Reynolda house

DEFINITION

A museum of American art incorporated in 1964 and opened in 1967 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The original building was a 1917 bungalow belonging to tobacco family members Katharine and R.J. Reynolds. In 2005, a 30,000 square foot expansion, the Mary and Charlie Babcock Wing, was completed. The collection focus is on both exhibition of the collection of American art, including Southern regionalism, and the innovative multi-disciplinary study of American Art in the contexts of literature, music and history. A major purpose is rediscovering American artists who once were well known but whose reputations were submerged with the advent of abstraction---artists "long out of the public eye." A core value was art reflecting every-day genre and the importance of life in daily living. Among the artists whose work is represented are William Harnett, Charles Willson Peale, Martin Johnson Heade, Joseph Blackburn, William Sydney Mount and Frederic Edwin Church. Today Reynolda House is credited with helping to "lead the national conversation on the rediscovery and rehabilitation of American art through prescient acquisitions. Source: Thomas Andrew Denenberg, 'American Art at Reynolda House', American Art Review, June 2005.