Collection

An Evolving Collection

The Terra Foundation Art Collection is an inextricable part of our history and mission. It features more than 750 paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, and sculptures made by 247 artists between the 1750s and 1980s. Since its creation in 1978, the collection and its uses have evolved to help expand narratives of American art across the globe.

Terra Foundation Art Collection

A painting of an abstracted view of a group of household objects on a table.

Stuart Davis, Super Table, 1925. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection, 1999.37

About the Terra Foundation Art Collection

We share our art collection with the world through exhibition loans, shared acquisitions, long-term loans through Terra Collection-in-Residence, and online, where the public can find information about specific artists and objects.

Art Collection Loans to Exhibitions

Collection Loans

Collection Loans

Art collection loans to exhibitions are a critical part of our mission to deepen and expand narratives of American art. The foundation loans works of art to museums and institutions around the world, allowing these objects to reach new audiences, invite new interpretations, and inspire intercultural dialogues.

Twelve small paintings, hanging in two rows of six, on a maroon wall.

John Leslie Breck: American Impressionist, Mint Museum Uptown, September 18, 2021–January 2, 2022. Image courtesy of The Mint Museum.

Terra Collection-in-Residence

Terra Collection-in-Residence

Terra Collection-in-Residence

Our invitation-only extended loan program invites museums within and outside the US to borrow objects for multi-year engagements that may amplify their permanent collections, promote interdisciplinary research and learning, and spark new conversations.

A group of people in an art gallery with a person in a blue shirt leading a discussion.

Gallery Talk led by Dr. Kimia Shahi, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California and 2022-23 Fellow at the Center for the Environment, Harvard University, at the Harvard Art Museums featuring Samuel Coleman's Ships Unloading, New York (1868), on loan from the Terra Foundation for American Art. May 3, 2023. Image courtesy of the Harvard Art Museums; © President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Shared Acquisitions

Shared Acquisitions

Shared Acquisitions

The Terra Foundation co-acquires collection objects with museums that contribute to broader understandings of American art.

Painting of a woman in a white dress under the water's surface.

Calida Rawles, Thy Name We Praise, 2023. Terra Foundation for American Art and Spelman College Museum of Fine Art co-acquisition in honor of Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., 10th President of Spelman College, TCA2023.3. Photo courtesy of Lehmann Maupin Gallery.

Art Institute of Chicago Partnership

Art Institute of Chicago Partnership

Works from the Terra Foundation Art Collection are regularly on view at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Art Institute and the Terra Foundation have partnered with each other to present an expansive vision of the arts of the Americas. The foundation loans foster connections across both collections to broaden narratives of American art.

Art Collection in Action

Edward Hopper's painting Dawn in Pennsylvania (1942) on an easel in front of other Terra Foundation artworks.

Edward Hopper's painting Dawn in Pennsylvania (1942) on view in front of other Terra Foundation artworks.

Three people place a painting into a crate.

Art handlers carefully place William S. Jewett's The Promised Land--The Grayson Family in its crate for travel. Photo by Michael Tropea.

Two people place on the lid of a crate.

Art handlers place the lid on the crate of William S. Jewett's The Promised Land--The Grayson Family. Photo by Michael Tropea. Photo by Michael Tropea.

Art handlers secure the lid of the crate for William S. Jewett's The Promised Land--The Grayson Family preparing it for travel. Photo by Michael Tropea.

Installation of Samuel F.B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre (1831-33) at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA.

Installation view of the 2015 Terra Collective Initiative Samuel F. B. Morse's "Gallery of the Louvre" and the Art of Invention at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA.

Collection Loans Across the Globe

View the foundation’s art collection loans and grants worldwide. Dive into any point on the map to learn more about the local and global impact of the collection.

Recent Acquisitions

The foundation continues to strengthen and align its collection with its mission. New acquisitions enhance our ability to expand American art histories.

Abstract painting in blues, with some gold and brown.

Alma Thomas, Untitled, c. 1960. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2024.1. © 2024 Estate of Alma Thomas (Courtesy of the Hart Family) / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Colorful, abstracted rendering of the archangel Gabriel.

David Driskell, Gabriel, 1965. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2023.4

Steel sculpture on a white rectangular platform.

Melvin Edwards, Good Friends in Chicago, 1972. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2023.5. Photo courtesy Alexander Gray Associates; Stephen Friedman Gallery, London © 2023 Melvin Edwards / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

A watercolor of two people at the center of an abstracted scene of a devastated landscape.

Chiura Obata, Devastation, 1945. Terra Foundation for American Art, Gift of The Estate of Chiura Obata, 2023.1

Collection Resources

Collection Handbook

Published in 2018, Conversations with the Collection invites readers to explore highlights from the Terra Foundation Art Collection, as well as essays by authors from around the world. The book is available to purchase from University of Chicago Press and is available in full online.

ArtNav

ArtNav is an interactive, multimedia platform that encourages visitors to engage deeply with selected artworks. Objects include paintings from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, accompanied by analysis and supplementary media.

Stories and News

Image of person in a colorful dress sitting in front of blue artwork at an exhibition.

Calida Rawles, Thy Name We Praise, 2023.

In the News

Terra Foundation Collection

Calida Rawles’s Final White Dress Offers the Grace and Buoyancy We So Desperately Need

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Partner Stories

Terra Collection-in-Residence

Increasing Museum Accessibility: New Tactile Replicas Enhance Visually Impaired Visitor Experience

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An image of a painting of a person on a farm with a cow.

Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Boy with Cow, 1921. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, 2017.1

Partner Stories

Terra Collection-in-Residence

In the Galleries: Interpretations of Yasuo Kuniyoshi’s Boy with Cow

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