American Anthem

Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum

A song of praise to the nation, American Anthem celebrates the symbols of liberty, ingenuity, and refuge indelibly imbedded in American folk art from colonial days through the present. This glorious full-color volume highlights treasures from the important collection of the American Folk Art Museum works that will be on display from June through December 2002 as the second major exhibition at the museum's new building in New York City.

Touchstone to American culture

From Log Cabin quilts and painted wood furniture to watercolors and oil paintings; from Hosea Hayden's idiosyncratic folding chairs to the drawings of the octogenarian street artist and former slave Bill Traylor; from Girl in Red Dress with Cat and Dog, the masterpiece of 19th-century ancestral portrait artist Ammi Phillips, to works by the noted contemporary self-taught artist Thornton Dial Sr., here are 293 remarkable examples of this vital yet still underexamined touchstone to American culture.

American Folk Art Museum

The museum was originally named the Museum of Early American Folk Arts, and in these years it always seemed on the brink of going bankrupt. Indeed, some of the permanent collection was auctioned off in the early 1970s just to raise money.
Major support for education is provided by the William Randolph Hearst Foundations and the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund. Evening events at the American Folk Art Museum are made possible through the generous support of Nancy and Dana Mead. Family art workshops are sponsored by D’Arcy and Dana G. Mead Jr. and Susan and Mark C. Mead. 2006 Camp Programs are made possible in part through the generous support of Denise and Sam De Rosa-Farag.
In recent years it has more fully embraced the contemporary side, establishing a "Contemporary Center" in the new space and established the Henry Darger study center.