Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art

The Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art was founded to bring museum services to a geographically isolated rural region. In its first two decades, the museum has developed a significant permanent collection, curated important special exhibitions, sponsored traveling exhibitions, and implemented successful education programs for the people of the region. In 1995, the museum received accreditation from the American Association of Museums, an honor signifying that the museum fulfills the highest national standards of operation. On April 2, 1975, a small group led by Sean M. Sullivan, T.O.R., then president of Saint Francis College, met to establish an independent art museum charged with serving the greater community, a radical concept even today when few art museums on college campuses retain complete autonomy. Sullivan, T.O.R, was elected the first president of the new board of trustees. Roger Ferri, a New York architect who went on to receive international acclaim, was hired to transform a former college gymnasium into an art museum as his first major commission. The facility he designed was lauded in Progressive Architecture (May 1978) and recognized as a model renovation project. On June 12, 1976, the museum was formally dedicated to the memory of Robert Ward Duggan (1926-1974) and opened its inaugural exhibition of the permanent collection. Michael M. Strueber was employed as the museum's first director. Strueber retired January 1, 2000, after serving as the museum's Director for 23 years. The museum's Chief Curator Dr. Michael Tomor succeeded Strueber as the new Director. After Tomor's resignation March 14, 2006, Noel Feeley was employed as Interim Director on May 21, 2007. As articulated in its statement of purpose, the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art is both a collecting and an exhibiting institution. In addition to exhibitions of the permanent collection, an ambitious calendar of special exhibitions is designed annually to provide opportunities to view important trends in American art. The permanent collection includes 19th and 20th century painting, sculpture, drawing, and prints highlighted with works by Mary Cassatt, Helen Frankenthaler, Andy Warhol, Alfred Stieglitz, Margaret Bourke-White, and John Sloan.