Heckscher
Museum of Art - Presentation of Great
Art and Art Education Programs - Huntington
Suffolk County
Long Island New York
The Heckscher Museum of Art serves the
people of the Town of Huntington and
surrounding communities with exhibitions of
permanent and loan collections of art and
related museum programs.
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Heckscher
Museum of Art
Great Art and Art Education Programs
The Heckscher Museum of Art serves the
people of the Town of Huntington and
surrounding communities. Through exhibitions
of its permanent and loan collections of art
and related museum programs, it seeks to
provide inspiring and transformative
educational experiences to encourage a
broader understanding of our past and
present and enrich the quality of life of
the individuals it serves.
The Heckscher Museum of Art serves the
community of Long Island through the
presentation of great art and art education
programs. Since its creation, the Museum has
operated with the assumption of the inherent
civic value of publicly accessible art.
In 1920 the German-American industrialist
and developer August Heckscher opened the
Museum and surrounding park for the benefit
of the people of Huntington and the
surrounding region. Operated by a private
foundation, the Museum presented works by
Old Masters such as Lucas Cranach, Gustave
Courbet, François Girardon, and Henry
Raeburn as well as important American
painters like Edward and Thomas Moran, Asher
B Durand, and George Inness. One can detect
a certain Romantic spirit in the preference
for images of Venice and the American West
within the original collection. In the era
before World War II, Long Island was
essentially rural with an array of large
country estates along the north shore.
Figures like Henry Clay Frick, Louis Comfort
Tiffany, and Theodore Roosevelt owned large
estates along the North Shore. For a decade,
the Museum enjoyed a charmed existence.
The situation changed dramatically with the
crash of the stock market in 1929 and the
Great Depression. The foundation governing
the Museum was no longer able to operate the
Museum and so the collection remained static
and was accessible on only a very limited
basis. Eventually the efforts of concerned
citizens in the late 1940s, including local
art teachers and members of the Huntington
Township Art League (now the Art League of
Long Island), with some assistance from the
Town of Huntington resulted in the reopening
of the Museum to the public on a regular
basis. In 1954 ownership of the institution
passed to the Town of Huntington.
The modern life of The Heckscher Museum
really began in 1957 when the Town of
Huntington delegated operational
responsibility for the Museum to the Board
of Trustees of a newly formed non-profit
corporation lead by George Wilhelm. Almost
immediately the collection began to grow.
Plans were developed for a more active
exhibitions schedule and a program of
educational activities. In 1962, Eva Gatling
was hired as Director, one of the first
women to direct an art museum. During her
tenure, the Museum made its most important
acquisition since the foundation with the
purchase of George Grosz’s Eclipse of the
Sun— a monumental painting from the height
of his activity in Berlin in the 1920s. Many
more objects were added to the collection
during her sixteen-year career, including a
number of works by Arthur Dove who, like
Grosz, had lived in Huntington for an
extended period.
In the mid-1960s and 1970s, dreams of
expansion were born with initial plans
requested from Marcel Breuer. Subsequent
directors placed great emphasis on education
programs and improved exhibitions. The staff
grew in number and professionalism. The
addition of the Baker/Pisano Collection of
American works in 2001 was the single
largest gift to the Museum since the
founding donation. A major historic
preservation and renovation project, under
the direction of Centerbrook Architects, was
initiated in 2007, upgrading the exhibition
space and highlighting the original
architectural features of the building.
Today The Heckscher Museum of Art seeks to
thrive and grow in four basic
areas—education and public programs,
collections and exhibitions.
Hours
Wednesday-Friday 10:00AM-4:00PM
Saturday-Sunday 11:00AM-5:00PM
Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day
First Friday extended evening hours free
4:00PM-8:30PM; 7:00PM performance
Huntington Township residents free admission
Wednesday after 2:00PM; Saturday before
1:00PM
Administrative Office
Monday-Friday 9:00AM-5:00PM |
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Heckscher
Museum of Art
2 Prime Avenue
Huntington, NY 11743
t 631-351-3250
f 631-423-2145
www.heckscher.org
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