Blanton Museum of Art. The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest university art museums in the U.S.
with 189,340 square feet devoted to temporary exhibitions, permanent collection galleries, storage, administrative offices, classrooms, a print study room, an auditorium, shop, and cafe. The Blanton's permanent collection consists of almost 18,000 works, with significant holdings of modern and contemporary art, Latin American art, Old Master paintings, and prints and drawings from Europe, the United States, and Latin America.
The museum was founded in 1963 as the University Art Museum on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. The University Art Museum was initially housed in the Art Department of the University of Texas and was founded through the proceeds from the sale of land donated by Archer M. Huntington.
This land was donated with the stipulation that it be used to support an art museum at the University. In 1964, Donald Goodall became the museum's first director.
By 1972, a portion of the museum's collection was housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Center, while the print study room and temporary exhibition galleries remained at the Art Department. In 1979, Eric S. McCready became the museum's second director, and the museum was renamed the Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery shortly thereafter. In 1993, Jessie Otto Hite became the museu