History of the Carnegie Art Museum Building
The Carnegie Art Museum building traces its beginnings back to early American business philanthropy. The Carnegie was built in 1906 originally as Oxnard’s first public library. It was constructed with $12,000 donated by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, as one of the 1,678 free public libraries erected throughout the United States funded by the industrialist between 1891 and 1920. With its Classical Revival design approved by the City’s first mayor Richard B. Haydock, it opened in 1907 and although modified on the interior, the Carnegie’s striking exterior architecture has remained essentially untouched. Designed by architect Franklin Pierce Burnham of Los Angeles to have imposing Doric columns on its façade and Ionic columns within its entrance, Oxnard’s Carnegie is one of the only three remaining of Burnham’s original 12 California library buildings.
Since the building’s opening as a library until 1949, its lower level served as Oxnard's City Hall. In 1923, a three-story addition had been made on the east side of the edifice. With the completion of a new library in 1963, the Carnegie building functioned as quarters for the Chamber of Commerce, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Art Club of Oxnard. Threatened with earthquake demolition, citizens worked to have the Carnegie designated a County Landmark and gained federal funding in 1978 to quake-proof and refurbish the structure. It reopened in 1980 as the Carnegie Cultural Arts Center. By approval of the City Council of Oxnard in 1987, it was transformed into the Carnegie Art Museum, realizing the dream of first Arts Chairperson Mary Bevans to house the City’s art collection in a professionally operated art museum.
History of the Carnegie Art Museum
The City’s permanent art collection actually began in 1922 through the donations of area residents with the first painting acquired in 1925. Until the establishment of a museum curatorial staff, the Art Club of Oxnard was highly active in adding to the collection. At present the permanent collection through gifts of artists, museum members and the CAM Cornerstones has grown to over 2,000 artworks plus diverse historic objects. Artworks included range from California Impressionism, which initiated the collection, to Contemporary trends with a strength in Latino Art. The focus of the collection and the Carnegie Art Museum has been to give the public access to a broad spectrum of national quality California Art. Works inclusive of all California art movements and of educational value to a highly diverse population have been shown in the Museum’s 300 exhibits and highly active education programs serving 4,000-5,000 students annually (grades K-college) until its closure in June 2019 at which time the Museum was serving 14,000 on site visitors and 146,468 on-line visitors.
Carnegie Art Museum was the City of Oxnard’s only art museum and was closed in June 2019 as a result of the City’s drastic solutions to its Fy2019-20 overall $9.2 million budget shortfall.
History of the Carnegie Art Museum Cornerstones
At the Museum’s outset, resources supplemental to its City operating budget were needed to advance its programming. Proactively the Carnegie Art Museum Cornerstones (CAM Cornerstones) auxiliary incorporated in 1997 to help augment the budget and received its 501(c) 3 designation in 2002. Headed voluntarily by professionals and business leaders from Oxnard and Ventura County, the CAM Cornerstones have been major contributors to the planning and support of Museum programs helping to actualize its educational mission and vision of sharing the SoCal Art Experience. In July 2010, the CAM Cornerstones entered into a ten year contract agreement with the City of Oxnard to manage and operate the Museum with the continuance of municipal funding and contributed over $390,600 in programming aid.
Faced with the Museum’s abrupt closure as a casualty of municipal cutbacks, the CAM Cornerstones have remolded and restructured to surpass this crisis--jumping into the breach to keep the visual arts alive and relevant in Oxnard. CAM Cornerstones has updated their name to the Carnegie Art Cornerstones (CAC) and remains devoted to its mission to promote creativity, learning and growth in the careers of artists, and to inspire passion and appreciation for arts and culture in Oxnard and Southern California.
Located at the Carnegie Studio Gallery (facing Plaza Park behind the beloved Museum), the Carnegie Art Cornerstones (CAC) are re-envisioning its Downtown art scene and championing the expansion of a larger art audience. With the help of artists, the membership and a volunteer corps, CAC is embracing change in the midst of crisis by revving up the Carnegie Studio Gallery to incubate innovative creation through all mediums of contemporary visual arts and through a culturally diverse range of work that speaks directly to our community. Young creatives are being invited to use the Studio Gallery as a safe space to gain the inspirational fuel to test and push their practices to the next level. Starting this Fall 2019, an new emphasis on multi-maker exhibits engaging topical issues will be launched to foster the development of a broader scope of emerging and mid-career artists and curators.
The Future of the Carnegie Art Museum
The City of Oxnard has termed the shutdown of Carnegie Art Museum to be a temporary closure with the possibility of reopening in three years should development renewal in Downtown Oxnard yield increased city revenues.
The Carnegie Art Museum building traces its beginnings back to early American business philanthropy. The Carnegie was built in 1906 originally as Oxnard’s first public library. It was constructed with $12,000 donated by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, as one of the 1,678 free public libraries erected throughout the United States funded by the industrialist between 1891 and 1920. With its Classical Revival design approved by the City’s first mayor Richard B. Haydock, it opened in 1907 and although modified on the interior, the Carnegie’s striking exterior architecture has remained essentially untouched. Designed by architect Franklin Pierce Burnham of Los Angeles to have imposing Doric columns on its façade and Ionic columns within its entrance, Oxnard’s Carnegie is one of the only three remaining of Burnham’s original 12 California library buildings.
Since the building’s opening as a library until 1949, its lower level served as Oxnard's City Hall. In 1923, a three-story addition had been made on the east side of the edifice. With the completion of a new library in 1963, the Carnegie building functioned as quarters for the Chamber of Commerce, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Art Club of Oxnard. Threatened with earthquake demolition, citizens worked to have the Carnegie designated a County Landmark and gained federal funding in 1978 to quake-proof and refurbish the structure. It reopened in 1980 as the Carnegie Cultural Arts Center. By approval of the City Council of Oxnard in 1987, it was transformed into the Carnegie Art Museum, realizing the dream of first Arts Chairperson Mary Bevans to house the City’s art collection in a professionally operated art museum.
History of the Carnegie Art Museum
The City’s permanent art collection actually began in 1922 through the donations of area residents with the first painting acquired in 1925. Until the establishment of a museum curatorial staff, the Art Club of Oxnard was highly active in adding to the collection. At present the permanent collection through gifts of artists, museum members and the CAM Cornerstones has grown to over 2,000 artworks plus diverse historic objects. Artworks included range from California Impressionism, which initiated the collection, to Contemporary trends with a strength in Latino Art. The focus of the collection and the Carnegie Art Museum has been to give the public access to a broad spectrum of national quality California Art. Works inclusive of all California art movements and of educational value to a highly diverse population have been shown in the Museum’s 300 exhibits and highly active education programs serving 4,000-5,000 students annually (grades K-college) until its closure in June 2019 at which time the Museum was serving 14,000 on site visitors and 146,468 on-line visitors.
Carnegie Art Museum was the City of Oxnard’s only art museum and was closed in June 2019 as a result of the City’s drastic solutions to its Fy2019-20 overall $9.2 million budget shortfall.
History of the Carnegie Art Museum Cornerstones
At the Museum’s outset, resources supplemental to its City operating budget were needed to advance its programming. Proactively the Carnegie Art Museum Cornerstones (CAM Cornerstones) auxiliary incorporated in 1997 to help augment the budget and received its 501(c) 3 designation in 2002. Headed voluntarily by professionals and business leaders from Oxnard and Ventura County, the CAM Cornerstones have been major contributors to the planning and support of Museum programs helping to actualize its educational mission and vision of sharing the SoCal Art Experience. In July 2010, the CAM Cornerstones entered into a ten year contract agreement with the City of Oxnard to manage and operate the Museum with the continuance of municipal funding and contributed over $390,600 in programming aid.
Faced with the Museum’s abrupt closure as a casualty of municipal cutbacks, the CAM Cornerstones have remolded and restructured to surpass this crisis--jumping into the breach to keep the visual arts alive and relevant in Oxnard. CAM Cornerstones has updated their name to the Carnegie Art Cornerstones (CAC) and remains devoted to its mission to promote creativity, learning and growth in the careers of artists, and to inspire passion and appreciation for arts and culture in Oxnard and Southern California.
Located at the Carnegie Studio Gallery (facing Plaza Park behind the beloved Museum), the Carnegie Art Cornerstones (CAC) are re-envisioning its Downtown art scene and championing the expansion of a larger art audience. With the help of artists, the membership and a volunteer corps, CAC is embracing change in the midst of crisis by revving up the Carnegie Studio Gallery to incubate innovative creation through all mediums of contemporary visual arts and through a culturally diverse range of work that speaks directly to our community. Young creatives are being invited to use the Studio Gallery as a safe space to gain the inspirational fuel to test and push their practices to the next level. Starting this Fall 2019, an new emphasis on multi-maker exhibits engaging topical issues will be launched to foster the development of a broader scope of emerging and mid-career artists and curators.
The Future of the Carnegie Art Museum
The City of Oxnard has termed the shutdown of Carnegie Art Museum to be a temporary closure with the possibility of reopening in three years should development renewal in Downtown Oxnard yield increased city revenues.