Fort Wayne Museum of Art

The earliest roots of the Fort Wayne Museum of Art were informal art classes in drawing and painting, which were first taught in 1888 by J. Ottis Adams and later by William Forsyth. Both artists became important regional influences, whose skills in drawing and composition had been sharpened by tutelage at the Royal Academy in Munich. By 1897 these art classes were formally organized under the official name, The Fort Wayne Museum of Art School. Over the next twenty years the Art School continued to thrive despite limited funds and several changes in location.

In 1921, the function of museum was added to the school when a collection of ten paintings was donated by Theodore Thieme. A prominent Fort Wayne citizen, Thieme recognized the importance of art to the community, and, in addition to the paintings, he donated his residence at 1026 West Berry Street. In 1949, the B. Paul Mossman home at 1202 West Wayne Street was donated to the museum and, for the first time, an entire facility could be devoted completely to exhibitions and collections.

The museum split with the art school in 1977, in which the school became a department of Indiana University Purdue University at Fort Wayne. The museum is now housed in a 1984 facility designed by architect Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Accredited by the American Association of Museums, the Fort Wayne Museum of Art is committed to exhibiting and collecting works of American artists.