MAG’s History

In 1913, the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) was founded by Rochester philanthropist Emily Sibley Watson in memory of her son, architect James Averell. Given in trust to the University of Rochester, MAG is one of the few university-affiliated art museums in the country that also serves as a community art museum. The museum has played a central role in Rochester’s cultural life for more than 100 years. 

As part of the Memorial Art Gallery’s 2013 centennial, we offer five timelines exploring the stories of art & artists in the greater Rochester area.

The Memorial Art Gallery’s centennial year was presented by Lynne Lovejoy, with additional support from Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull, ESL Charitable Foundation and Nocon & Associates, a private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc.

By 4:00 PM on October 8, 1913, every seat in the Memorial Art Gallery’s Hall of Casts was filled. Rush Rhees, president of the University of Rochester and of MAG’s Board of Managers, rose to begin dedication ceremonies. 

The Italian Renaissance style building, by the New York firm of Foster, Gade and Graham, represented the culmination of years of effort by local artists, collectors and philanthropists. Emily Sibley Watson, daughter of industrialist Hiram Sibley, donated the building in memory of her son, architect James G. Averell, with the proviso that it be maintained as “a means alike of pleasure and of education for all the citizens of Rochester.” The appointment of George L. Herdle, painter and president of the Rochester Art Club, as the first director further underscored the museum’s ties with the local artist community.

Following George Herdle’s untimely death in 1922, his daughter Gertrude, who had served as his education assistant, succeeded him for the next 40 years. She became the youngest member of the Association of Art Museum Directors and one of only three woman directors in the country. Ten years later, her sister Isabel joined MAG after postgraduate training at the Fogg Museum and served as assistant director, also for 40 years. Through their efforts, the collection grew from its humble start with “five paintings, two plaster casts and a lappet of lace.” In the 1960s, eminent art critic S. Lane Faison described MAG’s collection as “the best balanced of any museum in the state outside of metropolitan New York City.”

By 1926, MAG had outgrown its original quarters. A new wing designed by McKim, Mead & White doubled the original 14,000 square feet and added such features as a central Fountain Court, a children’s museum, and an auditorium. 

A 1968 addition, an International Modern structure by Waasdorp, Northrup and Kaelber, again doubled the museum’s space and moved the entrance to the rear. It was designed to harmonize with the existing museum and the neo-Gothic building Cutler Union next door. Built as a women’s student union on UR’s original Prince Street campus, Cutler Union had been given to the Eastman School of Music in 1955. Its basement now housed MAG’s Creative Workshop, which had been offering art classes since the 1920s. 

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