Lowe Art Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1301 Stanford Drive
Coral Gables, Florida, U.S.
 Lowe Art Museum on the University of Miami campus in October 2015 | |
  Location within Miami  Lowe Art Museum (Florida)  Lowe Art Museum (the United States) | |
| Established | 1950 |
|---|---|
| Location | University of Miami 1301 Stanford Drive Coral Gables, Florida, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 25°43′10″N 80°16′32″W / 25.719425°N 80.275657°W |
| Type | Visual arts museum[1] |
| Visitors | 41,000[2] |
| Director | Jill Deupi[3] |
| Curator | Jill Deupi [3] |
| Public transit access | Metrorail access via University station |
| Website | www |
The Lowe Art Museum is the art museum of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The museum is located on the campus of the University of Miami and is accessible by Miami Metrorail at University Station.
Lowe Art Museum's comprehensive collection comprises more than 19,250 objects, which collectively represent more than 5,000 years of human creativity on every inhabited continent. The collection is divided into 14 thematic rooms with each room dedicated to a theme or artistic current in the collection. In addition to its 14 rooms, the museum includes the Palley Pavilion, which is dedicated to the museum's glass collection, and an outdoor garden, which includes contemporary art sculptures.[4]
Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami opened on February 22, 1950. The museum was originally established by a gift from philanthropists Joe[5] and Emily Lowe.[6] At the time of its opening, the museum was the first art museum in South Florida.
In 1951, Miami philanthropists Joe and Emily Lowe underwrote construction of a stand-alone facility on the University of Miami campus to absorb the gallery's rapidly growing collections. The new Lowe Art Gallery was dedicated on February 4, 1952. Four years later, in 1956, Alfred I. Barton donated his extensive collection of Native American art to Lowe, which was accommodated in a 1,300 square-foot purpose-built addition.
In 1961, Lowe Art Gallery was selected as a repository for 43 works from the Samuel H. Kress Collection of European Renaissance and Baroque art, which was housed in a new wing built specifically for it.
In 1968, Lowe Art Gallery was renamed the Lowe Art Museum. In 1972, it was the first museum in Miami-Dade County to be professionally accredited by American Alliance of Museums.
In 1985, Lowe was recognized by the State of Florida as a major cultural institution, the first museum in Miami-Dade County to receive this designation.
In 1991, as a result of Lowe's continued art acquisitions (primarily through gift acceptances), the museum underwent a major expansion. Miami architect Charles Harrison Pawley was selected for this project, which added 13,000 additional square feet of temporary and permanent exhibition gallery space to the museum, bringing its total footprint to over 36,000 square feet. This expansion also addressed Lowe's need for new HVAC, security, and fire protection systems.
