San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio

The San Antonio Museum of Art is a museum opened to the public in March 1981. The museum was funded through grants from the Economic Development Administration of San Antonio, and numerous businessmen and foundations. It is situated on the northern section of the San Antonio Riverwalk.

When the museum opened it specialized in art of the Americas including pre-Columbian, Spanish Colonial and Latin American folk art. It also included eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth century American and European paintings, photography, sculpture and decorative arts. In 1985, the Museum received collections of Latin American Folk Art formed from former Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller and Robert K. Winn. In the 1990s the museum expanded considerably with donations from Gilbert M. Denman, Jr., the addition of the Stark-Willson Collection which established a comprehensive collection of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art and a collection of Chinese ceramics from trustees Walter F. and Lenora Brown. The Chinese collection which also included other Asian objects resulted in a 15,000-square-foot wing named after them, The Lenora and Walter F. Brown Asian Art Wing which opened in 2005 is now the largest museum for Asian art in the southern United States.

In 1991, the 7,000-square-foot Cowden Gallery was opened for changing exhibitions and, in 1994, the 3,000-square-foot Beretta Hops House was renovated to provide a new area for schooling with three main classrooms. In 1998, the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art, a 30,000-square-foot wing, opened to display Latin American art.