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Collection

About the Collection

Focusing on modern, post-modern, and contemporary periods of American art with an emphasis on the western United States, the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art’s permanent collections includes over 5,000 artworks by 1,845 artists from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Works in all media are represented ranging from paintings, sculpture, photography, ceramics, drawing, printmaking, installation and video, providing an extensive overview of creative endeavors over the last one hundred years. Selections from NEHMA’s permanent collection are always on view and rotate on a regular basis.

Selections from the NEHMA Collection


The Museum’s focused collection has developed through the support and generosity of many individuals over the years, however three family foundations have been particularly instrumental in supporting the Museum’s collection development since its founding in 1982. The Nora Eccles Treadwell Harrison Foundation, the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation, and the Kathryn Caine Wanlass Foundation have played a significant role in supporting acquisitions and shaping areas of emphasis in NEHMA’s rich collection of 20th- and 21st-century American art.

The Kathryn C. Wanlass Foundation has continuously supported art acquisitions focused on modern and contemporary artists in the western U.S. and artworks that offer new twists on the story of 20th- and 21st-century American art. Examples include conceptual art, ephemeral art, contemporary American sculpture, important underrepresented artists, and geometric abstraction. Unique examples of art and technology hybrids including computer-programmed drawings, sound art, and mechanized sculpture are also areas of interest. Through the efforts of Kathryn Caine Wanlass Foundation trustee member George Wanlass, who has continually worked with Museum staff, NEHMA’s collection has become one of the most important repositories of modern and contemporary art made in the western U.S. 

The Marie Eccles Caine Foundation has supported NEHMA to acquire artworks by fascinating American artists and genres often left out of twentieth-century surveys. These include under-recognized areas of modern art such as Los Angeles Post-Surrealism, Santa Fe Transcendentalism, Bay Area Abstract Expressionism, and San Francisco Funk, to name a few.

The Nora Eccles Harrison Treadwell Foundation has continuously supported the acquisition of ceramics by 20th- and 21st-century American studio potters and ceramicists since the Museum’s founding. In fact, through the generosity of the Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation and Mr. Richard Harrison, the museum was founded in 1982 by a gift of nearly 500 ceramic works along with funding to support the construction of the Museum. Today, there are approximately 1,300 ceramic works in the collection with an emphasis on the vessel tradition crafted by over 400 artists. NEHMA is one of the largest regional repositories of modern and contemporary American ceramics in the United States.