The San Antonio Museum of Art is a museum in San Antonio, Texas. In the early 1970s, plans were initiated to purchase the historic Lone Star Brewery complex for conversion into the San Antonio Museum of Art and following a $7.2 million renovation, the San Antonio Museum of Art opened to the public in March 1981. [1]The museum was funded through grants from the Economic Development Administration of San Antonio, and a numerous businessmen and foundations.
When the museum opened it specialized in art of the Americas including pre-Columbian, Spanish Colonial and Latin American folk art. It also included eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century American and European paintings, photography, sculpture and decorative arts. In 1985, the Museum received collections of Latin American Folk Art formed from former Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller and Robert K. Winn. [1]
In the 1990s the museum expanded considerably with donations from Gilbert M. Denman, Jr., the addition of the Stark-Willson Collection which established a comprehensive collection of Egyptian, Greek and Romanart, and a collection of Chinese ceramics from trustees Walter F. and Lenora Brown. The Chinese collection which also included other Asian objects resulted in a 15,000 square foot wing named after them, The Lenora and Walter F. Brown Asian Art Wing which opened in 2005 and is now the largest museum for Asian art in the southern United States.[1]
In 1991, the 7,000 square foot Cowden Gallery was opened for changing exhibitions and, in 1994, the 3,000 square foot Beretta Hops House was renovated to provide a new area for schooling with three main classrooms. In 1998, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art, a 30,000 square foot wing, opened to display Latin American art. [1]
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