The James A. Michener Art Museum’s app will enhance your experience as you walk through the Museum providing you with information on the Museum’s permanent collection and its history as the former site of the Bucks County Prison. It explores individual works in the collection, the Museum’s architecture and history, the outdoor sculpture gardens, and much more. This app will help you navigate at your own pace and in your preferred sequence. It includes a map of the galleries along with geo-location based information. You will view exclusive audio, video and photos to illustrate the stops included on the app.
The Museum first opened on September 15, 1988 and since that time, has been an important regional art museum focused on collecting, preserving, interpreting and exhibiting American Art, with a focus on art of the Bucks County region. The Museum’s collection includes a rich heritage of artists, from Pennsylvania impressionists to mid-century modernist designers, to contemporary painters and sculptors. The keystone of the Museum’s collection is a 22-foot lunette shaped mural created for the 1926 Pennsylvania Sesquicentennial entitled “A Wooded Watershed” by Daniel Garber. Two special permanent installations in the Museum include The Nakashima Reading Room, an installation of classic furniture from the studio of Bucks County’s internationally known woodworker, George Nakashima (1905-1990). The traditional Japanese-style room was designed by his daughter, Mira Nakashima-Yarnall, and includes several important furniture pieces in the Nakashima tradition. There is also a recreation of the office of the author and the Museums namesake, James A. Michener, entitled, “A Living Legacy”.
From the permanent holdings of the Museum, a range of movements and media are represented from 19th century Bucks County artists such as Thomas Hicks and William T. Trego, to Bucks County modernists Charles Rosen and Lee Gatch. The Museum is home to a noteworthy collection of works from artists of the Pennsylvania Impressionist and New Hope Schools including artists such as Edward Redfield, Daniel Garber, John F. Folinsbee, George Sotter, Walter Baum and Fern Coppedge. The Michener’s long-term installation of studio craft, highlights regional studio craft from its earliest beginnings to the diversity of expression today. Artists representing this tradition include artists such as Robert Whitley, Paul Evans, Philip Lloyd Powell, George and Mira Nakashima, and Frederick Harer. The Museum’s sculpture holdings include artists such as Isaac Witkin, Raymond Granville Barger, George Antonisen, Steve Tobin, Harry Gordon, Masami Kodama, Harry Bertoia, Alan Houser, and Bar ry Johnston. Architectural highlights include the original buildings of the Bucks County Prison, the former site of the Museum, including the Warden’s House, the Guardhouse, and some of the original prison walls.
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