When Santiago Calatrava first was awarded the competition to build the Milwaukee Art Museum, beating out such luminaries as Arato Isozaki and Fumihiko Maki, the thought of such an exciting building did not exist.

There were already sections of the MAM extant, built by Eero Saarinen and David Kahler. But it was evident that by the late 1980s there would need to be some sort of a drastic change if the museum was to provide an effective ongoing service to its patrons and visitors.

The museum directors at least had the vision to see that sweeping changes would be necessary, but it is highly unlikely that they could even begin to imagine what Santiago Calatrava might have had in store for them.

One of the earlier problems before any of the construction got underway was the budget. Like many such projects, the estimated cost grew rapidly due to the ever expanding vision which Mr. Calatrava had for the building. Read the rest of this entry »

Denver Art museum is located in Denver’s civic center. The museum was founded as a Denver artists club in the year 1893. But it was renamed as Denver art association in the year 1916. In the year 1918 the association was moved to the city and county building and became Denver art museum.

The museum has a comprehensive collection of over 68,000 artworks from all parts of the world, and it is well-known for its American Indian arts. The museum has opened its first permanent galleries in the year 1993. There are nine departments in the Denver art museum. The departments are as follows:

• Architecture
• Design and graphics
• Asian art
• Modern and contemporary art
• Native arts
• New world paintings and sculpture
• Photography
• Western art
• Textile art

The modern and contemporary art collection of the museum has a collection of over 4,500 arts work of 20th century. The modern and contemporary department has a collection of popular artists such as Herbert Bayer collection and archive and 2,500 items of famous artists.

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Famous art museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art have one of the largest collections of art under one roof. Located in New York City’s Museum Mile area, it has over two million works of art within its permanent collection, which is split into 19 sections of interest.

The Met’s American paintings section also has one of their earliest sculptures from 1870 on display. Hiram Power’s California was one of the first pieces that inspired them to focus building the museum around American art. Over the years, the Met has built its collection of art that covers many areas. Their art section features paintings by Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Van Gogh amongst its 11,000 paintings on hand. They have also built sections featuring Asian Art, American Decorative Art, and Arms and Armory as some of the many sections that they feature.

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles is a privately-run museum that has a wide collection of European art, Greek and Roman sculptures, and classic drawings. The museum also has an extensive collection of American photography collection, which is one of the only areas within its museum that focuses on American areas of interest. There is also a research center that was opened in 1985, where a staff researches information about the artifacts that exist and makes sure that the information being presented can be used in publications and workshops for presentation purposes.

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