The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore features art by untrained visionary artists. Its permanent collection includes over 4,000 works, with a themed exhibit that changes annually. The museum’s mission defines visionary art as work produced by individuals with no formal artistic training. The museum also sponsors creative events in Baltimore and is housed in a unique building. It is open Tuesday through Sunday and offers special programs and free admission on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
The American Visionary Art Museum is a non-traditional art museum featuring artwork by untrained visionary or “outsider” artists. This museum is located in the historic Federal Hill area of Baltimore, Maryland. Its permanent collection houses more than 4,000 works of art, presented in rotation of approximately 50 works at any one time. The main exhibit at the American Visionary Art Museum is a themed exhibit highlighting a central idea or motif that changes each year. The museum uses guest curators for all of its exhibitions.
The mission of this museum defines visionary art as any work of art produced by individuals who have no formal artistic training, relying on “an innate personal vision that is revealed above all in the creative act itself”. From the perspective of the museum’s staff and director, visionary art is distinguished from folk art by its individual focus and lack of traditional cultural influence. The American Visionary Art Museum was founded and directed by Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, who was initially influenced by personal experience with the creativity of psychiatric patients at the Sinai Hospital and later by viewing exhibits at the Musee de l’Art Brut in Switzerland or “Museum of Raw Art.”
Opened in 1995, the American Visionary Art Museum’s collection includes works by well-known outsider artists such as Vollis Simpson and Adolf Wolfli, as well as pieces by Ben Wilson, Nek Chand, Clyde Jones, Leo Sewell, and Ho Baron. More than 40 works from London’s Cabaret Mechanical Theater are also on display here. The museum is meant to be a self-guided experience, but guided group tours are sometimes available with advance notice. School group programs and workshops are also offered.
The American Visionary Art Museum is housed in an architecturally unique building that was built on the previously polluted site of a warehouse and paint factory. Baltimore donated the site to the museum. Now, the museum is the sponsor of several creative events in Baltimore, including an annual competition involving kinetic sculptures.
This museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, except Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. Each year, on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, the American Visionary Art Museum offers special programs and free admission. In addition to the museum’s main attractions, visitors can enjoy the Sideshow Shop and a fine-dining restaurant called Mr. Rain’s Fun House. The museum is accessible to people with physical limitations.
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