Since 1948, the Georgia Museum of Art has been serving the University of Georgia by providing inspiration without admission charges. You can learn more about its history in the exhibition “It Goes to The People: 75 Years of Free Inspiration at the Georgia Museum of Art,” on view in the rotunda at UGA’s Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries from May 31 to August 26.
The museum’s founder, Alfred Heber Holbrook, also served as its director for 21 years and set the tone for its mission. He often drove around Georgia with paintings from the collection in his car, giving talks and tours. Over the decades, the museum has maintained its founder’s goal as expressed in a letter requesting funding from the Kress Foundation that gave the exhibition its title: “it goes to the people.”
Objects on view come from the Hargrett Library’s collection as well as the museum’s own archives and include materials about its founding, including Holbrook’s original letter to UGA president Harmon Caldwell expressing his intention to make the gift. You can also see one of art school head Lamar Dodd’s scrapbooks, Holbrook’s paintbox from when he took UGA art classes and materials related to building projects, both realized and unrealized. Did you know the museum originally planned a building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes between Hull Street and Florida Avenue downtown? You can see those designs. Don’t forget to open the drawers in the cases to see vintage photographs.
Visit the musuem website for more information on 75th anniversary events or to learn more about the museum’s history.
