The Bolinas Museum's Permanent Collection and Permanent Collection gallery were established by Executive Director Dolores Richards (retired 2006)with the help of many Board members, patrons, the Sellon family, and selected artists who were invited to contribute their work to the collection. Several historic paintings by important local artists were purchased by the museum with the help of generous donors. The works were exhibited in a series of yearly invitational exhibitions in the main gallery that included works on paper, three dimensional work, photography and paintings.

In 2007, new Executive Director Vandy Seeburg added to the beauty and conservation aspects of the room by having blonde hardwood floors installed, along with a ventilation system. Curator Dieter Tremp installed a diverse selection of contemporary art from the collection and changes it periodically. The result is a glowing room that invites you to savor the work and return again and again.

 

 

 

 

About the Gallery

Permanent collections define museums. Owning, studying, conserving, and explaining physical evidence of human accomplishment and of the natural world is the sole characteristic that distinguishes these institutions from other endeavors. The only component of museums that declares them unique is the tangible evidence they acquire and keep. Through the tangible we touch the intangible. Museums relentlessly mine permanent collections for insight and information. Permanent collections offer extraordinary opportunities, and are what most people see most of the time.

Despite the obvious importance permanent collections hold for museums, small museums often complain that collections are more trouble than they are worth. But museums are forums for communication and their medium is the original object. There is an almost primal human need to use objects to help understand and accept reality, even hold onto it, regardless of time. In addition to expecting to see real things, people want to know that collections are, for the most part, "theirs" for the long term -- not here today and gone tomorrow.

Through the generous support of the John A. Sellon family, who have endowed this gallery space, the open heartedness of those who have given the museum works from their own family collections, and the generosity of others who helped us buy works that belonged in this collection, the Bolinas Museum now has a core of fne contemporary and historic art workby Coastal Marin artists in its permanent collection.

Dolores Richards