Appleton Museum of Art

About

The Appleton Museum of Art is an art museum in Ocala, Florida, United States. It is affiliated with and governed by the College of Central Florida and has been since 2004. The Appleton Museum of Art houses a permanent collection of more than 24,000 works including art and artifacts representative of European, American, Asian, African, Contemporary and pre-Columbian styles. It also displays special exhibits on a temporary basis throughout the year. The museum collects works specifically from Florida artists and showcases history and progression of Central Florida culture.

Business magnate Arthur I. Appleton and his wife, the former Martha O'Driscoll bought land in the Ocala area during the mid-1970s and established Bridlewood Farm, a thoroughbred breeding and training facility. Construction of the Appleton Museum of Art began in 1984 on 44 acres of forested land on East Silver Springs Boulevard in 1984. Under the guidance of Mr. Appleton and Museum Director, Moussa Domit, who brought a more cultured and experienced perspective, the building eventually opened to the public in 1987 as the Appleton Museum of Art. Built by more than 300 tradesmen from 130 companies, the museum is clad in 80,000 square feet of Italian travertine marble and the flooring consists of 15,000 square feet of Bolivian Capao Bonito granite. The marble and stone work was done by Antagon/Paleni of Montreal and the glass came from Pilkington Glass of England. In 1996, the Edith-Marie Appleton Wing, funded by and named after Arthur I. Appleton's sister, was constructed and in 2009 a 2,662-square-foot art storage facility was also added, bringing the museum's total overall size to just under 82,000 square feet. In 2013, the Appleton Museum of Art earned accreditation by the American Alliance of Museums and achieved reaccreditation in 2023.

The Appleton Art Museum is located within the Appleton Cultural Center, a complex east of the city's downtown area, which it shares with the Ocala Civic Theatre. The museum's unique structural design is a work of art, in itself. The two-story travertine marble building is surrounded by a fountain and a long reflecting pool, and the surrounding landscaped grounds span 11.3 acres. The Appleton Museum of Art's impressive and diverse interior features include six art galleries, totaling several thousand square feet, and a 250-seat auditorium and cafe surrounding an open-air courtyard. Additionally, the Edith-Marie Appleton Wing includes the Artspace, a family makerspace, the Clay Lab with 11 pottery wheels, and the Art Lab, another studio art classroom.

The Appleton Museum is home to eight permanent art collections, spanning multiple time periods and themes, and temporary exhibitions that rotate in and out of the museum periodically.

One of the missions of the Appleton Museum of Art is to support local Florida artists by collecting and displaying their artworks. This mission is made possible with the help of sponsors such as the Ina Gotler-Colen and Gladys Shafran Kashdin Endowed Acquisitions Fund for Florida Artists and the David and Lisa Midgett Foundation.

The town that the Appleton Museum of Art was built in, Ocala, Florida, is lauded as the Horse Capital of the World, and as Ocala is known for both its horse farms and its equestrian centers, it is no surprise that the Appleton Museum wanted to showcase its history with horses by making one of its permanent collections an homage to Ocala's equestrian legacy. After all, when Arthur I. Appleton and his wife first bought property in Ocala, they built and established a horse farm by the name of Bridlewood Farm. The Equine collection represents over 3,000 years of equine history from around the world, from Eurasian Steppe Bronze Age horse-bridle bits to more contemporary works.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.