Causes: Arts and Culture, Children and Youth, Education
Community. Culture. Connection. Communication. Creativity.
El Paso Museum of Art Foundation and the Museum of Art are celebrating 25 years in its current location, serving the El Paso Downtown Arts District with free high-caliber exhibitions and cultural art experiences to our community and beyond.
As we look ahead to the next 25 years, it is imperative to uphold our traditions, and our mission with a Frontera Forward approach. Your support will enable us to offer engaging exhibitions and programs, art conservation projects, and building improvements, to best showcase the museum’s permanent collection.
Your gift will enrich the cultural landscape of El Paso but also celebrate our diverse cultures and sustain the museum as an inclusive, inspiring, and dedicated space for art.
Mission
The mission of the El Paso Museum of Art (EPMA) is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit works of art that support and illuminate the Museum’s permanent collection of American, European, and Mexican art. The Museum celebrates the region’s diverse cultures through exhibitions, acquisitions, and educational programs and is dedicated to scholarship while providing a stimulating and inspiring environment for all audiences.
History
Founded in 1959, the El Paso Museum of Art was born from a need to house a significant donation of European Baroque and Renaissance works to the City of El Paso by the Samuel Kress Foundation. Over time, this seed collection grew to include over 7,000 works. In 1998, EPMA moved to its current location at the heart of El Paso’s Downtown Arts District, less than a mile from the bridge to Juárez. EPMA strives to ensure that it provides the El Paso/Juárez “Borderplex” with access to the very best, of international interest. EPMA presents a dozen exhibitions a year, with a wide scope of programming initiatives and Art School offerings. Most recently, EPMA directly enhanced the quality of its collections, featuring galleries devoted to Latin American Art, Early Texas Art, Contemporary Art, American Art, Works on Paper, and Latin American Retablos.
Unique Audience, Diverse Community
EPMA is the only American Alliance of Museums-accredited art museum within a 200-mile radius, one of the only accredited museums in all of West Texas, and serves as a major cultural and educational resource for West Texas, New Mexico, and Northern Mexico with nearly 115,000 visitors each year.
