A Sum of Its Parts
/Victor Vasarely, Untitled (Sphere), n.d., Serigraph (184/250), Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection 2001.19.3, Gift of William and Norma Roth
July 13 through September 17, 2016
Dorothy Jenkins Gallery and Gallery II
This year marks Polk Museum of Art’s 50th anniversary! When founded in 1966, the Polk Public Museum, as it was called, owned a broadly diverse permanent collection that included everything from petrified dinosaur teeth to homemade dolls. The vision for the permanent collection shifted in the early 1980s when the museum revised its mission to become exclusively an art museum. As it became the Polk Museum of Art, its collecting focus accordingly narrowed to only include works of fine art. Currently, the museum’s permanent collection includes approximately 2,300 art objects ranging from prehistoric artifacts to 21st century digital prints. A Sum of Its Parts will be a comprehensive chronology of the collection that will also chronicle the museum’s evolution alongside its collecting interests.