the Robert H. Goddard
Robert H. Goddard
Robert Hutchings Goddard was an American professor, physicist and inventor who is credited with creating and building the world's first liquid-fueled rocket, which he successfully launched on March 16, 1926...
exhibit, visitors may see a moon rock donated by Harrison Schmitt
Harrison Schmitt
Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt is an American geologist, a retired NASA astronaut, university professor, and a former U.S. senator from New Mexico....
from the Apollo 17
Apollo 17
Apollo 17 was the eleventh and final manned mission in the American Apollo space program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, with a three-member crew consisting of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 remains the...
Mission.
In 1967, the Roswell Artist-in-Residence (RAiR) program was established through the generous support of local artist and philanthropist Donald B. Anderson. The first Artist-in-Residence was American painter and Taos
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
resident, Howard Cook.
In the 1990s, the Museum received a substantial collection of western art and historical artifacts donated by Rogers and Mary Ellen Aston.
The Museum has been accredited by the American Association of Museums
American Association of Museums
The American Association of Museums is a non-profit association that has brought museums together since its founding in 1906, helping develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and advocating on issues of concern to the museum community...
since 1978.
External links
- Roswell Museum and Art Center - official site