De Cordova Museum and Sculpture Park - History

History

Julian de Cordova, a Boston businessman, had a personal collection of visual arts that he often opened to the public. He donated his property to the town of Lincoln in 1930 with the condition that it become a public museum of art after his death. De Cordova died in 1945. The trustees he appointed determined that the museum should focus on living regional artists and art education, and it established the DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park in 1948. It opened to the public in 1950. The founding director of the museum was Frederick P. Walkey, whose innovative concepts for a regional museum of living art combined with art festivals, camps, and classes helped establish a new model for small regional museums in the United States. It was popularly known as the DeCordova Museum, and it officially changed its name to the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in 2009.

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