Woodmere Art Museum
Woodmere Art Museum is an American Art Museum located in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1940 and consists of two separate buildings - the Charles Knox Smith Hall and Frances M. Maguire Hall of Art and Education and outdoor sculpture gardens. It has a collection of over 8,000 works of art focused on Philadelphia artists.
Description
The museum is located at 9201 Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia and contains over 8,000 works of art. It consists of two separate buildings, the John K. Smith Hall and the Francis M. Maguire Hall for Art and Education. The properties are two blocks apart and are connected by a public sidewalk.The focus of the museum is on Philadelphia artists and contains a children's gallery of art from local students. The museum hosts art classes for adults and children and sponsors jazz concerts and events for families.
The museum galleries contain works from Thomas Pollock Anshutz, Severo Antonelli, Arthur Beecher Carles, Bo Bartlett, George Biddle, Syd Carpenter, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Violet Oakley, Martha Mayer Erlebacher, Walter Schofield, Danny Simmons, and Ellen Powell Tiberino. The museum grounds contain outdoor sculptures from Harry Bertoia, and Harriet Frishmuth.
History
The museum was opened in 1940, founded by Charles Knox Smith, an oil and mining businessman, in his will. Smith was born in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia and began his career as a grocer's boy and as an oil wagon driver. He rose to become a partner in that oil firm and subsequently invested in his own oil brokerage and a gold and silver mining company in Mexico.Smith's collection of paintings, sculpture and antiques form the base of the permanent collection. It is housed in his Victorian mansion, Woodmere, to which Smith had added large exhibition spaces.
In 2021, Woodmere purchased a second building from the Sisters of St. Joseph that had fallen into disrepair. The building was renovated and opened in October 2025 as the Frances M. Maguire Hall for Art and Education. The building is 17,000 square feet, sits on 4 acres of land, and contains 14 galleries and a studio for art education. The addition of the second building allowed the museum to display additional items from their permanent collection including use of the second floor for impressionist painters and the basement level for display of jewelry art.