Zigler Art Museum
  Location of the Zigler Art Museum | |
| Established | 1970 |
|---|---|
| Location | 154 North Main St., Jennings, Louisiana 70546 |
| Website |
www |
The Zigler Art Museum is an art museum located inside of City Hall in Jennings, Louisiana. The permanent collection of the museum represents major movements in art from the Nineteenth Century to the present. Established in 1970 by Ruth Zigler with twenty works of art and nine dioramas, the collection has grown to include over six hundred objects.
Description
The Zigler Art Museum's exhibitions, which rotate quarterly, include thematic selections from the Permanent Collection, travelling exhibitions, and those curated by ZAM staff.
ZAM's collection includes local, national, and international works of art, with an aim to chronicle the development of visual art in Louisiana. Focusing on work of the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries, the museum’s fine and decorative arts embody Louisiana’s history and culture, while placing this local art within the global scene. This context provides an appropriate backdrop for the museum’s focus on emerging Louisiana artists.
Highlights from the collection include work by John James Audubon, Charles Sprague Pearce, Helen Turner, Angela Gregory, Clementine Hunter, Ellsworth Woodward, Alexander Calder, Helen Gerardia, Alexander Drysdale, and a large collection of work by William Tolliver.
History
Ruth Zigler’s passion for art and generous spirit led her to start the Museum with a trust fund in 1963. An avid collector, she also donated her personal art collection and the Clara Street house that she and her late husband, Fred B. Zigler, had called home since 1908. In anticipation of an expanding art collection and to house nine large wildlife dioramas, Ruth added two wings onto the home in 1969. The Zigler Art Museum formally opened to the public in 1970. The historic home housed the Museum’s growing art collection and welcomed visitors for the past 45 years.
The Zigler Art Museum’s collection has continued to grow, and it now includes works of art by local, national, and European artists. The collection consists of two- and three-dimensional works from the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries, ranging from folk to Impressionist paintings, from native crafts to bronze sculptures, and from carved wood to photography.
In December 2015, the museum moved into the new City Hall building, as the result of a vision conceived by the Museum’s Board of Trustees. Not only does this new space present the Zigler’s collection to better effect, but its location is ideal for creating true partnerships with the other cultural entities of Jennings. The Zigler Art Museum’s renewed focus on art and education will help to ensure its sustainability into the future – a future that surely would delight Ruth Zigler.