Welcome to the Palmer Museum of Art!
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The Palmer Museum is the art museum for The Pennsylvania State University and the surrounding communities. When you visit the Palmer Museum of Art you will notice that there are two very large bronze lion paws on either side of the main entrance. Sculptor Paul Bowden created these paws to celebrate the mascot of Penn State, the Nittany Lion. Figures of lions are also often found in front of public libraries and museums. |
| When you enter the museum, the security desk will be directly in front of you, where you may obtain information about the museum and ask questions. You will also see museum guards seated behind it. The guards at the front desk will ask you to check your coats and other belongings before your tour. |
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There are places to hang your coats and also lockers with keys to lock up your belongings safely. If there are too many coats, there is another area for coats in the back hallway by the gift shop and elevator. |
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The guards are hired by the museum to protect the artwork. They will remind you not to touch works of art on display. Each artwork is original, which means that there is not another one like it in the world. If too many people touched a work of art, its condition would eventually become very poor, and future visitors to the museum may not have the chance to see it. You will see guards throughout the galleries on your tour, walking around and making sure that the artwork is safe. What do you think some other rules might be? |
| The museum docent (pronounced "doe-cent"), who will be guiding your tour, will meet you by the front desk. A docent is someone who volunteers to give tours at a museum. The docents at the Palmer Museum take special classes to learn about the collections. Your docent will show you works of art and ask questions to help you learn more about them. On your tour you may also see other visitors to the museum, such as school groups, families, or other guests. |
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In the lobby, there is a gift shop, or museum store, where you may find representations of artworks in the Palmer's collection for sale. Books, postcards, figurines, and small sculptures provide people with souvenirs of their visit to the museum. |
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The permanent collection at the Palmer Museum of Art consists of eight galleries displaying a variety of works from ancient times to the present day. You will see ceramics, photographs, American and European paintings, drawings, prints, and a variety of objects from African, European, and Asian cultures. The art you will see explores different social, political, and cultural ideas. At left is one of the works from the collection, Sculpture of a Female Patron , located in the first gallery on the ground floor . |
| The first floor galleries house works of art from ancient times to around 1750. The largest gallery on the first floor is the Tonkin Gallery of Asian and African art, where you will see works from a variety of places and time periods, such as Figure of a Court Lady from China (right). |
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The second floor has a larger special exhibitions gallery as well as the contemporary art, American art, and contemporary ceramics galleries. The Pincus Gallery of Contemporary Art has a wide variety of sculpture and paintings by artists from around the world from the 1950s to the present. Some look more realistic, while others are more abstract. The Snowiss Gallery of American Art contains art by American artists from the 1900s. An example of a work you may see on your tour is by Jerome Paul Witkin, titled Jeff Davies . |
| The Contemporary (or recent) Ceramics Gallery is located on the other side of the Snowiss Gallery and houses a wide variety of modern ceramics from across the world. In here you may come across Square Plate by Shoji Hamada. |
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The William Hull Gallery contains art by American artists from early portraiture to landscapes and still-lifes from the 1800s and 1900s. A wide range of styles and themes in American art are presented here, including the painting, Mother and Son (Lucy Knapp Mygatt [1766-1804] and George Mygatt [1797-1888]) . |
| You may also see some small galleries off to the side of the main galleries on your tour. These are for special exhibitions-art shows that travel to several museums in one year, often staying a few months at each museum-or small shows of artworks from the Palmer Museum's collection. One of the purposes of special exhibitions is to allow people to look at and think about artworks from around the world. The Palmer Museum usually has several changing special exhibitions a year. |
| Thank you for visiting the Palmer Museum. If you have any questions, feel free to contact the museum or ask your docent on the day of your tour. We look forward to seeing you soon! |
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