Gallery History

• membership reaches 1500 following first community-wide appeal (1926)
• educational programming gets boost with addition of long-serving staff members Susan Eisenhart Schilling (1937) and Langdon Clay (1952)
• first endowment for acquisitions, the Marion Stratton Gould Fund, allows Gallery to begin purchasing works for the collection (1938)
• all-volunteer Woman’s Council (now Gallery Council) holds first meeting and begins fund-raising efforts (1940)
• first formal class of volunteer docents completes training (1968)

With the completion of a successful capital Campaign for the Eighties, the Gallery broke ground in 1986 for a third addition, which would include a 12,000-square-foot entrance pavilion and enclosed, skylit sculpture garden designed by Rochester architect Frank S. Grosso. The new building linked the Gallery and Cutler Union, which now housed MAG’s administrative offices and a restaurant.

“We enter a new era in the Gallery’s history, with a full appreciation of past accomplishments,” said Grant Holcomb, who joined MAG in 1985 as its sixth director. “Like our predecessors, we realize that we must preserve the creative heritage of mankind while stimulating the sense of curiosity, wonder and delight in each Gallery visitor. The opportunities and the challenges are many.”

As the Gallery counts down to its 100th anniversary, more dramatic changes are in store, particularly outside the building where construction began in 2011 for Centennial Sculpture Park.

—adapted from an article by Betsy Brayer in the May-June 1987 issue of Gallery Notes

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