The Gift of Art

At the core of PAMM’s care, collection and presentation of artworks is the belief that art is a special language, a particular human gift as unique form of expression, and one that should be valued and shared. Our permanent collection is the most lasting manifestation of the museum’s belief in preserving and sharing this gift for our current public and for future generations.

For the presentation of the museum’s permanent collection during our 35^th anniversary year, this understanding of art was conflated conceptually with the celebration of donations of art that have been made to the museum during the last several decades. The artworks represented outstanding examples of the works that have been gifted to the museum since it first became a collecting institution in 1994. While each artwork embodied a distinct form of expression, they additionally represented the generosity of the donors who have chosen to move it from the private sphere of their personal collections into the public sphere of the museum’s holdings. Within each of these donations lied the belief in sharing with as many people as possible, the gift of art.