The Pettman Museum
| the Pettman Museum
Dunell Hills [6,30]
Basic Info:
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The Pettman Museum is a Cubist and comprehensive art museum located in the Dunell Hills suburb of Malton on a campus that once covered nearly 8 acres.
In the height of the art scene in Malton, the Pettman featured an encyclopedic collection of more than 100,000 objects spanning 5,000 years of world history. Its collection included paintings, photographs, prints & drawings, textiles, architecture, and decorative arts. Additionally, it once housed the most comprehensive collection of Asian and African art, and art from Oceania and the Americas.
It is noted for its particularly strong collection of Asian art, in particular Chinese architecture and ceramics.
In order to encourage private collecting and assist in the acquisition of important works of art, the museum was responsible for the creation of The Curatorial Council of Malton that scheduled lectures, symposia, and travel for members and was aligned with the seven curatorial areas inside the museum.
Along with the permanent collection, the Pettman Museum featured a regular series of art exhibitions that brought in traveling collections from other museums for display. The last such exhibit to be displayed before the outbreak was a Cubist installation by the artist Vadim Meller.
The Pettman Museum also housed the Malton Artists Exhibition Program. The MAEP was an artist-controlled program devoted to the exhibition of works by artists who live in Malton.
History
Growing out of the high culture of fine arts in the heyday of Malton, the first meeting of what became the Malton Society of Fine Arts took place in 1883. This group, made up of business and professional leaders of the time, organized art exhibits throughout the decade. In 1889, now known as The Pettman Institute after the groups founder Kevan Pettman, they moved into its first permanent space inside the newly built Malton Public Library. The museum building, designed by the firm of McKevan, Ale and Grey, opened its doors in 1915. Built on land donated by the Morison family formerly occupied by their Villa Rosada mansion, the museum came to be recognized as one of the finest examples of the Beaux-Arts style of architecture in Malton. The building was originally meant to be the first of several sections but only this front piece was ultimately built; several additions have subsequently been built according to other plans. Lack of public interest in the 1970's and a rise in property taxes forced the museum to sell it's porperty in the northern block and several of the adjacent buildings were demolished to make way for condominiums. This deal also fell through and the land remained unused until early 2005. In 1974 the southern end of the main building, which was once home to a children's theater company, was turned into a night club in a measure to attract a more diverse audience to the museum. A sculpture garden in Softley Park located just north of the old building was scheduled to open at the end of July 2005 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the museum.
The building is one of two museums located within Dunell Hills, a neighborhood built by wealthy Malton business leaders between 1880 and 1920. The district is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Currently the exhibits are being maintained by Martonic17 in the hope that some culture might remain in Malton.
