Miami Art Museum

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In its earliest incarnation, Miami Art Museum, known from 1984 to 1996 as the Center for Fine Arts, was strictly an exhibiting organization, presenting temporary exhibitions from the entire breadth of art history but having no collection of its own. The building MAM now inhabits was built for that purpose, not to house a permanent collection.

In 1995, as the CFA completed its tenth anniversary year, it engaged in a long-range planning process involving thousands of Miamians. Among the decisions made as a result of that process was to change the institution's name to Miami Art Museum and focus on collecting and exhibiting art of the 20th and 21st centuries, with an emphasis on art from the Western Hemisphere. The determination to focus on modern art was based on the conviction that this was the area in which the museum could most successfully achieve its goals, given the nature of private collections in the Miami area and the market value of more historical works.

From 1996 to 2005, under the leadership of Founding Director Suzanne Delehanty, the new MAM made important steps towards its goal, growing its collection from nothing to nearly 300 works of art-a number which quickly grew to nearly 500 by mid-2007.

Text copyright Miami Art Museum.