Canton Museum of Art, Canton

The Canton Museum of Art, founded in 1935, is a broad-based community arts organization designed to encourage and promote the fine arts in Canton, Ohio.

In its early days (1935–1945), the Museum served largely as an exhibition and meeting place for local artists; collecting was not a prime objective. A program from 1943 lists the museum’s eight objectives, with the Permanent Collection mentioned last: “To provide a permanent museum for the collecting and preservation of art objects.” Operating under this broad mandate, the Museum began to purchase work of local and regional artists. Many of these works were of Canton area landmarks or personalities documenting the cultural and historic heritage of the area. Gifts from local patrons and corporate benefactors from their personal art collections are also included in the Museum's holdings. Many of these donors were themselves artists or sponsors of area artists.

The Museum collection added to the local cultural heritage in two major ways - public exposure to the larger world of art and documentation of local art history. The purchases of works by local artists and the acceptance of donations were the two major influences on the development of the Permanent Collection until the Museum moved into the Cultural Center for the Arts in 1970. At that time, the Museum’s Board decided that the Permanent Collection should be focused on a more specific collecting area. The Ralph L. Wilson Collection of American Art, gifted in the 1970s, was a significant step toward the eventual focus on 19th and 20th Century American artists.

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