The British Museum

The British Museum was founded in 1753, the first national public museum in the world. From the beginning it granted free admission to all 'studious and curious persons'. Visitor numbers have grown from around 5,000 a year in the eighteenth century to nearly 6 million today. The origins of the British Museum lie in the will of the physician, naturalist and collector, Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753).

Over his lifetime, Sloane collected more than 71,000 objects which he wanted to be preserved intact after his death. So he bequeathed the whole collection to King George II for the nation in return for a payment of £20,000 to his heirs. The gift was accepted and on 7 June 1753, an Act of Parliament established the British Museum.

The founding collections largely consisted of books, manuscripts and natural specimens with some antiquities (including coins and medals, prints and drawings) and ethnographic material. In 1757 King George II donated the 'Old Royal Library' of the sovereigns of England and with it the privilege of copyright receipt.

The British Museum opened to the public on 15 January 1759 . It was first housed in a seventeenth-century mansion, Montagu House, in Bloomsbury on the site of today's building. Entry was free and given to ‘all studious and curious Persons’.

With the exception of two World Wars, the Museum has remained open ever since, gradually increasing its opening hours and moving from an attendance of 5,000 per year to today's 6 million.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's earliest roots date back to 1866 in Paris, France, when a group of Americans agreed to create a "national institution and gallery of art" to bring art and art education to the American people. The lawyer John Jay, who proposed the idea, swiftly moved forward with the project upon his return to the United States from France. Under Jay's presidency, the Union League Club in New York rallied civic leaders, businessmen, artists, art collectors, and philanthropists to the cause. On April 13, 1870, The Metropolitan Museum of Art was incorporated, opening to the public in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue. On November 20 of that same year, the Museum acquired its first object, a Roman sarcophagus. (Read more about this historic acquisition.) In 1871, 174 European paintings, including works by Anthony van Dyck, Nicolas Poussin, and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, entered the collection.

Lady Lever Gallery

"Art has always been to me a stimulating influence; it has always taught me without upbraiding me; elevated me without humbling me; and appealed to me because of the fact that only the best and truest in art survives... Art can be to everyone an inspiration. It is within the reach of all of us..."

Lever at the opening of the Lady Lever Art Gallery

16 December 1922. The Lady Lever Art Gallery was founded by William Hesketh Lever (1851-1925) and is dedicated to the memory of his wife Elizabeth. The gallery contains the best of his personal art collection. Lever wanted to share his collections with the public. At first he used the library and then Hulme Hall in Port Sunlight Village for small displays. But he needed a bigger and more impressive building for his collections. Lever had learned his new business methods, especially marketing, from America. The idea for his art gallery may also have come from America. Many American business tycoons built galleries for their own art collections and presented them to the public. Lever was the only British tycoon who did this. Lever personally selected works of art from his huge collection for the gallery. He also bought new works specifically for public display. He explained, "I have to cater for all tastes ...".

The State Tretyakov Gallery - The National Museum of Russian Fine Art

The State Tretyakov Gallery is the national treasury of Russian fine art and one of the greatest museums in the world. It is located in one of the oldest directs of Moscow – Zamoskvorechye, not far from the Kremlin.

The Gallery's collection consists entirely of Russian art and artists who have made а contribution to the history of Russian art or been closely connected with it. The collection contains more than 150 000 works of painting, sculpture and graphics, created throughout the centuries by successive generations of Russian artists.

Russian art works, ranging in date from the 11th to the early 20th century, are on the show in Gallery's historic building on Lavrushinskiy Pereulok.

New building of the Tretyakov Gallery at Krymskiy Val houses a unique museum exhibition of national 20th century art.

Being built up to the 150 anniversary of the Tretyakov Gallery, an exposition meets all modern requirements of showing contemporary art.The exhibition is opened by the works of Mikhail Larionov, Natalia Goncharova, the artists of the association "Bubnovy Valet", whose creativity marks the beginning of the new Avant-Garde movement in Russia.

The world - known artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Mark Chagall, Kazimir Malevich (the painter of the "Black Square") and artists of neoclassicism are also well represented. The hall with the reconstruction of the well-known exhibition of "OBMOHU" (Association of young artists) of 1921 is devoted to constructivism of the 1920th.

The art works featuring "social realism" – an official style of totalitarian era in 1930-50s - are widely shown in the Gallery. Objects, installations, photographs, conceptual art created since 1950 up to now, are also represented as alternative directions of the Soviet art evolution.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

In the midst of the Great Depression, on January 16, 1936, Virginia's political and business leaders bravely demonstrated their faith in the future and their belief in the value of art by opening the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. The English Renaissance-style headquarters building designed by Peebles and Ferguson Architects of Norfolk barely hinted at the innovative mandate given to the fledgling institution: the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts was to serve as the state's flagship art museum and as the headquarters for an educational network that would bring the best of world art, past and present, to every corner of the commonwealth.

The Renaissance Society at The University of Chicago

Founded in 1915, The Society's mission is to encourage the growth and understanding of contemporary art through exhibitions, publications, and events. 

The Society presents art seldom seen 

in the midwest, giving the public opportunities to investigate the most recent developments in contemporary art. At the same time, the museum is equally committed to fostering the development of Chicago's own rich artistic resources. 

All programs are guided by the goal of maintaining The Society's integrity as one of the finest resources of vanguard art in the nation.