Collection The Americas

The museum’s permanent collection offers an opportunity to examine diverse artworks from the United States, Mesoamerica, contemporary Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other areas of the Caribbean and across the Americas. As we continue important conversations about collections development, the museum’s mission and vision, and our dedication to equity and inclusion, diversity, and social justice, we have given special focus to growth in underrepresented areas of collecting art of the Americas.

The American collection is especially strong in Pacific Northwest art thanks to generous gifts from arts patron and collector Virginia Haseltine beginning in the 1960s and a continued commitment since that time to supporting and showcasing the art produced in and by artists from this region. Within the Pacific Northwest holdings, David McCosh and Morris Graves are especially well-represented.

As a repository of Work Progress Administration (WPA) works, allocated by the U.S. Government and commissioned through the New Deal art projects, the JSMA also houses over 300 prints, drawings, photographs, and paintings by American artists on long-term loan.

Collection Highlights

David McCosh Memorial Collection

Collection