Institutional Archives: Chronology of the Delaware Art Museum - 1980-2003

After thirteen years of operation the Downtown Gallery located in the lobby of the Bank of Delaware closes.

The Gilpin Allegheny Company donates the space at the entrance to their offices, in the atrium of the new Hercules Plaza building, for use as the Downtown Gallery.

Formative stages of the $6.5 million Capital Campaign and the blueprint stages for expansion and renovation begin. January 1987 is targeted for completion of the project and March of the same year for the formal Grand Opening. The plan is to construct a 20,000 square foot wing with an additional 15,000 square feet of renovated space.

Proposed floor schemes for the 1987 addition and renovation

Downtown Gallery closes in the Hercules Building.

The Museum reopens with the exhibition Howard Pyle: The Artist & His Legacy, held in the newly constructed Pamela and Lammot duPont Copeland Wing.

Rome II by Al Held is purchased with the Francis V. duPont Acquisition Fund, established in 1982 and used to contribute to the rapid growth of the Museum's holdings in the post-World War II era.

Catalog cover for Howard Pyle: The Artist & His Legacy
Exhibition held at the Delaware Art Museum

Al Held
Rome II, 1982
Acrylic on canvas
F. V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 1987
DAM #1987-9

Pegafomasaurus, the newly installed children's participatory gallery opens to the public.

The "Peg Room"

Downtown Gallery opens in the Mellon Bank building.

Museum acquires The Arming of a Knight and Glorious Gwendolen's Golden Hair designed by William Morris and painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

William Morris and Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The Arming of a Knight and Glorious Gwendolen's Golden Hair, l. 1856-e. 1857
Painted deal, leather, and nails
Acquired through the Bequest of Doris Wright Anderson and through the F.V. du Pont Acquisition Fund, 1997
DAM #1997-12, DAM #1997-13

Museum embarks on a $25 million Capital Campaign, which includes the expansion of the Museum, the growth of the permanent endowment and the continuing operations of the Museum.

Museum relocates to Bank One Center on the Riverfront during construction of the New Delaware Art Museum.

Architectural rendering of Garden Entrance, Ann Beha Associates

Grand reopening of the Delaware Art Museum building
Danielle Rice is appointed Executive Director

Museum acquires Walt Kuhn’s Two Clowns (DAM 2005-60) through a gift of Johannes R. and Betty P. Krahmer

Museum welcomes home the Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Collection of Pre-Raphaelite Art, which has been traveling for two years in the exhibition Waking Dreams: The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites from the Delaware Art Museum

Museum presents several highly-acclaimed exhibitions, including The Baroque World of Fernando Botero and Frida Kahlo: Through the Lens of Nicholas Muray

Museum acquires through gift the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection of Minimal and Conceptual Art

Museum acquires through gift the Appel Collection of Art by Leonard Baskin and the M. G. Sawyer Collection of Decorative Bindings