History
The Terra Foundation for American Art was established in 1978 by businessman and art collector Daniel J. Terra (1911–1996) who believed that the art of the United States is a dynamic and powerful expression of the nation’s history and identity. The governing mission of the foundation remains to promote a greater understanding and appreciation of historical American art through acquisition, exhibition, interpretation, and scholarship.
Terra Museum of American Art and Musée d´Art Américain Giverny
In 1980, with a collection of approximately fifty paintings, the foundation opened the Terra Museum of American Art. Located outside of Chicago in Evanston, Illinois, the museum displayed the foundation’s collection and held special exhibitions of American art. Daniel Terra’s plans to bring historical American art to broad audiences were ambitious and the collection grew to encompass hundreds of paintings and works on paper. In 1987, the Terra Museum of American Art moved from Evanston to downtown Chicago, and in 1992, the foundation expanded its reach to Europe, opening the Musée d’Art Américain Giverny, which exhibited a wide range of American artists and topics with a transatlantic focus.
By the mid-1990s, the Terra Foundation had a board of directors dedicated to interpreting and fulfilling the foundation’s international mission. After conducting a comprehensive strategic examination of the foundation’s mission and goals in 2003, the Terra Foundation Board of Directors decided to fulfill the mission in new and dynamic ways. The Board of Directors felt the foundation could better achieve its goals by exposing larger audiences to the foundation’s collection and supporting a wider range of historical American projects and programs. As a result, the foundation began to pursue new partnerships worldwide, starting with the notable expansion of the Art Institute of Chicago’s American art galleries. The Terra Museum of American Art closed in 2004 and in 2005 the Art Institute’s expanded galleries opened. They display a comprehensive, combined installation of artworks from both the Terra Foundation’s and the Art Institute’s collections. These galleries reflect an organizing principle of the Terra foundation: the importance of experiencing original works of art.
Terra Foundation for American Art
In 2009, as part of the Terra Foundation’s continued development towards internationalization, it entered into a new and dynamic partnership with French governmental and cultural organizations to create the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny on the site of the Musée d’Art Americain Giverny. The new museum focuses on Impressionism, its history, reach, and wide-ranging impact on the world. A team of partners, including the Department of the Eure, the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Musée d’Orsay, the Région Haute-Normandie, the Fondation Claude Monet, and the Department of Seine-Maritime, oversees the museum. The Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny’s story of Impressionism includes American Impressionism, and American art will continue to be presented. The Terra Foundation continues to sponsor cross-cultural initiatives in Giverny, such as scholarly gatherings and the Terra Summer Residency, now in its ninth year.
From the headquarters in Chicago and the center in Paris, the Terra Foundation for American Art continues to cultivate worldwide appreciation and understanding of historical American art through dynamic partnerships, initiatives, and grant-making.