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Saint Mary's College Museum of Art

Former name	William Keith Gallery; Hearst Art Gallery
Established	1934 (1934)
Location	1928 St Mary's Road Moraga, California 94575
Coordinates	37°50′29″N 122°06′33″W / 37.84139°N 122.10917°W / 37.84139; -122.10917
Type	Art Museum, Ethnographic Museum
Accreditation	American Alliance of Museums
Key holdings	William Keith Collection
Collection size	5000
Owner	Saint Mary's College of California
Website	www.stmarys-ca.edu/museum-art

Saint Mary's College Museum of Art (SMCMoA) is an art and ethnographic museum located on the campus of Saint Mary's College of California, a private Catholic college in Moraga, California, established in 1863 and administered by the De La Salle Brothers. The museum owns the most extensive collection of paintings by California landscape artist William Keith (1838–1911). The museum is a member of the North American Reciprocal Museum Association (NARM) and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.

History

Saint Mary's College of California began collecting art in the early 20th century. The William Keith Gallery, founded by professor Brother Fidelis Cornelius Braeg in 1934, exhibited the museum's extensive collection of paintings by the renowned California landscape artist and friend of John Muir. Brother Cornelius wrote a 900-page, two-volume biography of Keith, working closely with the artist's widow, Mary McHenry Keith, a lawyer and social justice advocate known for her work in the women's suffrage and animal rights movements.

The gallery was expanded in 1977 with a grant from the Hearst Art Foundation and reopened as the Hearst Art Gallery. Through this expansion, the gallery began exhibiting ethnographic materials and works by artists of California and the American West.

In 2011, the Hearst Art Gallery completed an extensive expansion project, and was renamed Saint Maryʼs College Museum of Art (SMCMoA). The renovated museum's inaugural exhibition was The Comprehensive Keith: A Centennial Tribute, marking 100 years since the death of William Keith.

In 2021, the museum was awarded accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums, the highest national recognition afforded to museums in the United States; of over 1000 museums in California, SMCMoA is one of only 77 accredited.

Collections

The permanent collection comprises more than 5000 objects, many grouped in special collections. Pre-eminent among these is the William Keith Collection, the most comprehensive collection of the artist's work, with over 200 objects, including paintings and archival materials. Expanding from the Keith Collection, the museum has built the California Collection, featuring works from the 19th century to the present day representing various media and artistic movements with a special focus on landscape art and artists of the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California. The California Collection includes works by Morris Graves (1910–2001), Helen Hyde (1869–1919), Gregory Kondos (1923–2021), Maurice Logan (1886–1977), Roi Partridge (1888–1984), Louis Siegriest (1899–1985), Raimonds Staprans (b. 1926), Wayne Thiebaud (1920–2021), and Frank Van Sloun (1879–1938).

The Social Justice & Political Prints Collection features works related to Bay Area labor and social justice causes of the 20th and 21st centuries, including works by Casper Banjo (1937–2008), Art Hazelwood (b. 1961), and Stanley Koppel (1911–1990). The American Photography Collection features works by photographers from the late 19th to the 21st century, including Robert Turnbull Macpherson (1814–1872), Stanley Truman (1903–1993), Andy Warhol (1928–1987), and Judy Dater (b. 1941).

The African Art Collection features over 600 African art objects created by over thirty ethnic tribes during the late 18th and 19th centuries. The Asian, Oceanic, and Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Collection includes over thirty stonecut prints and drawings from the 1960s and 1970s created by artists and printmakers in the Nunavut territory of Canada.

The Alberti Collection features over 150 European prints and works on paper by avant-garde artists, including Marc Chagall (1887–1985), Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901), Henri Matisse (1869–1954), and Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945).

The Religious Collection features works spanning the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque eras related to the Catholic church and affiliated orders.

Exhibitions

The museum is located in the Brother Cornelius Art Center on the Saint Mary's College campus in Moraga. The museum rotates exhibitions twice a year, showcasing the permanent collection, traveling exhibitions, and emerging California artists. All exhibitions and public programs are free and open to the public, and the facility is ADA accessible.

Works from the collection also rotate on view in the library, chapel, in secure public spaces, and offices. Sculptural works enhance the grounds and gardens.

Some notable exhibitions since the museum's rechristening in 2011 include:

• Harmonia Rosales, ΩA Omega Alpha, 2024
• Hold It Lightly, the first solo museum exhibit of the works of Lisa Congdon, 2023-2024
• Corita Kent: heroes & sheroes, 2023
• Collective Memories: Stonecuts from Cape Dorset, 2021
• Darker Shades of Red: Soviet Propaganda Posters from the Cold War Era, 2018
• William Keith and the Battle for Hetch Hetchy, 2016
• A Fine Line: The Doctor Maurice Alberti Print Collection of European and American Masters, 2015
• Bright and Beautiful: Early San Francisco Bay Area Watercolors, the Collection of Roger and Kathy Carter, 2015
• Grace Hudson: Painter of the Pomo People, 2014
• Pueblo to Pueblo: The Legacy of Southwest Indian Pottery, 2014
• Lockwood de Forest, In Search of the Source: The Nile and Beyond, 2013
• Nyame Brown, John Henry's Adventures In a Post-Black World, 2012
• Richard McLean, Master Artist Tribute IX, Horses, Landscapes and Portraits, 2012
• The Comprehensive Keith: A Centennial Tribute, 2011

References

1. "Saint Mary's College Museum of Art". narmassociation.org. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
2. ^ "Saint Mary's College Museum of Art (SMCMoA) Earns Highest National Recognition". www.stmarys-ca.edu. November 15, 2021. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
3. Cornelius, Brother. Keith, Old Master of California, Volume 1, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1942.
4. Cornelius, Brother. Keith, Old Master of California, Volume 2, Fresno, Calif., Academy Library Guild, 1957.
5. ^ "About Us". www.stmarys-ca.edu. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
6. "Mary McHenry Keith: The Suffragist Behind the Portrait". www.stmarys-ca.edu. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
7. ^ Aleta George (October 17, 2011). "Bay Area Nature 100 Years Ago, Through the Eyes of Painter William Keith". baynature.org. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
8. "William Keith Collection". www.stmarys-ca.edu. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
9. ^ "Collection". www.stmarys-ca.edu. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
10. "16 Mesmerizing Masterpieces by Lesbian Artist E. Charlton Fortune". www.advocate.com. August 17, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
11. "Visit". www.stmarys-ca.edu. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
12. "Exhibitions Archive". www.stmarys-ca.edu. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
13. "ΩA Omega Alpha". www.stmarys-ca.edu. Retrieved December 16, 2024.
14. Lisa Congdon (August 21, 2023). "The Solo Debut of Lisa Congdon Exhibition to open at Saint Mary's College Museum of Art". lisacongdon.com. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
15. Kara Navolio (February 21, 2018). "An insider's perspective into life under Communist Russia at SMC Museum of Art". www.lamorindaweekly.com. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
16. Lou Fancher (October 22, 2014). "SMC Museum of Art Pottery Exhibit Underscores the History of a People, Tradition". www.lamorindaweekly.com. Retrieved December 15, 2024.
17. Jennifer Wake (April 11, 2012). "Richard McLean: Painting to Exactitude". www.lamorindaweekly.com. Retrieved December 15, 2024.

External links

• Official website
• SMCMoA at Instragram

• Museums in California