Arkell Museum

Arkell Museum

The Arkell Museum and Canajoharie Library
Location	Canajoharie, New York
Coordinates	42°54′27.0″N 074°34′18.9″W / 42.907500°N 74.571917°W / 42.907500; -74.571917
Type	Art Museum
Website	AMandCL.org

The organization is a rare blend - an association library and fine art museum operating as one legal entity.

The Canajoharie Library began in the 1880s, when local leaders established a lending library in the drawing room of the Arkell family home. In 1914, with the support of Bartlett Arkell, first president of the Beech-Nut Packing Company, the Library received it’s New York State charter. In 1925, Arkell gifted the original section of our current building to the village in memory of his father-- remaining actively involved until his death in the 1940s.

In 1929, the Memorial Gardens were created in memory of Arkell’s wife, Louisanna Grigsby Arkell. Along with Humoresque, a sculpture by artist Harriet Frishmuth, our garden continues to be a renowned landmark associated with our organization.

A major expansion of our building was completed in 2007 that created a museum to exhibit our Fine Art Collection, made possible by the Arkell Hall Foundation. The Foundation is a separate organization but remains a significant financial benefactor.

The Arkell Museum features an extensive collection of American paintings, sculptures, Mohawk Valley history, and Beech-Nut advertising memorabilia from the early 20th century. In addition to our permanent and rotating galleries, our three Regional Art spaces showcase the talents of local artists.

The Canajoharie Library is an important source of educational, social, and entertainment opportunities through year-round programming, but we also provide crucial access to information, technology, and office services.

We strive to create a welcoming, inclusive, and respectful environment for people of all ages. Only by working together as a single organization are we able to promote and celebrate the arts and humanities in Canajoharie, the Mohawk Valley, and beyond.

The Mission and Vision

The Arkell Museum and Canajoharie Library provides literary, entertainment, and information resources, and promotes the active use of these resources for recreation, education, and community engagement.

Whether you are stopping by to check out the latest new book, find a favorite classic, meet with your neighbor, or try a new skill at a program we want to encourage you to learn, discover, and foster your interests through reading.

The Arkell Museum is a museum in Canajoharie, New York that has an extensive collection of American paintings, primarily from 1860–1940, as well as historical exhibits about the history of the Mohawk River Valley and of the Beech-Nut babyfood company. The Canajoharie Library was founded in 1924, and a gallery was added in 1927. The museum was originally built to house copies of European masterpieces and original 19th-century American paintings collected by Bartlett Arkell, then the town's leading industrialist. Susan Finch has written of the museum, "The institution has evolved into more than just an art gallery with a library attached, but an art gallery with a small town attached. The roster of American painters exhibited here is astounding and completely out of scale with what you would expect from a Thruway exit between Albany and Utica."¹

Arkell acquired and donated some of the finest American paintings he came across. He incorporated several elements from different art museums that he visited in Europe and the United States into this museum. These were the European paintings Galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Prince George Gallery at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, England and the gallery that housed The Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Many of the paintings on display reflect Arkell's personal taste. Growing up in Canajoharie, landscapes of rural New York State and the Mohawk River are what Arkell found intriguing as well as familiar as they can be seen hanging on the museum walls

The permanent collection includes twenty-one paintings by Winslow Homer, works by all members of The Eight, and paintings by leading American Impressionists such as Childe Hassam. George Inness and Ralph Blakelock are also well represented by several works in this impressive collection. American paintings from the 20th century include realist and regionalist works by Paul Sample, Ogden Pleissner and Thomas Hart Benton.

This decorative arts collection derived from Arkell's desire to acquire objects of good taste such as furniture, sculpture, glass and pottery to place in the museum and library.

References

References

1. Finch, Susan (2010). Upstate New York Off the Beaten Path: A Guide to Unique Places. Globe Pequot. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-7627-5945-3. OCLC 906187344.