More than 150 paintings by women artists have been donated to the Muskegon Museum of Art (MMA) by philanthropic art collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt. A selection of those works will be presented in conjunction with the completion of a six-year expansion project, for which Bennett and Schmidt were also the lead financial donors.
Andrea Kowch, The Courtiers, 2016, acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 60”. Courtesy Muskegon Museum of Art. The Bennett Collection.
The relationship between MMA and Bennett and Schmidt dates back to 2017, when the couple was looking for a museum to partner with for exhibitions related to the Bennett Prize for women artists, a biannual gift of $50,000, which they also founded.
“We have been working with them ever since, and the relationship has grown over the years,” says Kirk Hallman, MMA’s executive director. “We are elated to receive such an important collection, but it’s really not just about the art. Steven and Elaine are visionaries as well as philanthropists, and we feel a kinship with their vision. There is a responsibility to use these gifts to further women artists’ profiles through exhibitions and programming in the new museum.”
With the opening of the Bennett Schmidt Pavilion, MMA can proudly count itself among the few museums worldwide that will have space dedicated solely to the work of women artists. A number of the donated paintings—including works by Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Cassatt, Agnes Martin, Elaine de Kooning, Harmonia Rosales, Julie Bell, Andrea Kowch, Katie O’Hagan and many other contemporary and historic women artists—will be featured in the opening exhibition, Transcending Tradition: Selection of Works from the Bennett Collection of Women Realists,on view February 6 through May 11.
Zoey Frank, Parade, 2015, oil on canvas, 78 x 126”. Courtesy Muskegon Museum of Art. The Bennett Collection
“Many of these artists are already in the cultural lexicon of importance,” says Hallman, “but the great thing about the Bennett Collection is that many of the contemporary artists in the collection are emerging as significant painters since they were collected. There is also a strong sense that other contemporary artists in the collection, who are not household names, will break out to great fame in the future. They are poised.”
Bennett and Schmidt have made women artists their sole focus since they began their collecting journey together 15 years ago, and have been increasingly fierce advocates for propelling the careers of women realist painters ever since. Museum inclusion is a key component of achieving that end.
“Every museum in the country that opens new space fills it with work by men,” says Bennett. “Sometimes they do it subliminally, sometimes they do it because ‘all the big names’ are men, but they do it and they disadvantage the women, with or without intention, by doing so. By giving women dedicated space, the institution ensures that women are included.”
Su Su, Empty Vessell III, 2021, oil on canvas, 36 x 36”. Courtesy Muskegon Museum of Art. The Bennett Collection.
He continues, “Museums are institutions, and quite often public. They are generally not commercial enterprises. They project a higher level of authority than commercial galleries or art centers. As such, when a museum ratifies the validity of women artists by putting their work on the walls, it is telling the public, ‘this is important and you need to look at it.’ Women have gone without this institutional ratification for all of history, so it’s about time that these institutions which play such an important role in defining our tastes get behind the women as artists, as creators, and as important contributors to our cultural heritage.” —
Transcending Tradition: Selection of Works from The Bennett Collection of Women Realists
February 6-May 11, 2025
Muskegon Museum of Art
296 W. Webster Avenue
Muskegon, MI 49440
(231) 720-2570
www.muskegonartmuseum.org
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