Our 60 Years!....

Opening October 20, 2012, Huntington Federal Savings Bank Presents: Mr. Fitz: Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Huntington Museum of Art. This exhibition marks 60 years of bringing art to the Tri-State community. This extended exhibition presents selected highlights from the more than 425 works donated by the late Herbert Fitzpatrick.

This exhibit runs October 20, 2012 through February 3, 2012, and February 23 through October 20, 2013.

HMA’s 60th Anniversary Celebration begins with a Gallery Walk with Barrie Kaufman at 5:30 p.m. November 9, 2012, in conjunction with the opening for her exhibit Curator’s Choice. A reception follows. Admission to the opening event is free.

It was Herbert Fitzpatrick along with other visionaries who in 1947 began discussing the idea of a cultural center or museum in Huntington. Mr. Fitzpatrick jumpstarted the project with the donation of 52 acres for a site to erect an art gallery to store his collection, as well as provide for an arboretum, bird sanctuary and nature trails. The Huntington Galleries (now known as the Huntington Museum of Art) opened in 1952.

Fitzpatrick was an avid art collector and had a great eye for beauty in many guises. His tastes in art were wide-ranging, from British silver from the Georgian period, Near Eastern prayer rugs, fine European and American paintings, sculpture, drawings and prints, and Asian decorative arts.

For the past two years the Museum’s Archivist/Librarian Chris Hatten has been researching Herbert Fitzpatrick and the early years of the Museum. Photographs, videos and ephemera from the Library archives and new material collected during his research will be on view in a portion of the gallery. A limited edition book about Herbert Fitzpatrick and the founding of the Museum written by Chris Hatten will accompany this exhibit.

This exhibit is sponsored by Huntington Federal Savings Bank; Huddleston Bolen LLP, in Memory of Herbert Fitzpatrick; Jenkins Fenstermaker, PLLC, in loving memory of Norman K. Fenstermaker; Carl F. Frischkorn in Memory of Permele Francis Booth; Donald Egnor in Memory of Helen H. Crissey; In Memory of Major Henry Dourif; In Memory of Roberta S. Emerson, from her Loving Children; In Memory of Janet W. Ford from her Family; Camille M. Riley in Memory of John E. Jenkins, Jr.; Todd McCreight & Cathie Lutter and Matthew McCreight & Kathryn Greene-McCreight in memory of Betsy K. and Paul W. McCreight; Thomas F. Scott in Memory of Elizabeth T. Scott; Nada (Nico) and Barney Francis in Memory of Jack and Nada Steelman; Woody & Nancy Jane Van Zandt Bolton and Caroline Van Zandt Windsor in Memory of Virginia Kitchen and Richard K. Van Zandt; In Memory of Jeanne and Robert Wulfman; The Isabelle Gwynn & Robert Daine Exhibition Endowment; West Virginia Division of Culture and History; National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts.