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The Katonah Museum of Art was founded 50 years ago as The Katonah Gallery, a small volunteer-run institution dedicated to encouraging the enjoyment, appreciation, and study of the visual arts by visitors of all ages. The Gallery, initially located in a small room over the Katonah Village Library, was committed to presenting "the best of art from the past to the present" and, as a "teaching museum," to communicating the special pleasures of the visual arts to its visitors. To achieve maximum flexibility and diversity in its exhibition program, the Gallery was founded as a non-collecting institution, free to explore the entire spectrum of artistic, historical, and cultural periods. Education for area schools as well as for the general public quickly became the focus of all Gallery programs. By the late 1980's, the need for expanded space became critical. The Museum launched $5 million capital campaign and engaged the distinguished architect, Edward Larrabee Barnes, to design its new home. In 1990, the renamed Katonah Museum of Art moved to its present site and hired its first Executive Director. The Museum's elegant new facility provided space for a more comprehensive treatment of exhibition material, a wider range of participatory art education activities, and a greater variety and frequency of public programs. As it made this growth-driven expansion, the Museum reaffirmed its commitment to its mission. It remains a non-collecting institution dedicated to the study, appreciation, and enjoyment of the visual arts. It remains committed to its innovative and challenging range of educational programs, its lively array of public programs, and its uniquely effective use of talented volunteers.