Rockwell Museum

The Rockwell Museum

File:Rockwell Museum, Corning, NY.jpg The Rockwell Museum, 2015
Location within New York
Established	1976
Location	Corning, New York, USA
Coordinates
Type	Art museum
Accreditation	American Association of Museums, Smithsonian Affiliate
Key holdings	Albert Bierstadt's Mount Whitney
Collections	American art, Native American art
Collection size	Roughly 5,000+
Visitors	Approximately 48,000 per year
Founder	Bob and Hertha Rockwell
Director	Kristin Swain
Nearest parking	On site, behind building (no charge to park)
Website	rockwellmuseum.org

The Rockwell Museum is a museum of American art located in the Finger Lakes region in downtown Corning, New York. Frommer's describes it as "one of the best-designed small museums in the Northeast."

History

In the Flood of 1972, the basement and much of the ground floor were submerged and suffered extensive damage due to Hurricane Agnes. Despite its condition, the old City Hall was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The museum was established in 1976 as the Rockwell Museum of Western Art, named after the donors of the core of its collection, Bob and Hertha Rockwell. In 1982 it found a permanent home in the historic Old City Hall building, circa 1893. The building went through another major renovation early in 2000. In 2002, the building won the American Society of Landscape Architects Merit Award. In July 2014 the name was shortened to The Rockwell Museum. In 2015, The Rockwell Museum was named a Smithsonian Affiliate, the first in New York State outside of New York City.

Collections

The museum houses three floors of works that focus on American art and artifacts, contemporary Native American art and bronze sculptures. Highlights include:

• Albert Bierstadt's "Mount Whitney"
• Ed Mell, "Jack Knife, 1993" Sculpture
• Robb Kendrick Tin Type Portraits
• Frederic Remington's "The Winter Campaign," "The Cheyenne," and "The Arizona Cowboy"
• Ernest Leonard Blumenschein's "Jury for Trail of a Sheepherder for Murder"
• Charles Marion Russell's "A Mix Up," and "One Down, Two to Go"
• Deborah Butterfield bronze
• Ernest Blumenschein's "Jury for a Sheepherder Murder," and "Star Road and White Sun"
• Sydney Laurence's "Mount McKinley," 1922
• Frederick Carder Glass Collection

Other artists in the museum collection include Jaune Quick–to–See Smith, N.C. Wyeth, William R Leigh, Thomas Moran, Cyrus Edwin Dallin, and other modern and contemporary artists.

In 2013, Albert Bierstadt's "Mount Whitney" painting received a new frame from Gill & Lagodich Fine Period Frames & Restoration in Manhattan. The new frame is a replica of an 1870s American frame for the museum's centerpiece. Its original frame had greatly deteriorated and was not an American 19th century frame. Another addition to the museum's collection includes the 1993 work by Ed Mell entitled Jack Knife, which is located on the corner of Cedar Street and Denison Parkway.

Exhibits

• Lock, Stock & Barrel: Historic firearms from the collection of Robert F. "Bobby" Rockwell III - Exhibition Dates: November 20, 2013 – January 1, 2015
• Painted Journeys: In the Spirit of American West- Exhibition Dates: January 24, 2014 - May 4, 2014
• Untouched by Chaos: Karl Bodmer and the American Wilderness- Exhibition Dates: March 3, 2014 – March 8, 2015
• On Fire: the Nancy & Alan Cameros Collection of Southwestern Pottery- Exhibition Dates: April 8, 2014 – April 1, 2016
• The sculptures of Abraham Anghik Ruben- Exhibition Dates: May 16, 2014- September 7, 2014
• Illustration and Imagination: W.H.D. Koerner's Western Paintings- Exhibition Dates: May 16, 2014 – September 7, 2014
• Harmless Hunter: Charles M. Russell’s Wildlife Art- Exhibition Dates: September 19, 2014 – January 4, 2015
• A Feeling of Humanity: Western Art from the Ken Ratner Collection- Exhibition Dates: September 26, 2014 – January 11, 2015
• Touching on Water: Paintings by Thomas Paquette - Exhibition Dates: January 23, 2015 – March 29, 2015

Previous exhibits include a collection from National Geographic displaying the work of Ansel Adams and William Henry Jackson, and an Andy Warhol: Cowboys and Indians exhibit.

There are also some well-known pottery artists such as Tammy Garcia, Joseph Lonewolf, Nancy Youngblood, Margaret Tafoya, Maria Martinez, Al Qoyawayma and Popovi Da whose works are on display.

Museum technology

The Rockwell Museum deployed touchscreen tablets in order to provide visitors with accessible and relevant labels for each of the items in the On Fire! Exhibit. The information can also be viewed on the visitor's mobile device, via the use of a QR code or displayed on the tablet screen.