MYSTIC, CT.- The Mystic Museum of Art is fortunate to have significant holdings in its permanent collection. The collection includes artwork by the institution’s founding members and artists that also played a role in MMoA’s development from Art Association to Art Center. Works by Charles Davis, Ward Ranger, Harve Stein, and Yngve Soderberg constitute the core of our collections. Local contemporary artists like Dan Truth, Charles Chu, and Sarah Stifler Lucas may also be found in the collection.

For MMoA to complete its transition to Museum status as an anchor institution in this region, it must further diversify and expand its permanent collection. Recent art donations from MMoA community members bring us thrillingly closer to this goal.

MMoA is featuring the donations in the special exhibition, Gifts to the Museum, in MMoA’s Liebig Gallery from January 30 – April 18, 2020.

Last August, Jim Quinn and Chris Zhang made a major gift of artwork in a variety of styles including Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism. While the museum’s collection has focused on the Mystic Art Colony artists who were so influential in this region, this collection comprises works by artists whose influence around the world is indisputable: Claes Oldenburg, David Row, Bryan Hunt, Todd Norsten, Manolo Valdes, Jose Maria Sicilia, Robert Motherwell, Suzanne Caporael, Wayne Thiebaud, and Sean Scully.

Bertrand (Tim) Bell of Stonington donated a Charles Davis painting on behalf of the Streeter family in memory of Ed Clarke and Alice Chase Streeter. This painting, a landscape entitled The Shadow has been exquisitely maintained in pristine condition and was recently on display in MMoA’s Oil and Water exhibition.

Christopher Bates, grandson of MMoA founding members Kenneth and Gladys Bates, donated artwork by his grandparents and their contemporaries, including Harve Stein and YE Soderberg.