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mission and history

Mission
The Arlington Museum of Art exists to champion creativity and provide access to art for the cultural enrichment and economic development of our community.

Snapshot
Located in an art moderne 1950s former department store building with a two-story expansive open gallery, the AMA is the anchor of a revitalizing downtown Arlington. The oldest art organization in Arlington, it began 45 years ago as an art association and fulfilled its dream to become a museum in 1989.

History
In 1937 Arista and Howard Joyner came to Arlington to teach at what is now UTA. Howard was hired to start the art department and Arista taught art. Both had studied and completed programs the Kansas City Art Institute. In 1952, to promote art and interest in the community, they established the Arlington Art Association. Founding members included Anna Wynette and Tom Vandergriff, Eleanor Grace and James Martin, the Hawkes families, Mattie Lewis and the Shakespeare Club.

Around 1970 Carolyn Snider, a mover and shaker in Arlington, was elected president. Mrs. Snider upgraded the juried shows, raising funds to award cash prizes. Jurors, heretofore primarily artists, were selected from the ranks of art museum professionals, university art professors, art critics and professional curators. This policy continued into the eighties. For most of that time the Arlington Art Association juried show was the only one of its kind in the Metroplex.

In the early 80s the Arlington Art Association started annual art auctions to raise funds for college scholarships and to start saving for the purchase of a building. Scholarships totaling $2000 each year ($500 for a graduating senior from each of four high schools) were awarded for several years and the savings account for the building grew to $60,000 by 1986. In 1987 the JC Penney building was purchased from an Arlington group that included the Ross families; a significant part of the selling price was donated by that group and the remainder was financed. With the purchase of the building the name was changed and the organization incorporated as the Arlington Museum of Art.

In May of 1990 the first major show of contemporary art at the AMA, Woodwork, attracted the interest of the Dallas art patrons Nona and Richard Barrett. They offered matching funds to hire a director on condition that the museum's mission and focus be Texas contemporary art. A successful fund drive for the match was accomplished and Joan Davidow was hired in April, 1991.

Joan resigned her position of almost 10 years in September 2000. The Board has honored Joan with the title of Director Emeritus. She leaves the Museum on strong footing, with a level of national recognition seldom achieved by Museums this size. The legacy of her exhibitions of cutting-edge contemporary Texas art has earned the attention of art lovers in the Metroplex, around the State and across the US. In February 2001, AMA museum manager Anne Allen became the AMA's new Director. Before joining the Museum, Ms. Allen served as Executive Director of The Old Jail Art Center in Albany, Texas. Under Ms. Allen's direction, the AMA has expanded its exhibition schedule and added a number of new programs, notably gallery talks and artist lectures, designed to appeal to the art educated and art curious alike.

AMA today:

* AMA has just announced a new direction and a new mission.
* AMA is non-collecting and free to the public
* Exhibitions receive statewide and national recognition, 18,000
   visitors annually
* Education programs are built upon a direct experience of art
* A variety of free and fee-based educational programs for children,
   families and adults
* FW Weekly's annual Best of the Metroplex reader's poll selects
   the AMA as "Best Kids Art Experience
* New adult-focused programs reach out to both young and older
   adult audiences