The Westmoreland features a world-class collection of American and southwestern Pennsylvania art.
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art’s collection of significant American works of art and our extensive collection of southwestern Pennsylvania landscapes and industrial scenes has earned the Museum a world-class reputation. The Westmoreland has gained national attention for “pioneering regional investigations” by presenting its collection as important and thought-provoking exhibitions to the public.
The collection, strong in portraiture, still life, and landscapes, is arranged by subject, instead of date, and is accompanied by sculpture and decorative arts of the same style and time period. In this way, visitors can see how American art has evolved.
The ongoing exhibition Born of Fire: The Valley Work is the story of a shared past and future forged from steel, as seen through the eyes of both national and regional artists. These images express the immense energy, power, wonder and force of the vast industrial complex that took shape in the mid-nineteenth through the early twentieth-century, a time when Pittsburgh became the nation's foremost center of iron making and mass-produced steel. The collection also includes works by contemporary artists that represent remnants of the steel city. Together, they form a lasting record of the artistic and historic legacy of the southwestern Pennsylvania region.
Keywords: American art museum southwestern Pennsylvania scalp level school folk art