Palm Springs Art Museum: Celebrating 75 Years

By Palm Springs Art Museum

published by Palm Springs Art Museum on the occasion of the museum's 75th anniversary year October 2013 ? October 2014. Foundation and Historical progression of the Palm Springs Desert Museum into the Palm Springs Art Museum: This book commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Palm Springs Art Museum and honors the many individuals who have worked to make it an outstanding institution. Two earlier books on the museum's history remain valuable resources today: Desert Dream Fulfilled: The History of the Palm Springs Desert Museum (1983) and Palm Springs Desert Museum: 50 (1988), marking the museum's 50th anniversary. The years since then have borne witness to significant developments, including the switch to a single focus on art and the name change to Palm Springs Art Museum in 2005. In order to tell the whole story in a fresh and informative way, we have designed this publication to incorporate personal observations and comments from individuals who have witnessed large parts of that history, focusing primarily on the last twenty-five years. The museum's past remains an ingrained component of its present. The origins of the institution date to the late 1930s, when a dedicated group of individuals transformed their love of nature into the Palm Springs Desert Museum. The museum first opened its doors in January 1938 in La Plaza downtown, and was officially incorporated in October of the same year. More than most art museums, our history is deeply rooted in our geography and environmental surroundings. Natural history remained a core component of the museum's mission into the twenty-first century, completely dominating its programs at first and then sharing center stage with art programs from the 1960s until 2004, when this focus was eliminated. Out of this regional dedication developed the museum's collection of Native American artworks, to which desert painting and photography were eventually added. Even our current building on Museum Drive, which opened in 1976, conveys a strong sense of place through angled forms in stone and cast concrete that seem to project from their mountain backdrop.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0981674372
• ISBN13: 9780981674377
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Palm Springs Art Museum
• Length: 175 Pages
• Weight: 3.65 lbs.