For those who care about more than bean dip jokes, or Barry’s superficial “analysis”, here is some information regarding the planned new museum. The new art museum would become the largest art museum in Pennsylvania not located in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. It is expected to draw 400,000 visitors per year to the area and will be large enough to display two large art collections already donated to the university. Palmer Museum on Curtin Road will remain and be repurposed as a student-focused space, with a task force determining how it can best be utilized. The bronze lion paws will also remain in their current location at the entrance to the Palmer Museum building, which opened in 1972 and received significant additions and renovations in 1993.
The new museum will not bear the Palmer name, a decision made at the suggestion of the museum's late namesake benefactor Barbara Palmer. The Palmer name and legacy, however, "would still have a prominent place in the new facility," according to the university.
Showcasing Penn State's growing collection of art, which currently counts 9,300 objects, and providing new space for cultural activities, the proposed new museum would have an expanded gallery and exhibition space, offer more learning and creative opportunities and have areas for events and gatherings. It would continue and expand "the Palmer Museum’s role as a cultural, educational and scholarly resource for the Penn State community and visitors."
A projected budget for the new museum of $71.1 million, funded by Penn State’s five-year capital plan, could increase to $85 million with philanthropic support. Final plans and costs will be subject to approval by the Board of Trustees.
“The new art museum would allow us to advance Penn State’s teaching and research mission while serving as the cultural gateway to the University,” Erin M. Coe, director of the Palmer Museum of Art, said in a statement. “The new facility would greatly expand public access to our growing collections in an exceptional setting while offering innovative and engaging experiences for our students, the community, and visitors from around the world.”
Construction is expected to begin in late 2020 with completion in 2022.
The museum could be the first part of a larger "cultural district" in the Arboretum area, a concept first proposed by Penn State President Eric Barron in 2016. According to construction management bid documents for the museum, that district could also include "a new interdisciplinary STEM museum, along with related public amenities such as performance spaces, education center, planetarium and a conservatory," in a series of "connected or semi-connected" buildings.
One key goal for the new museum is to complement, and create minimal disruption to, the Arboretum. Kim Steiner, professor of forest biology and director of Arboretum, said the museum will help fulfill the vision for the Arboretum.
“This project would fulfill our long-standing vision of the Arboretum as a venue for the arts as well as a place of beauty and education about the natural world,” Steiner said. “The Arboretum is already one of the most popular destinations for visitors to the area. With this inspired partnership, I expect us to develop into a regional and national destination.”
The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State in March! 2019 announced a transformational gift of 140 American works on paper, recently donated by Penn State alumnus John P. Driscoll. The expansive gift, one of the most important in the 47-year history of the University’s art museum, establishes a significant American drawings collection at the Palmer Museum of Art.
The John Driscoll American Drawings Collection spans more than 150 years of American art history from 1795 to 1950, and in many ways reflects the wide-ranging scholarly and collecting interests of its namesake.
Highlights of the collection include a rare and early charcoal sketch by the neoclassical painter John Vanderlyn; important Hudson River School drawings by Jasper Francis Cropsey, Sanford Robinson Gifford, David Johnson, Jervis McEntee, and William Trost Richards; and city and architectural scenes by the most accomplished artists of the 19th century. Works on paper by women artists and a rare sketchbook by Jane Peterson, as well as Native American and western subjects, are well represented in the collection.
Additional important works by Edwin Austin Abbey, Kenyon Cox, Arthur B. Davies, and Charles Hawthorne traverse the late 19th and early 20th centuries and lead into an important group of six drawings done between 1908 and 1934 by the early American modernist Marsden Hartley. Driscoll’s gift also includes oil paintings by Arthur B. Davies, John Francis, William Sidney Mount, and Russell Smith, as well as the only extant complete set of Marsden Hartley’s 1923 “Berlin Prints.”
John Vanderlyn (1776-1852), "Study After Poussin (Study for the Baptism of Christ)," c. 1795, charcoal on paper, 11 x 17 inches. Palmer Museum of Art, John Driscoll American Drawings Collection.
“This gift of significant drawings, watercolors and sketchbooks wonderfully complements and greatly enhances the museum’s extensive collection of 19th- and early 20th-century American painting,” said Palmer Director Erin M. Coe. “As an integral part of a teaching museum embedded in a tier-one research university, the collection will become an important resource promoting new scholarship and research that fosters the study of American art for generations to come.”
Driscoll, who earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in art history from Penn State, is a scholar, collector, gardener and art dealer based in New York City. His involvement with Penn State’s university art museum dates back nearly 50 years to the summer of 1972, when he began working at the museum as a graduate assistant. In 1976, he became the museum’s first official registrar. In late 1978, Driscoll left Penn State for a position as curator of the William H. Lane Foundation in Massachusetts, followed by a guest curatorial post at the Worcester Art Museum, before establishing an art gallery in Boston and then acquiring Babcock Galleries, New York, in 1987. In 2012, he renamed the business Driscoll Babcock. This year marks the gallery’s 167th year, making it New York’s oldest art gallery.
“My life in the world of aesthetic and scholarly concerns came into sharp focus while studying art history and working in the Museum of Art at Penn State,” said Driscoll. “I have always been appreciative of those experiences and the wonderful people with whom I had, and continue to have, the opportunity to work and grow. My wish is that my continuing association with the Palmer Museum of Art be an expression of my appreciation and that it will have a continuing beneficial effect for students and visitors to the University and the museum.”
Driscoll’s philanthropy has taken many forms since his time at Penn State. His past gifts of art to the Palmer include major paintings by Benjamin West, Jacob Eichholtz, Tompkins Harrison Matteson, and Sanford Robinson Gifford; a large group of prints, drawings and paintings by American modernist Arthur B. Davies; contemporary works by Abe Ajay, Marylyn Dintenfass, Alan Gussow, Don Nice, and Jenny Morgan; and notable ceramics.
Driscoll has written extensively on American art and has been the curator, co-curator, or a contributor to exhibitions that have traveled to more than 20 leading museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Academy of Design, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art. Driscoll serves on the advisory board of the Palmer Museum of Art; has twice been its chair; is a past member of the board and the council of the National Academy of Design; and is currently on the Visiting Committee, Department of Drawings and Prints, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This gift will advance "A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence," a focused campaign that seeks to elevate Penn State’s position as a leading public university in a world defined by rapid change and global connections.
The new museum will not bear the Palmer name, a decision made at the suggestion of the museum's late namesake benefactor Barbara Palmer. The Palmer name and legacy, however, "would still have a prominent place in the new facility," according to the university.
Showcasing Penn State's growing collection of art, which currently counts 9,300 objects, and providing new space for cultural activities, the proposed new museum would have an expanded gallery and exhibition space, offer more learning and creative opportunities and have areas for events and gatherings. It would continue and expand "the Palmer Museum’s role as a cultural, educational and scholarly resource for the Penn State community and visitors."
A projected budget for the new museum of $71.1 million, funded by Penn State’s five-year capital plan, could increase to $85 million with philanthropic support. Final plans and costs will be subject to approval by the Board of Trustees.
“The new art museum would allow us to advance Penn State’s teaching and research mission while serving as the cultural gateway to the University,” Erin M. Coe, director of the Palmer Museum of Art, said in a statement. “The new facility would greatly expand public access to our growing collections in an exceptional setting while offering innovative and engaging experiences for our students, the community, and visitors from around the world.”
Construction is expected to begin in late 2020 with completion in 2022.
The museum could be the first part of a larger "cultural district" in the Arboretum area, a concept first proposed by Penn State President Eric Barron in 2016. According to construction management bid documents for the museum, that district could also include "a new interdisciplinary STEM museum, along with related public amenities such as performance spaces, education center, planetarium and a conservatory," in a series of "connected or semi-connected" buildings.
One key goal for the new museum is to complement, and create minimal disruption to, the Arboretum. Kim Steiner, professor of forest biology and director of Arboretum, said the museum will help fulfill the vision for the Arboretum.
“This project would fulfill our long-standing vision of the Arboretum as a venue for the arts as well as a place of beauty and education about the natural world,” Steiner said. “The Arboretum is already one of the most popular destinations for visitors to the area. With this inspired partnership, I expect us to develop into a regional and national destination.”
The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State in March! 2019 announced a transformational gift of 140 American works on paper, recently donated by Penn State alumnus John P. Driscoll. The expansive gift, one of the most important in the 47-year history of the University’s art museum, establishes a significant American drawings collection at the Palmer Museum of Art.
The John Driscoll American Drawings Collection spans more than 150 years of American art history from 1795 to 1950, and in many ways reflects the wide-ranging scholarly and collecting interests of its namesake.
Highlights of the collection include a rare and early charcoal sketch by the neoclassical painter John Vanderlyn; important Hudson River School drawings by Jasper Francis Cropsey, Sanford Robinson Gifford, David Johnson, Jervis McEntee, and William Trost Richards; and city and architectural scenes by the most accomplished artists of the 19th century. Works on paper by women artists and a rare sketchbook by Jane Peterson, as well as Native American and western subjects, are well represented in the collection.
Additional important works by Edwin Austin Abbey, Kenyon Cox, Arthur B. Davies, and Charles Hawthorne traverse the late 19th and early 20th centuries and lead into an important group of six drawings done between 1908 and 1934 by the early American modernist Marsden Hartley. Driscoll’s gift also includes oil paintings by Arthur B. Davies, John Francis, William Sidney Mount, and Russell Smith, as well as the only extant complete set of Marsden Hartley’s 1923 “Berlin Prints.”
John Vanderlyn (1776-1852), "Study After Poussin (Study for the Baptism of Christ)," c. 1795, charcoal on paper, 11 x 17 inches. Palmer Museum of Art, John Driscoll American Drawings Collection.
“This gift of significant drawings, watercolors and sketchbooks wonderfully complements and greatly enhances the museum’s extensive collection of 19th- and early 20th-century American painting,” said Palmer Director Erin M. Coe. “As an integral part of a teaching museum embedded in a tier-one research university, the collection will become an important resource promoting new scholarship and research that fosters the study of American art for generations to come.”
Driscoll, who earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in art history from Penn State, is a scholar, collector, gardener and art dealer based in New York City. His involvement with Penn State’s university art museum dates back nearly 50 years to the summer of 1972, when he began working at the museum as a graduate assistant. In 1976, he became the museum’s first official registrar. In late 1978, Driscoll left Penn State for a position as curator of the William H. Lane Foundation in Massachusetts, followed by a guest curatorial post at the Worcester Art Museum, before establishing an art gallery in Boston and then acquiring Babcock Galleries, New York, in 1987. In 2012, he renamed the business Driscoll Babcock. This year marks the gallery’s 167th year, making it New York’s oldest art gallery.
“My life in the world of aesthetic and scholarly concerns came into sharp focus while studying art history and working in the Museum of Art at Penn State,” said Driscoll. “I have always been appreciative of those experiences and the wonderful people with whom I had, and continue to have, the opportunity to work and grow. My wish is that my continuing association with the Palmer Museum of Art be an expression of my appreciation and that it will have a continuing beneficial effect for students and visitors to the University and the museum.”
Driscoll’s philanthropy has taken many forms since his time at Penn State. His past gifts of art to the Palmer include major paintings by Benjamin West, Jacob Eichholtz, Tompkins Harrison Matteson, and Sanford Robinson Gifford; a large group of prints, drawings and paintings by American modernist Arthur B. Davies; contemporary works by Abe Ajay, Marylyn Dintenfass, Alan Gussow, Don Nice, and Jenny Morgan; and notable ceramics.
Driscoll has written extensively on American art and has been the curator, co-curator, or a contributor to exhibitions that have traveled to more than 20 leading museums, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Academy of Design, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art. Driscoll serves on the advisory board of the Palmer Museum of Art; has twice been its chair; is a past member of the board and the council of the National Academy of Design; and is currently on the Visiting Committee, Department of Drawings and Prints, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This gift will advance "A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence," a focused campaign that seeks to elevate Penn State’s position as a leading public university in a world defined by rapid change and global connections.
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