Art Collection

The art collection is an inextricable part of the foundation’s history and an active agent of its mission.

Image: © Terra Foundation for American Art, Michael Tropea Photography

About the Collection

The collection includes more than 750 paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculptures by 246 artists working between the 1750s and the 1980s. The foundation makes its collection available throughout the world through loans and exhibitions.

Started by Daniel J. Terra in the 1970s, the Terra Foundation collection continues to evolve to the present day. We recognize that it reflects only part of the artistic and cultural heritage of the United States and reveals current and historical inequities in the ways American art is presented, exhibited, interpreted, bought, and sold. The collection, its uses, and interpretations continue to evolve with the foundation’s mission and priorities. We are committed to working alongside our partners to challenge the biases that shaped the collection and its interpretation and to reimagine ways the collection can foster intercultural dialogue and encourage transformative practices to expand narratives of American art.

Contact Us

As we actively seek new approaches and perspectives, we invite you to share feedback, questions, and ideas about the collection and any of the interpretive materials you see on this website. Please let us know what you think by emailing us at [email protected].

The foundation lends artwork from the collection to institutions throughout the world. For loan requests and inquiries, please contact the collection team at [email protected].

Acknowledgments

Many people have contributed in significant ways to the creation and ongoing maintenance of the foundation’s online collection catalogue, including current and former staff members, consulting conservators, and colleagues from around the world.

Painting of a bridge and buildings.

Browse the Collection

Paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculptures made between the 1750s and the 1980s are available throughout the world through loans and exhibitions

Installation photograph of an exhibition. Two paintings hang on a blue wall on the left side of the image, and three artworks hang on a white wall on the right side of the image.

Terra Collection-in-Residence

Extended loans of Terra Foundation artworks spark new conversations among general and academic audiences

"Collection in Focus" in white letters on top of an image of an oil painting.

Terra Collection in Focus

Short texts and videos offer multiple, interdisciplinary, and critical interpretations of artworks in the Terra Foundation collection

Screenshot of ArtNav

ArtNav

An interactive, multimedia platform offers an in-depth, deep-zoom experience of Terra Foundation artworks

Collection Handbook

An online version of Conversations with the Collection (2018) features highlights from the Terra Foundation collection, as well as essays by authors from around the world

Installation photograph of framed paintings on three walls.

Terra Collection Initiatives

Between 2006 and 2022, the Terra Foundation used its collection to co-organize exhibitions in partnership with museums worldwide