There are many very significant artists who were born in, or developed their craft and gained their recognition within the United States. Among these household names are Andy Warhol (Pop Art), Jackson Pollock (Abstract Expressionism), and Mark Rothko (Color Field)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the National Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), and the Museum of Modern Art (New York) are among the top 15 most visited art museums and galleries in the world, welcoming as many as six million visitors each year.

Many significant festivals and other art events take place in the US each year, including Art Basel in Miami, Art Expo in New York, and La Quinta Art Festival in California. These and other significant events are often hosted or funded by one of the many world class art museums located across the country.

ART GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, widely known as The Met, was established in 1870 in New York City. With a collection of more than two million pieces, it is the largest art museum in the country, and within the top ten in the world. The massive collection is manned by seventeen curatorial departments. Located just outside Central Park, The Met houses everything from classical and Egyptian art and artifacts to American and modern selections.

  An encyclopaedic collection of musical instruments and costumes from around the world also makes its home within the 2 million square foot Beaux-Arts building. Works by Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Bernini, Picasso, and Pollock are included among the countless Masters.

• Located near the political center of the country, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC was founded in 1937 and its regular exhibits are available to the public free of charge. Their large permanent collection is largely made up of donations by notable artists and collectors, and includes genres from paintings and prints to decorative and media arts.

  The museum is divided into three sections. The western-most section features an outdoor sculpture garden, while the West Building holds artworks dating up to the 20th century. The East Building, with its geometric and glass architecture, showcases modern and contemporary exhibitions.

  Within the highlights of the collection, as noted on the website, are works by Leonardo Da Vinci, Titian, Peter Paul Rubens, JMW Turner, Edouard Manet, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Roy Lichtenstein.

• Located in midtown Manhattan in New York City, the Museum of Modern Art or MoMA has been called the most influential modern art museum in the world. Within its over 150,000 works are examples of architecture, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and prints, as well as film and other electronic media.

  The museum houses a library that holds around 300,000 books and catalogs, as well as periodicals and various files. Among the illustrious pieces in the institution's collection are works by Braque, Dali, Monet, Matisse, Lichtenstein, and van Gogh.

• Boston's Museum of Fine Arts is one of the largest museums in the United States. Its collection is made up of more than 450,000 artworks that are visited by over one million guests each year. The museum was founded in 1870, and currently resides in a neoclassical building that was constructed for the institution in 1909.

  Some of the most popular parts of this massive collection include Egyptian sarcophagi and sculpture, French impressionist and post-impressionist works by Gauguin, Manet, and Van Gogh, Chinese paintings and calligraphy, and more than 1500 contemporary works created since the 1950s.

• A branch of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, the Getty Center holds an abundant collection of 19th and 20th century art, including painting, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture and photography. Sculptures adorn the 134,000 square foot garden outside the museum, and art from Asia, Europe and America are showcased throughout the center.

  Receiving more than one million visitors each year, the Getty Center has countless art pieces ranging from antique sculptures of the 2nd century BC to 19th century photographs. Their extensive collection of paintings includes works by Van Gogh and Gauguin.

• The Art Institute of Chicago, located in Chicago, is the second largest art museum in the United States, with a permanent collection of more than 260,000 pieces, including over thirty pieces by Monet, numerous Renoir paintings, and the famous Georges Seurat piece A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which measures more than 6 by 10 feet.

  The collection also holds many pieces that explore the history of African American art, including works by the well-known 20th century painter Archibald John Motley, Jr. The museum building is in the Beaux Arts style, and was erected for the 1893 World's Columbian Exhibition. The building now includes a Modern Wing, which added more than 250,000 square feet of space and showcases the museum's 20th century European art.

• Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
• Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Califarnia
• Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
• Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
• Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri
• Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota
• The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Conneticut
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
• RISD Museum of Art, Rhode Island
• Fogg Museum, Massachusetts
• Denver Art Museum, Colorado
• San Diego Museum of Art, California

The United States of America

ARTISTIC INSTITUTIONS

• Established in 1887 in New York City, Pratt Institute is a private non-profit facility for higher education, located in Brooklyn. The school, considered on of the best in the northeast of the USA, enrols more than 3500 undergraduate and graduate students in engineering, architecture and the arts, and its architecture, interior and industrial design programs are regarded highly throughout the country.

  Those interested in pursuing the fine arts can focus on ceramics, jewelry, drawing, painting, printmaking or sculpture. Photography, digital arts and various associate degrees are also available. Master's degrees are also offered in sculpture, photography, printmaking, and painting and drawing.

• The New World School School of the Arts in Miami, Florida is a unique blend of secondary and post-secondary programs. College students have the opportunity to study theatre, dance, photography, and visual art, and receive an Associate or Bachelor of Arts degree. Created in 1987 following an experiment in Dual-Enrolment Education, the school includes a public high school for students gifted in the arts, as well as a college that is an extension of the University of Florida.

  Notable alumni include the Tony-award winning actress Katie Finneran, illustrator Bernard Chang and stage actress Andrea Burns.

• The Rhode Island School of Design in Provindence is considered one of the foremost art education institutions in the world. Enrolling just over 2000 students, the college provides undergraduate and graduate courses in apparel design, architecture, ceramics, animation and film, glass, graphic design, painting, printmaking, textiles, and more.

  The school was established in 1877 by a group called The Centennial Women, who originally formed to raise the necessary money for a Women's Pavillion at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. The remaining funds went toward founding the school, which was created in conjunction with the RISD Museum of Art.

• One of the largest art schools in America, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago is affiliated with the Art Institute of Chicago art museum, and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in a variety of concentrations. Established in 1866 as the Chicago Academy of Design, the school offers a Visiting Artists program that began only two years after the school opened.

  The program hosts public events that feature discussions and performances by artists, designers and art historians. Students enrolled in the school can receive Bachelor's degrees in art history, interior architecture, studio arts, or visual and critical studies, as well as Master's degrees in journalism, fashion design, studio art and designed objects.

• The private university located just outside Los Angeles, California, California Institute of the Arts was founded in 1961 by Walt Disney himself. It offers students many artistic opportunities with degrees like Acting, Costume Design, Film, Graphic Design and Photography. With undergraduate, graduate and even doctorate programs, CalArts was envisioned as the artistic answer to CalTech, and their alumni include Alison Brie, Ed Harris, David Hasselhoff and Sophia Coppola.

  The CalArts campus is home to the state of the art Walt Disney Modular Theatre. One of only five in the world, the theatre floor is divided into more than 350 separate square platforms mounted on pistons, that allow the stage to morph into any shape and rise up to two storeys. Doors all around the theatre allow the audience to enter from whatever direction the director chooses.

• A center for graduate study in a variety of artistic concentrations, Cranbook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan began offering art instruction in the 1920s and became an official institution in 1932. Located on the 319-acre property of the Cranbrook Educational Community, the academy has ten departments comprised of 2D design, 3D design, architecture, ceramics, fibers, metalsmithing, painting, photography, print media, and sculpture.

  The learning structure is built around a mentorship program, with one artist- or designer-in-residence serving as the instructor and faculty leader for each department. Approximately 15 students are selected by each instructor for each program.

• Academy of Art University - San Francisco, California
• Julliard School - New York City, New York
• Savannah College of Art of Design - Savannah, Georgia
• Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts - Old Lyme, Connecticut
• Massachusetts College of Art and Design - Boston Massachusetts
• Yale School of Art, Yale University - New Haven, Connecticut

The Golden Gate Bridge

NATIVE ARTISTS

There are plenty of artists who made their name in the United States:

• William Rush (1756-1833) was a sculptor in the neoclassical style who resided in Pennsylvania. He co-founded the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

• Born in Prussia but raised in Massachusetts, Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) is known for his majestic landscapes of the American west. His paintings appear to glow with romantic light, a technique called luminism.

• Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was a painted and printmaker from Boston. He worked as a lithographer's apprentice following high school, and produced many oil and watercolor paintings in land- and seascape themes.

• Most famous for the painting entitled "Nighthawks", which depicts the guests of an all night cafe on a deserted street, Edward Hopper (1882-1967) spent much of his life in New York, and sold works to prominent museums such as The Whitney and The Met later in his career.

• Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was a painter and illustrator from New York, whose work is seen on calendars and framed prints on countless American kitchen walls. His most popular paintings depict ordinary scenes of middle class life.

• The photographer Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) was known for her documentary and photojouralistic work that captured the trials of the Great Depression. She was among the first faculty at the first fine art photography department at the California School of Fine Arts.

• One of the best known artists to create in the Pop Art style, Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) is best recognized for his comic book-esque enlargements that raised an art style seen by some as more lowly to a level of Fine Art.

• Andy Warhol (1928-1987) grew up in Pennsylvania, and is one of the most famous American artists to date. He was considered a leader of the Pop Art movement, and created now-famous silkscreen portraits of iconic figures such as Marilyn Monroe, Queen Elizabeth, and Muhammed Ali.

• Born in 1945 in New Jersey, Barbara Kruger is a conceptual artist whose work involves overlays of text and considers the themes of power and identity. She attended Parsons School of Design in New York.

"A Red Cross Man in the Making", Norman Rockwell, 1918

ART AND CULTURAL EVENTS

Annual Events

• Each year in March, The Amory Show takes place on the piers in central Manhattan, New York City, and features some of the most significant artworks from the last and current centuries. The three day show is the central event of Armory Arts Week, which highlights the arts organizations and communities around the city, holding events in various neighborhoods and continues to expand each year.

• Each December, the Art Basel takes place on Miami Beach, Florida. Beginning in 2002, this huge art festival brings in more than 70,000 collectors, artists and critics from around the world. The show is split into different sectors including Galleries (over 200 from around the world), Nova (showings of new artists' work), Public (a viewing of outdoor sculpture and performance), and Film (a variety of documentaries and films by or about artists).

  The event is named after the city in Sweden where the first Art Basel was held in 1970. While the original event is the celebration of the summer for the international art scene, Art Basel in Miami Beach is the celebration of the winter.

• Take in the Mountain View Art and Wine Festival, located in Downtown San Jose, California. The event features, wine, art, craft, and music over two days in mid-September. Running since 1971, the festival serves as a fundraiser for the Chamber of Commerce, as well as an exciting event that has been hailed one of the best in the nation. Proceeds go toward creating programs to join the diverse communities of the Mountain View area.

• Combining the visual, performing and culinary arts, Oklahoma City's Festival of the Arts was established in 1967 and runs for one week in April, offering free admission to its many guests. There are children's activities and a kids-only art shopping section in addition to nearly 150 visual artists who work in paint, glass, clay, leather, and more. Thirty-some food vendors exhibit their own brand of art, and hundreds of performers take to the stage to showcase their talents.

• The Dogwood Arts Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee has taken place each year since 1961. Held in April to coincide with the blooming of the dogwood trees, the event celebrates regional art and culture. A parade and home and garden show are accompanied by live musical guests and demonstrations of Appalachian folk arts such as quilting and doll making. The festival attracts up to 25,000 guests each year.

Sights to See in the United States of America

• Drive the historic Route 66, which stretches from Santa Monica, California in the south west, to Chicago, Illinois in the mideast.

• New York City is a one-stop shop to see many famous landmarks including The Statue of Liberty and The Empire State Building. While in New York State, why not visit Niagara Falls as well?

• At Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota, 60-foot tall relief sculptures of four former presidents gaze down at more than one million annual visitors.

• In San Antonio, Texas, a Franciscan mission stands to mark the location of The Alamo, a 13-day siege that took the lives of 189 volunteer soldiers in 1836.

• The iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California rises 1.7 miles above the San Francisco Bay, and stretches nearly 9,000 feet from Fort Point to Lime Point.

• Standing 555 feet tall, the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C was built from solid marble in 1884, in reverence to the first president of the United States.

• In addition to gambling and city-sized hotels, Las Vegas, Nevada is home to the Fountain of the Bellagio, which shoots water over 400 feet into the air from a nine-acre lake on the Vegas Strip.

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