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The Speed Art Museum of Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
The Speed Art Museum is located at 2035 South Third Street, Louisville. The focus of the collection is Western art, from antiquity to the present day. The Speed Art Museum is presently celebrating its 75th anniversary and its impressive collection of over 12,000 pieces, more than 180,000 visitors each year, its hands-on Art Learning Center and being a nationally recognized institution. There are holdings of paintings from the Netherlands, French and Italian works and contemporary art with Sculpture prominent throughout. Representative artists include: Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Giovanni Tiepolo, Henry Moore, Thoams Gainsborough, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, andHistory of The Speed Art Museum of Louisville
The Museum was originally known as the J.B. Speed Memorial Museum and later as The J.B. Speed Art Museum. The Museum is Kentucky's oldest and largest art museum and it was founded in 1925 by Hattie Bishop Speed as a memorial to her husband, James Breckinridge Speed, a prominent Louisville businessman and philanthropist. The building was designed by Louisville architect Arthur Loomis and it opened its doors in 1927 with
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Today's Speed Museum of Louisville
Seventy-five years later, the Speed Museum is now five times the size of the original museum. The collection has grown to more than 13,000 works of art and the museum has added three different structures. In 1954 the
Diamond Anniversary Celebration Exhibits
A Brush with History: Paintings from the National Portrait Gallery, a Bountiful Plenty from the Shelburne Museum; Folk Art Traditions in american, Masterworks from the Albertina and closing the year with the blockbuster exhibition, Millet to Matisee: Nineteenth and Twentieth-Century French Painting from Klvingove Art Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland.
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The Speed Art Museum features a hands-on Art Learning Center for families, a cafe and a gift Shop. The gallery is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:30 a.m.to 4:00 p.m.; Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Sunday 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays. For general information, call (502) 634-2700.
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