In 1978, the Terra Foundation for American Art is established by businessman, art collector, and United States Ambassador-at-Large for Cultural Affairs Daniel J. Terra (1911–1996), who believed that art is a dynamic and powerful expression of the nation’s history and identity. Daniel Terra also held that engagement with original works of art could be a transformative experience, and throughout his lifetime he worked to share his collection of American art with audiences worldwide.
Daniel J. Terra with Frederic Edwin Church's 1861 painting Our Banner in the Sky, at the original Terra Museum of American Art, in Evanston, Illinois.
The Terra Foundation for American Art is established by businessman, art collector, and United States Ambassador-at-Large for Cultural Affairs Daniel J. Terra (1911–1996).
The Terra Museum of American Art opens in Evanston, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, displaying Daniel Terra’s collection of approximately 50 paintings and holding special exhibitions.
Daniel Terra purchases Samuel F. B. Morse’s monumental painting Gallery of the Louvre (1831–33) for $3.25 million, which at the time was a record price for work by an American artist.
With his collection of American art now encompassing hundreds of paintings and works on paper, Daniel Terra relocates his namesake museum to a building on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago.
Daniel Terra opens the Musée d’Art Américain Giverny, located approximately 40 mi/70 km outside Paris, to showcase works of American Impressionism, as well as other artists and topics with a transatlantic focus.
Daniel J. Terra at the Musée d’Art Américain Giverny.
Daniel Terra passes away, but his legacy of sharing the historical art of the United States with people around the world endures in the foundation.
Following a comprehensive examination of the best ways to share American art with growing international audiences, the foundation decides to dedicate its resources to exhibitions and programs beyond the museums, and the Terra Museum of American Art closes.
Under the leadership of Terra Foundation for American Art President & CEO Elizabeth Glassman, the foundation’s board ratifies an updated mission for the foundation: The Terra Foundation for American Art is dedicated to fostering exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of the visual arts of the United States for national and international audiences. Recognizing the importance of experiencing original works of art, the foundation provides opportunities for interaction and study, beginning with the presentation and growth of its own art collection in Chicago. To further cross-cultural dialogue on American art, the foundation supports and collaborates on innovative exhibitions, research, and educational programs. Implicit in such activities is the belief that art has the potential both to distinguish cultures and to unite them.
A partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago, whereby a selection of approximately two dozen paintings from the Terra Foundation art collection are placed on long-term loan to the museum, ensures that works of American art remain accessible to the public.
Elizabeth Glassman, Terra Foundation President and CEO from 2001–2020, with the foundation’s collection of nearly 800 paintings, works on paper, and sculptures dating between the 1750s and 1980s.
The Terra Foundation inaugurates an expanded grant program, providing worldwide support for American art exhibitions, academic programs, and scholarship.
To support its mission, the Terra Foundation opens the Paris Center and the Terra Foundation Library for American Art, dedicated to serving a growing international community of scholars and curators, as well as the interested public. The center provides a regular forum on the art and visual culture of the United States—the only one of its kind in Europe—through a wide variety of lectures, workshops, and symposia.
The library is Europe’s only research library devoted exclusively to the visual arts of the United States. Specializing in the art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it contains more than 9,500 English-language titles on painting, sculpture, and graphic arts, as well as photography and decorative arts, all of which are available online. (Today, the collection comprises 12,000 volumes and continues to grow.)
Additionally, Paris Center staff develop and present a wide range of academic programs—including research and teaching fellowships, research travel grants, publication grants, residential programs for scholars, and public conferences and symposia—in close collaboration with universities and museums throughout Europe.
In Giverny, the Terra Foundation partners with French government and cultural organizations, including the Département de l’Eure, the Musée d’Orsay, the Région Haute-Normandie, and the Département de la Seine-Maritime, to transition the Musée d’Art Américain Giverny into the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny, which focuses on the history and continuing impact of the Impressionist movement.
Elizabeth Glassman signs an agreement transferring ownership of the former Musée d’Art Américain Giverny to the Établissement Public de Coopération Culturelle (EPCC), a public-private partnership between the Eure and Seine-Maritime County Commissions, Haute Normandie Region, Portes de l’Eure Urban Community, the town of Vernon, the Musée d’Orsay, and the Terra Foundation. In addition to the museum buildings, the transfer consigns adjacent properties, including staff and visitor parking lots, surrounding gardens, the Vissault and Bertin estates, and “La Côte” hill. Following the transfer, the foundation continues to actively collaborate with the Musée des Impressionnismes Giverny and the EPCC, maintaining ongoing scientific committee and board membership, as well as loaning works of art.
The foundation continues to own and operate several historic houses in Giverny. These properties provide a setting for convenings, artist workshops, and the foundation’s Terra Summer Residency (2001–2020).
From headquarters in Chicago and the Paris Center & Library, the foundation continues to reinforce and expand the founding mission, supporting the international presentation and study of the historical art of the United States through grants, partnerships, our art collection, and other resources. Our aim is to inspire a robust cross-cultural dialogue that encourages new and dynamic interpretations of American art and creates multiple opportunities for engagement with individuals across the globe.
Additionally, the Terra Foundation collection, which now comprises nearly 800 objects, continues to grow through acquisitions and gifts. Our “museum without walls” model ensures the collection is widely accessible—at any given time, nearly 20 percent of our collection is on view at venues around the world through loans, partnerships, and Terra Collection Initiatives.
The foundation inaugurates Art Design Chicago, an initiative of the Terra Foundation in partnership with local artists and arts organizations across the city. Culminating in two citywide, year-long series of exhibitions and events—in 2018 and 2024—the initiative seeks to catalyze transformative approaches to co-creation and community engagement and stimulate expansive narratives of Chicago art and design, past and present.
The foundation establishes a grant program supporting organizations’ permanent collection projects. This grant initiative encourages museums to delve more deeply into their collections to reveal a fuller multiplicity of artworks and voices that have shaped, in the past and up through the present, the artistic and cultural heritage of the US. The grants support permanent collection reinstallation planning and implementation as well as the development of temporary exhibitions drawn from museum collections.
Under the leadership of Terra Foundation of American Art President and CEO Sharon Corwin, the foundation started a strategic planning process to reimagine our mission and the values that guide our work. Our support focuses on projects that broaden definitions of American art and transform how its stories are told.
Resulting from the strategic planning process, the foundation launches an evolution of the mission: In partnership with organizations and individuals locally and globally, the Terra Foundation fosters intercultural dialogues and encourages transformative practices to expand narratives of American art.
As our strategy takes shape, we continue to revise grant guidelines to be responsive to the field, expand our network of partners, and launch new grant programs, such as strategic initiatives and Terra Collection-in-Residence.
The foundation launches a new visual identity to reflect the evolution of our mission.
We support organizations to expand narratives of American art through our grant, collection, and initiative programs. We work with organizations that foster intercultural dialogues and encourage transformative practices, locally and globally.
Our strategic development is an adaptive and iterative process, building on the foundation’s past successes and core commitment to supporting dialogue and strengthening networks around American art locally and globally.
Since 2005, the Terra Foundation has been supporting American art projects worldwide. As the field has evolved, so have its needs—in response, our grant opportunities and offerings have also changed. We invite you to explore our rich archive of past programs and partnerships.
