FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Springfield, MO. (May 23, 2017) – The Springfield Art Museum is pleased to welcome Scott A. Schweigert, Curator of Art and Civilization at the Reading Public Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania on Thursday, May 25 at 5:30 PM in the Museum’s auditorium. Schweigert curated the current traveling special exhibition American Impressionism: The Lure of the Artists’ Colony, on view until July 2. American Impressionism features over 100 works from the golden age of the Impressionist movement in America pulled from the Reading Public Museum’s extensive permanent collection.
American Impressionism opened at the Springfield Art Museum in late April 2017. Since that time over 11,000 patrons have visited the Museum. Indeed, Museum Director Nick Nelson notes, “This incredible exhibit has helped push the Museum’s attendance numbers to near record levels.” If attendance numbers remain strong through June 2017, the Museum is set to break the record of 56,000 attendees set in 2004 when the Museum hosted an exhibition by noted American photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams.
Schweigert will discuss the importance of artist colonies across the country that contributed to the development and spread of Impressionism, a style inspired by and adopted from French artists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas. Indeed, this is one of the final stops for this iteration of the exhibition. It will soon return to the Reading Public Museum and be re-worked to include French Impressionists and then continue traveling.
Schweigert appears at the Museum in part due to financial assistance from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency. The Museum is located at 1111 East Brookside Drive. This event is free and open to the public.
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The Springfield Art Museum is Springfield, Missouri’s oldest cultural institution, founded in 1928. A department of the City of Springfield, we are dedicated to enhancing the education and documenting the cultural heritage of the people of southwest Missouri through the collection, preservation, and exhibition of art objects. For more information, please visit www.sgfmuseum.org. For more information, please contact Joshua Best, Development and Marketing Coordinator, (417) 874-2859 or jbest@springfieldmo.gov