In celebration of The Baltimore Museum of Art’s 100th anniversary,the museum will reopen the Merrick Historic Entrance and the renovated Dorothy McIlvain Scott American Wing on November 23, 2014 with a new presentation of its outstanding collection of American art, considered one of the finest on the East Coast.

Visitors will be able to explore new facets of American art, history, and culture through more than 850 paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts displayed throughout the second level of the museum’s original building, a Beaux-Arts masterpiece by the great American architect John Russell Pope.

The reinstallation of the American Wing marks a major milestone in the BMA’s $28 million renovation to providevisitors with a more welcoming environment and revitalized displays of the museum’s celebrated collections. The first phase was successfully completed with the November 2012 reopening of the Contemporary Wing.

The final phase of the multi-year project will be marked by the reinstallation of the African and Asian art collections in April 2015 and the opening of a new center for learning and creativity in October 2015.

Major support for the American Wing renovation was provided by the State of Maryland, France-Merrick Foundation, City of Baltimore, Middendorf Foundation, Estate of Christopher Weeks, National Endowment for the Humanities,and the Friends of the American Wing.

“Reopening the historic entrance will be an extraordinary moment during the BMA’s centennial celebration,” said BMA Director Doreen Bolger. “We are looking forward to throwing open the doors and welcoming visitors to abeautiful new presentation of our renowned American collection.”

Organized by BMA Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and American Painting & Sculpture David Park Curry, the museum’s magnificent new presentation of the American art collection invites visitors to explore more than 200 years of American art through a broad range of objects, most dating from 1760 through 1960.

The reinstallation will place American art in a global context with artworks from England, France, and other countries displayed to emphasize our nation’s participation in international art circles and Baltimore’s role as a major center for art production and intercontinental trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. Likewise, paintings and sculpture will be integrated with decorative arts to reveal the social, economic, and cultural links between the often-separated disciplines.

“By expanding the approach to American art both geographically and chronologically, the BMA’s reinstallation highlights the deep ties between American art, our nation’s history, and the broader world,” said Curry. “We hope visitors will be inspired by the stories contained in each of these incredible works of art, connecting the objects to the people who created and collected them.”

The painting collection ranges from 18th-century portraits and 19th-century landscapes to American Impressionism and modernism with works by Thomas Cole, John Singleton Copley, Thomas Eakins, John Singer Sargent, and other acclaimed artists. Among the signature masterpieces on view are Charles Willson Peale’s Mary Sterett (Mrs. Richard Gittings, Sr.) (1788), John Frederick Kensett’s View on the Hudson (1865), Theodore Robinson’s The Watering Place (1891), and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Pink Tulip (1926). The BMA has a long and distinguished record of collecting works by African-American artists that began in 1939 with one of the first exhibitions of African-American art in the country.

The BMA’s holdings of American decorative arts includes silver and an extensive furniture collection that represents the major historic cabinetmaking centers of Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston.