Museums - Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami

From its origins in three classrooms in 1948, the history of the Lowe Art Museum reflects an unswerving commitment to fulfill its mission to serve the University of Miami as a teaching resource, and the residents of and visitors to greater Miami as its major general art museum. With the gift in 1950 by philanthropists Joe and Emily Lowe, a free-standing museum facility opened to the public in 1952 as the first art museum in South Florida. Its 10,000-object collection is one of the most important in the Southeast, with strengths in Renaissance and Baroque, American, Native American, pre-Columbian, and Asian art.
The development of its highly regarded collection is traced through sustained support from permanent-Miami and winter-resident patrons, who, from its beginning, have supported the Lowe with major gifts of art and funding. A 1956 donation by Alfred I. Barton brought one of the country’s finest collections of Native American art. The Lowe’s pre-Columbian collection (now 2,359 objects) was begun in 1958 but achieved international stature with the 1984 gift by Robert M. Bischoff of 531 works. The Alfred I. Barton Collection of Southwest Indian art, recognized by scholars as one of the finest in the United States, contains works that include textiles, baskets and other utilitarian objects. Some of the textiles are extremely rare examples of the Navajo, Pueblo, and Rio Grande weaving traditions. A Guatemalan textiles collection was started by a donation in 1958 numbering 50 pieces, collected by Harvard anthropologist Samuel K. Lothrop in the early twentieth century. It now numbers 505 examples, and complements North American Native and pre-Columbian textile holdings. Its African collection includes objects from various West African and Congo cultures, as well as Congo pieces field collected and donated by Lee and Aurora McMichen and Professor and Mrs. Robert R. Ferens. In recent years, the Lowe has augmented the collection through careful purchases.