Sheldon Museum of Art | |
 Front (east) entrance | |
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| Location | R St & N 12th St Lincoln, Nebraska U.S. |
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| Coordinates | 40°49′03″N96°42′16″W / 40.8175°N 96.704444°W |
| Built | 1963 |
| Architect | Philip Johnson |
| Website | sheldonartgallery |
| NRHP reference No. | 13000676 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | September 3, 2013 [1] |
The Sheldon Museum of Art is an art museum in the city of Lincoln, in the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. Its collection focuses on 19th- and 20th-century art.
In 1888, The Sheldon Art Association was founded as the Haydon Art Club. It got its name in honor of the British painter, Benjamin Robert Haydon. The Haydon Art Club held an annual art exhibit and supplied art education to the university. In the early 1900s, the club underwent a reorganization and was incorporated under its new name, the Nebraska Art Association. [2]
The Sheldon Art Association is a non-profit organization that has over 500 members.
The Sheldon Museum of Art was initially known as the University of Nebraska Art Galleries, and was then formerly known as Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. The museum's name was changed in 2008, along with the support organization that supports the museum, which is now known as the Sheldon Art Association, formerly the Nebraska Art Association. [2]
The museum exhibited its collection in locations around the university, including Morrill Hall, until a dedicated building was completed in 1963. [3] Located at the junction of 12th and R Streets, on the city campus of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the Sheldon was designed by architect Philip Johnson and is a U.S. National Register of Historic Places. [4] The building's other distinctive features are a great hall with golden disks suspended from the ceiling, a spacious Great Hall, and a bridge-type grand staircase.
In 1959, Phillip Johnson proclaimed the Sheldon as the best building he had ever designed. [5] As part of Johnson's artist statement, [6] he said of the Sheldon “[T]oday the museum building stands as a community like the church courthouse of the last century. The architect must therefore create, inside and out, a symbolic structure which the community can refer to with some pride … The symbolic function of the Sheldon Gallery is fulfilled, I feel, not only the ‘classical’ exterior of travertine but mainly by the great hall which orients the visitor, as well as elevating his spirits.” The museum was designed with the idea of avoiding what he referred to as “museum fatigue”. This is the idea that visitors to museums often feel alienated from the museum environment. [7] This is a result of the freedom which he was given to him by the art association and its first director, Norman Geske. [7]
The building was funded by a gift of Frances Sheldon and her brother A. Bromley Sheldon. [8] The building was funded by two bequests by Frances Sheldon of $921,660 and her brother, A. Bromley Sheldon or $675,000. The Sheldon family owned a number of farms and a lumber yard in Lexington, Nebraska. [9] The building features Roman travertine, which is a type of limestone. [10] For many decades one of the key features of the great hall was an installation by Japanese-American sculptor, Isamu Noguchi, called “Song of the Bird.” He was invited to create and install a work as part of the building's opening ceremonies in May 1963. [11]
In 1956, Norman Geske was the first director of the Sheldon Museum of Art, and is widely credited with establishing the Sheldon's modern art collection, as well as other regional cultural programs and institutions like Interstate 80 Bicentennial Sculpture Project, the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney and the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, originally known as the Sheldon Film Theater. [17]
In 2014, Wally Mason, the former director and chief curator at Haggerty Museum of Art from Marquette University in Milwaukee, became director of the Sheldon. [18]
The Sheldon houses both the Sheldon Art Association collection (founded in 1888 as the Haydon Art Club), and the University of Nebraska collection, initiated in 1929. Together they comprise more than 12,000 works of art in all media. This comprehensive collection of American art includes prominent holdings of 19th-century landscape and still life, American Impressionism, early Modernism, Geometric abstraction, Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Lyrical Abstraction, Color Field painting, Minimalism and Contemporary Art. In April 1965, "Golden Age", a painting by Benjamin West was stolen and recovered by the FBI. Charged in the incident was a student from the University of Nebraska. [19]
In the sculpture garden, more than 30 monumental sculptures are exhibited year-round. Among them are works by Gaston Lachaise, Jacques Lipchitz, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, David Smith, Lyman Kipp, William G. Tucker, Bryan Hunt, Mark di Suvero, Michael Heizer, and Richard Serra. When the sculpture garden's first installations occurred, they were sometimes controversial. A woman once called a secretary and complained “I think Norman Geske should be fired, and what's more, he should be asked to leave the state because of all the junk he's introduced into the sunken garden south of the gallery. [20]
In 1998, Man in the Open Air, a 1915 bronze sculpture by Elie Nadelman, was stolen from the sculpture garden. Police speculated that it had been taken in the course of post-game revelry following the university football team's victory in the 1998 Orange Bowl. About a week later, it was recovered on the university's East Campus. The gallery's director hypothesized that the thief or thieves had been unaware of the work's value, estimated at over $500,000, and, after learning this, had placed it where it would be discovered by security guards during their rounds. Following $15,000 in restoration and repair, the sculpture was put on display inside the building. [21] [22] [23]
The Sheldon's exhibition program comprises approximately 20 exhibitions per year and focuses on American art in all media. The curatorial staff organizes exhibitions drawn from the permanent collection, many of which circulate nationally. The program also includes exhibitions organized by peer institutions throughout the United States. Educational programs such as symposia, lectures, children's workshops and tours are organized in conjunction with each exhibition.
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was the University of Nebraska until 1968, when it absorbed the Municipal University of Omaha to form the University of Nebraska system. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship institution of the state-wide system. The university has been governed by the Board of Regents since 1871, whose members are elected by district to six-year terms.
The University of Nebraska State Museum, also known as Morrill Hall, founded in 1871, is a natural history museum featuring Nebraska biodiversity, paleontology, and cultural diversity, located on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln City Campus near the corner of 14th and Vine Streets in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. The museum houses Mueller Planetarium, a hands-on science discovery center, and the Elephant Hall, where visitors can see the world's largest articulated fossil mammoth among the collection of fossil elephants. Also featured are interactive paleontology exhibits, a dinosaur gallery, ancient life and evolution exhibits, wildlife dioramas, gems and minerals, American Indian and African exhibits, and a temporary exhibit gallery featuring rotating displays on diverse topics including photography, quilts and fine arts.
The Hixson–Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts is the fine and performing arts college at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (NU) in Lincoln, Nebraska. The college was established on July 1, 1993 as the College of Fine and Performing Arts, combining arts-focused programs from across the university. It was renamed in 2000 after receiving an $18 million donation from Christina Hixson and Lied Foundation Trust. Most of the college's facilities are located in the southwest corner of NU's City Campus in what is sometimes referred to as the "Arts Quadrangle." Andy Belser has served as dean of the college since 2022.
The International Quilt Museum at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska, is the home of the largest known public collection of quilts in the world. Formerly known as the International Quilt Study Center and Museum, the current facility opened in 2008.
Michael Francis James is an American artist, educator, author, and lecturer. He is best known as a leader of the art quilt movement that began in the 1970s. He currently lives and maintains a studio in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Lincoln, Nebraska is the home of the state capitol of Nebraska, the University of Nebraska and has history dating back to the mid 1800s. A list of tourist attractions that can be found within the city are as follows.
Hazen and Robinson was an architecture firm that practiced in Lincoln, Nebraska, from 1947 to 1967. N. Bruce Hazen and Marvin Robinson were the two principle architects and founders of the firm. Together they created buildings that till this day shape the landscape of downtown Lincoln Nebraska, the Nebraska State Capitol, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, one of the largest universities in the American Midwest. Additionally, they did many historic home districts in Lincoln. The firms’ modernist approach to design was reflected in their design. This is most noticeable in their partnership with Philip Johnson on the Sheldon Art Gallery, and other buildings including Kimball Recital Hall, Westbrook Music Building and Pershing Auditorium.
Claudia Alvarez is a Mexican American painter and sculptor who has worked as an artist in residence in Mexico, Switzerland, France, and China. Alvarez's solo exhibitions include Claudia Álvarez: A Moment in Between at the Acércate at the National Arts Centre, Mexico City; Girls with Guns, Scott White Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California; Falling, Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, Nebraska; Silence Water, Museum of Art Contemporary Yucatán, Mérida; American Heroes, Blue Leaf Gallery, Dublin; Things of a Child, The Latino Museum, Omaha, Nebraska; and History of Immigration, Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, Nebraska. Alvarez is based in New York City.
Kady Faulkner (1901–1977) was an American muralist, painter and art instructor who gained recognition in the middle of the 20th century. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Great Plains Art Museum, as well as others. She was selected to work on the United States post office murals project of the U.S. Treasury during the New Deal and completed a mural for the Valentine, Nebraska post office. A mosaic by Faulkner in Kenosha, Wisconsin adorns the former bakery on the Kemper Hall grounds. She was an associate professor of Art at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln between 1930 and 1950 and then instructed headed the Art Department at Kemper Hall until her retirement.
Eloise Andrews Kruger was an American miniature collector from Lincoln, Nebraska, who was known for her collection of historically-accurate American miniatures.
Carol Haerer (1933-2002) was an American artist known for abstract painting in the vein of Minimalism and Lyrical abstraction.
Floating Figure is a 1927 sculpture by Gaston Lachaise.
Sara Shewell Hayden was an American impressionist painter who created oil and watercolor paintings of figures, landscapes, and flowers. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago as well as in Europe. She worked as a professor of art and showed her art internationally in many exhibitions during her career, including the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and the 1898 Paris Salon.
Anna E. Reid Hall (1857–1928) was an American artist and art collector. She was the organizer of the first private art classes west of Omaha, Nebraska; was a co-founder of the Haydon Art Club, Lincoln's first arts organization, and its successor, the Nebraska Art Association; a painter of oil and watercolor still lifes, landscapes, and figures; exhibitor with the Haydon Art Club; and advocate and benefactor of Sarah Moore in 1884 as the first art teacher at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Aaron Gunn Pyle was an American painter known for his contributions to Regionalist painting. His work is closely tied to the Midwestern United States, the region where he was born and spent most of his life.
Leonard Thiessen was an artist from Omaha, Nebraska, best known for his work as the first art critic for the Omaha World-Herald and for his contributions to Nebraska arts administration. He was the first Executive Director of the Nebraska Arts Council and encouraged the establishment of Nebraska art collections and museums. Thiessen worked in painting, design, printmaking, and mural making.
Keith Martin was an American abstract and surrealist painter and collagist during the 20th century. His paintings are in a multitude of art museums and collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, The National Gallery of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art.
Alice Righter Edmiston (1874-1964) was an American painter and printmaker who taught at universities and contributed to various art organizations in Lincoln, Nebraska, and one in New York City. She has been described as an impressionist-influenced artist who followed modernist trends.
Charles Rain was an American magic realist painter during the 20th century.
The Haydon Art Club was founded in 1888 by Sara W. Moore. It was named after the British history painter, Benjamin Robert Haydon. The goals of the club was promotion of community within art clubs in and out of schools. It was the forerunner of the Nebraska Art Association.
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40°49′03″N96°42′16″W / 40.81750°N 96.70444°W
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