Art exhibitions at The Grace Museum focus on historic and contemporary American art and artists with Texas connections. Group and solo exhibitions are curated by the chief curator and occasionally include significant traveling exhibitions that inform the exhibition focus. Three exhibitions of fine art photography are presented annually in the Alice and Bill Wright Photography Gallery on the second floor. First and second floor art galleries change every few months to accommodate 10 to 12 unique art exhibitions each year.

Now On View

For Love of the Land: Painting the Texas Landscape

For Love of the Land: Painting the Texas Landscape

February 17September 21, 2024
Exhibition Reception | Friday, May 3, 2024 | 5 pmGuest Speaker: Michael Grauer, McCasland Chair of Cowboy Culture, Curator of Cowboy Collections & Western Art at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum One of the first chroniclers of art in Texas was Abilenian France Battaile Fisk, who wrote in her 1928 publication, A History of Texas Artists and Sculptors, Art

Upcoming Exhibitions

Bill Wright's Texas: Luminous Landscapes

Bill Wright's Texas: Luminous Landscapes

Mar 21 Sep 21
Artist Reception | Thursday, July 11, 2024 | 6 pm “Texas is renowned for its diverse and expansive landscapes, showcasing a remarkable array of natural features. From Gulf Coast beaches to stunning western mountain ranges, indigenous peoples’ cultural and historical…
Young Masters Juried Art Exhibition 2024

Young Masters Juried Art Exhibition 2024

Mar 21 Apr 6
Abilene Education Foundation (AEF) is proud to present the 17th Annual AEF Young Masters Juried Art Exhibition, which will be on view March 21 – April 6, 2024 at The Grace Museum in downtown Abilene. The exhibition will then move to Abilene…
Texas Landscapes from The Grace Museum Permanent Collection

Texas Landscapes from The Grace Museum Permanent Collection

Apr 13 Sep 21
The Grace Museum (originally The Abilene Fine Arts Museum) has a history of collecting important prints, paintings and drawings focusing on the Texas landscape. This companion exhibition features works of art collected during the last 76 years of collecting. Paintings…
The Artistic Legacy of Buck Schiwetz

The Artistic Legacy of Buck Schiwetz

Apr 25 Sep 21
Lecture | Thursday, June 6, 2024 | 6 pmGuest Speakers: Drs. Linda and Bill Reaves, Curators, Authors, Collectors Artist Edward “Buck” Muegge Schiwetz (1898-1984) was born in Cuero, Texas on August 24, 1898. After their brief stay in New York,…

Our Permanent Art Collection

The collection and sharing of art in a formal setting has been important to Abilenians since the 1920s, as Abilene grew into a bustling town. An art gallery was in the Carnegie Library on Pine Street in downtown Abilene, and later the Abilene Fine Arts Museum was founded in 1937 in a small building in Rose Park on South 7th. Cultured and civic-minded citizens of Abilene had been collecting art for decades for the benefit of the citizens of Abilene, and today many of the stars of The Grace Museum’s permanent art collection were acquired by early influencers in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1992, the museum moved downtown to the restored Hotel Grace, which was built in 1902 to welcome travelers on the railroad. The official name was changed to The Grace Museum in 1998.

The Grace Museum’s art collection of more than 2,500 works of art is composed of paintings, fine art prints, artist’s books, sculpture, photographs, and works on paper including drawings, watercolors, and pastels.

The focus of the collection is American art with Texas connections and features works by Ansel Adams, Edward Eisenlohr, Charles Taylor Bowling, Peter Hurd, Thomas Hart Benton, David Bates, Robert Rauschenberg, Vernon Fisher, Melissa Miller, James Surls, Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, and many others.

With grant funds awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), The Grace Museum is now able to make its permanent art collection publicly accessible through the development of an online searchable database.

Web-ready images and comprehensive descriptions for the digital content permits partnering institutions, researchers, and teachers in rural and urban classrooms across the country to learn about the museum’s art collection and its importance to contemporary and historical art and Texas culture. The searchable database also serves as a way for other museums to discover artwork available for borrowing from The Grace collection.

For more information about The Grace Museum’s art collection, please contact collections@thegracemuseum.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. To find out more about how National Endowment for the Arts grants impact individuals and communities, visit www.arts.gov.

Past Exhibitions

Alice & Bill Wright Photography Collection

With this new venue for Texas photography –and bolstered by the Wrights’ donations and own collection of over 400 original prints as its critical foundation – they are bringing The Grace into a growing continuum of committed photographic institutions throughout our state.

Roy Flukinger
Curator of Photography, Harry Ransom Center,
The University of Texas at Austin, 2008

In 2008, The Grace Museum dedicated The Alice and Bill Wright Photography Gallery in response to the Wrights’ on-going gift of photographs to the museum’s art collection. Photographs donated by the Wrights formed the foundation of the collection which has grown to over 780 photographs representing the work of more than 260 photographers. The Grace Museum’s goal is to create a premiere photography collection with an emphasis on Texas photographers augmented by outstanding photographs from around the world. As a result, The Grace Museum curatorial staff is committed to the exhibition, documentation, preservation, research, and interpretation of photography and curates and exhibits three photography exhibitions annually from the Wright Collection and loans from other institutions. Photography exhibitions curated at The Grace have also traveled to other museums. The collection, as well as the Wright Photography Research Collection of The Grace Museum Library serves as a resource for photographers as well as researchers interested in Texas Photography.

Artists in The Grace Museum Photography Collection

Abell, Sam
Adams, Ansel
Agrons, Geoffrey Ansel
Anderson, Marilyn
Armstrong, Frank
Au-My, Le
Baker, James M.
Baldwin, Fred
Baldwin, Lynn
Bankhead, Judy
Barber, Craig J.
Barros, Ricardo
Benigno, John A.
Benoit, Cherie
Bernhard, Ruth
Berry, Alexia
Bethel, David
Bonar, Ave
Bones, Jim
Bourda, Ange
Bowman, Chuck
Brauchli, Byron
Bridges, Marilyn
Bristol, George Lambert
Brown, Eleanor
Brown, Jeanette
Brown, Jerry D.
Brown, Patrick
Brown, Peter
Bullock, Edna
Bullock, Wynn
Burkholder, Dan
Butman, Steven
Caldwell, Clifton
Calfee, Laura Pickett
Card, Charlott
Carmichael, Lee
Carter, Keith
Cartier-Bresson, Henri
Chandler, Elta
Chong, Albert
Christie-Siefert, Cindi
Clift, William
Cockerham, Terry
Colson, J.B.
Connor, Linda S.
Courvoisier, Jerry
Cromer-Campbell, Tammy
Crouch, Steve
Culver, Dan
Darling, Dennis
Davis, Greg
Denton, Kay
deVecchis, Rita Gaudet
DiRado, Stephen
Dixon, Colin
Durham, David
Edgerton, Harold
Eggleston, William
English, John 

  

Evans, D. Clarke
Evans, James H.
Ewing, Georgiana Millerman
Faber, Johannes
Fagan, Dennis
Faulkner, Barbara
Fenker, Jr., Richard
Feresten, Peter
Fink, Larry E.
Fleming, Sandy
Fleming, W.P.
Forman, Fran
Forrest, Jay
Frank, Robert
Fraser, John
Gandert, Miguel
Garduno, Flor
Garnett, William A.
George, Ann
Gibson, David H.
Gilpin, Henry
Gitman, Sergei
Gladkov, Eduard
Goddard-Finegold, Jan
Goff, Steve
Goldbeck, Eugene Omar
Goldsmith, Aase
Golemboski, Carol
Grant, Susan Kae
Gray, Robert
Gullet, John
Haiduk, Renie
Harding, Thomas
Hartman, David
Harvey, Melinda Green
Hatch, Ken
Heisey, Adriel
Henle, Fritz
Hirmon, Janice
Hodel, Doug
Hooper, Chip
Hoving, Kirsten
Hudnall, Earlie, Jr.
Iturbide, Graciela
Jator, Vossius
Jennings, Emily
Johnson, Joanne
Johnson, Lemuel
Johnson, Rob
Jordan, Bryce
Kachadurian, Thomas
Kachel, David
Kaida, Tamarra
Keimig, Lance
Kennedy, Bill
Kennedy, David Michael
Kidwell, Angela Bacon
Kirby, Don
Klett, Mark
Klump, Julie 

Kotz, Jack
Kozal, Paul A.
Krause, George
Krieger, Eddie
Kuznetsova, Lyalya
Lang, Ed
Langham III, Robert
Langmore, Bank
Lauterstein, George
Lavenson, Alma Ruth
Ledbetter, E. Wright
Lee, Russell
Lierz, Virginia Lee
Lovett, O. Rufus
Lowcock, Ford E.
Lown, Lynn
Maisel, David
Mallo, Luis
Marcus, Helen
Mark, Mary Ellen
Martin, Scott
Martzke, Lisa
Marvins, Michael
McDonald, Ann
McFarland, Lawrence
Mercer, Billie
Meyerson, Arthur
Mezeul II, Mike
Millan, Kathryn
Miller, Patty
Mitchell, Daphne-Claire
Moukhin, Igor
Nelson, Kathryn
Newbern, St. Clair
Newburn, Lum
Newman, Richard
Noble, David
Noggle, Anne
Norton, Judy
Nye, Michael
Ollman, Arthur
Ondrej, Charles
Overturf, James
Packer, Jay
Palmer, Charles
Peck, Mary
Peeler, Alison Wright
Pfahl, John
Phelps, Brent
Philips, Mary
Pilcher, Ben
Pothier, Martin H.
Pritzker, Burton
Rainier, Chris G.
Ranney, Edward
Rapier, April
Regas, Chris
Ridley, Jack
Rosen, David
Rosenthal, Joe 
Rowley, Milton “Mac”
Rubenstein, Meridel
Rubin, Janice
Rueb, Debra
Rufatt, Gonzalo
Rumme, Allen
Running, John
Rybtchinski, Yuri
Salcido, Joel
Salgado, Sebastião
Sanders, Larry, C.
Scanlan, Nancy
Schultz, Phil
Schweers, Danny
Seligman, Sharon
Sexton, John
Sherman, Heidi
Smith, Amanda K.
Smith, Larry
Smith, Luther
Smith, T.A.
Smithers, Wilfred Dudley
Sokal, Paul
Stautberg, Ann
Stevenson, Don
Steinke, Krista
Sudek, Jason
Sutherland, Tim
Szabo, Steve
Szekessy, Karin
Taylor, Julia
Thomas, Lew
Thornhill, Ashton
Tice, George A.
Tinnen, Lupita Murillo
Tress, Arthur
Trice, Gordon
Van Cleef, June
Vassilev, Jecko
Wagnon, Ken
Wallace, Margaret
Watriss, Wendy
Watson, Carol
Wells, Randy
Wier, Nevada
Wildride, Charles
Williams, Rick
Williams, Steve
Wimer, Jay
Winningham, Geoff
Witherill, Huntington
Witliff, Bill
Wolcott, Marion Post
Wolens, Marc
Wright, Alice
Wright, Bill
Wright, Mitch
Yarrow, Carol
Yoon, Yeung-Seu
Young, Jim