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The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art was founded to bring museum
services to a geographically isolated rural region. In its first two
decades, the museum has developed a significant permanent collection, curated important special exhibitions, sponsored traveling exhibitions,
and implemented successful education programs for the people of the
region. In 1995, the museum received accreditation from the American Associatio n
of Museums, an honor signifying that the museum fulfills the highest
national standards of operation.
On April 2, 1975, a small group led by
Sean M. Sullivan, T.O.R., then president of Saint Francis College, met to
establish an independent art museum charged with serving the greater
community, a radical concept even today when few art museums on
college campuses retain complete autonomy. Sullivan, T.O.R, was elected
the first president of the new board of trustees. Roger Ferri, a New York
architect who went on to receive international acclaim, was hired to
transform a former college gymnasium into an art museum as his first major
commission. The facility he designed was lauded in Progressive
Architecture (May 1978) and recognized as a model renovation project. On
June 12, 1976, the museum was formally dedicated to the memory of Robert
Ward Duggan (1926-1974) and opened its inaugural exhibition of the
permanent collection. Michael M. Strueber was employed as the museum's
first director. Strueber retired January 1, 2000, after serving as the
museum's Director for 23 years. The museum's Chief Curator Dr. Michael
Tomor succeeded Strueber as the new Director. After Tomor's resignation
March 14, 2006, Noel Feeley was employed as Interim Director on May 21,
2007.
As articulated in its
statement of purpose, the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art is both a
collecting and an exhibiting institution. In addition to exhibitions of
the permanent collection, an ambitious calendar of special exhibitions is
designed annually to provide opportunities to view important trends in
American art. The permanent collection includes 19th and 20th century
painting, sculpture, drawing, and prints highlighted with works by Mary Cassatt, Helen Frankenthaler, Andy Warhol, Alfred Stieglitz, Margaret
Bourke-White, and John Sloan. |
