Ogunquit Museum of American Art

Ogunquit Museum of American Art
Former name	Museum of Art of Ogunquit
Established	1953
Location	Ogunquit, Maine
Coordinates	43°14′02″N 70°35′20″W / 43.2338°N 70.5889°W
Type	Art museum
Founder	Henry Strater
Director	Amanda Lahikainen
Website	ogunquitmuseum.org

The Ogunquit Museum of American Art (OMAA) is an art museum^[1] located in Ogunquit, Maine. The Museum officially opened in 1953 and was founded by Lost Generation artist Henry Strater. Situated near Perkins Cove, the Museum and its three acres of sculpture gardens overlook Narrow Cove with views directly over the Atlantic Ocean. OMAA houses a permanent collection of over 3,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, and photographs spanning from the late 1800s to the present.^[2]

History

Artist and collector Henry Strater purchased land in Ogunquit formerly owned by Charles Herbert Woodbury who is widely credited with founding the art colony in the village.^[3]

Initially founded by Strater as The Museum of Art of Ogunquit, the institution was incorporated on September 18, 1951, with a mission for “the broad educational interests of the public.” Architect Charles Worley of Boston designed the museum to realize the full potential of the site on the coast. Strater commissioned architect Charles S. Worley Jr. to design the building it is housed in.^[4] The museum opened its doors to the public on July 25, 1953.

The first exhibition included 121 works by modern artists Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Stuart Davis, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Peggy Bacon, Walt Kuhn, Frances Lamont, Hamilton Easter Field, and William von Schlegel, and was supported with the loan of important works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art and the Downtown Gallery.

In the ensuing decades, the Ogunquit Museum of American Art has organized important exhibitions of modern and contemporary art by Edward Hopper,^[5] Andrew Wyeth, Jamie Wyeth,^[6] Dahlov Ipcar.,^[7] Anthony Cudahy,^[8] Lee Krasner^[9], and Philip Koch.^[10]