Danforth Museum of Art

CONTACT:

123 Union Ave.
Framingham, MA 01702
508-620-0050
www.danforthmuseum.org

Katherine French, Director

DESCRIPTION:

The Danforth Museum of Art was founded in 1975 by a few local residents, town officials, and members of the faculty and administration of Framingham State College. It has a collection of 1,800 works, primarily 19th and 20th century American, with an emphasis (30%) on New England. It presents 10-12 exhibitions each year from its own collections and inter-museum loans. Its annual visitation is over 30,000. It strives for a broadly balanced program of culturally diverse themes, and celebrations of regional and emerging artists. It has 5 full-time and 10 part-time staff. While the Danforth occupies a Town building at nominal cost, and the College covers part of senior staff salary, the Museum must raise $550,000 for operating expenses annually.

The Danforth is an excellent community teaching museum. Its schools program serves over 80 schools from Framingham and 15 neighboring towns, while its outreach program serves children who live in shelters and youth at-risk. Its fine arts school has a faculty of 30, offering 70 fine-arts and crafts courses to 4,000 students of all ages. Its hallways are exhibition spaces for student shows, rotated monthly. It also maintains active educational relations with other community cultural institutions-the New England Wild Flower Society, the Natick Planetarium, and the Framingham District Court, among others.

All on a budget of less than $1 million. Your contributions will make a big difference to this modest and striving institution.

(1997: CULTURE: Arts: Visual, Literary and Crafts)