Michigan’s Muskegon Museum of Art opens their new expansion featuring works from The Bennett Collection of Women Figurative Realists

MUSKEGON, Mich., February 6, 2025 (CarryOnHarry.com)
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Today marks the opening of the Bennett Schmidt Pavilion at the Muskegon Museum of Art (MMA) which almost doubles the size of the century old midwestern art museum. The new expansion is named for two of the country’s leading collectors of figurative realist paintings who have donated $12 million in artworks and cash to help create the new space and display works by women artists. Fewer than five museums in the world dedicate space solely to the work of women artists.

More than 150 paintings by women artists have been donated to the MMA by art collectors and champions of gender equality, Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, of San Antonio. The opening exhibition, which features some of these works, Transcending Tradition: Selection of Works from The Bennett Collection of Women Realists, is now open and will run through May 11, 2025.

Bennett and Schmidt have collected figurative realist paintings by women artists since 2009, creating The Bennett Collection, and in 2018 established The Bennett Prize-a $50,000 biennial award designed to propel the careers of women painters who have not yet realized full professional recognition. It is the largest art award offered solely to women painters. The Prize is currently in its fourth cycle, 10 finalists have been named, and the winner will be announced at the MMA on May 15, 2025.

Over the past decade, only 11 percent of art acquired by the country’s top museums for their permanent collections was by women, according to the Burns Halperin Report published in 2022. ArtNet News reported that of the 260,470 works acquired by 26 of the top museums in the United States between 2008-2018, less than 15% were by female artists.

Paintings donated from The Bennett Collection include works by more than 115 artists, including Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Cassatt, Agnes Martin, Elaine de Kooning, Harmonia Rosales, Julie Bell, Andrea Kowch, Katie O’Hagan and many other contemporary and historical women figurative realist painters. A number of these donated paintings are featured in the Transcending Tradition exhibition.

“This opening of the Bennett Schmidt Pavilion marks the start of a new MMA,” said MMA Executive Director Kirk Hallman. “Steven and Elaine’s vision is one shared by the MMA. The Bennett-Schmidt gift is a call to action institutionally, encouraging both the Muskegon Museum of Art and other museums to continually expand opportunities for women artists.”

“The artwork in Transcending Tradition catapults the MMA into the forefront of progressive museums that recognize the primacy and power of the work of women painters,” said Bennett. “What has been an exceptionally good collection at the MMA is now augmented with many powerful works by women that span the generations.”

Contact Information

Amanda Rogalski
Principal
aarogalski@rogomarketing.com
6165409231

Kristina Broughton
Marketing Director
kbrought@muskegonartmuseum.org
231-720-2570

Source: Muskegon Museum of Art