History
The museum, originally known as the Currier Gallery of Art, was founded in 1929 from a bequest of former New Hampshire Governor Moody Currier and his third wife, Hannah Slade Currier.
Currier's will provided for the establishment of an art museum, "for the benefit and advancement of humanity." While not an art collector himself, his funding allowed for the purchase of a great deal of art.
After his third wife's death in 1915, a board of trustees was appointed to carry out the Curriers' wishes that a structure be constructed. Multiple architectural proposals were entertained and the project was not awarded until 1926 to the New York firm of Tilton and Githens. In October 1929, the art gallery opened its new facility. The first director was Maud Briggs Knowlton, one of the first women to be a museum administrator in the United States.
In 1982, new pavilions, designed by the New York firm Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer, were built to accommodate the museum’s growing collections, programs and staff. The Currier Art Center, home to art activities for all ages, was relocated to the adjacent former Women’s Aid Home in 1998.
In September 2002, the Gallery changed its name to the Currier Museum of Art, because, in the words of its then-director, it "recognizes the Currier’s true mission and clarifies our function for those less familiar with us."
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