The Fort Wayne Museum of Art’s focus is on American Art in its many forms and on its many, diverse makers.

The Museum’s newly-launched American Art Initiative revolves around a stunning permanent exhibition that presents an evolving two-hundred year survey of American fine & decorative art. This survey exhibition is the cornerstone around which we will develop a strategically planned series of educational programs for adults and children that will be offered on-site and at off-site locations throughout the community. 

These programs have been created specifically to increase the public’s appreciation and understanding of American Art. 

At the Museum, adult visitors will be able to select from a number of new programs, including: the American Stories lecture series which focuses on American art & history from 1760 - 1890, the Art Smart “talk show” program that is hosted by Director Charles Shepard which features regional guests discussing current issues in art, the Distinguished Lecturer series which features visiting scholars, the Conversations On Collecting, series which features a panel of guest experts in a given area who talk about collecting strategies for novices and seasoned art aficionados, and Crit!, a program that features a panel of guest critiquing a revolving selection of modern and contemporary artists. Children visiting the Museum will be offered an all-new American Art School Tour program which uses current exhibitions as the starting point for art explorations, and, for those creatively inclined, the Museum now is the NE Indiana region organizer of the annual, national Scholastic Art & Writing Exhibition and Awards program.

Off-site, the Initiative will offer adults a mini-version of the American Stories program in the workplace as a lunchroom series, as well as “café culture” series, Art & Espresso which offers short, lively lectures on Post-War American Art in coffee shops throughout the community.  Our outreach efforts for children will now include the Gallery On Wheels program that brings exhibits of original American Art from the Collection directly into the classroom, and the dynamic ArtsCool Reader magazine that teaches the history of American Art in a manner especially designed to capture the attention and imagination of fourth and fifth graders.

In addition to these two outreach programs, the Museum now also offers the innovative Imaging One Another photography project that introduces at-risk children to the positive experience of creative expression.  Designed to both broaden these children’s horizons and boost their belief in themselves, this project involves teaching them how to approach the world around them constructively with a camera and actually provides them each with a camera with which to experiment.  Working with their teachers and caregivers, the Museum develops their pictures, helps them select their best work, and then frames them for exhibition at the Museum during our First Sunday free, family days.

The Museum’s American Art Initiative is truly a unique and concerted effort to simultaneously offer an orchestrated menu of programs all designed to raise awareness and appreciation of America’s visual arts.