Art Incorporated history

On April 13, 1870, The Metropolitan Museum of Art was incorporated, opening to the public in the Dodworth Building at 681 Fifth Avenue.

The 1874–76 purchase of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriot art—works dating from the Bronze Age to the end of the Roman period—helped to establish The Met's reputation as a major repository of classical antiquities.

On March 30, 1880, after a brief move to the Douglas Mansion at 128 West 14th Street, the Museum opened to the public at its current site on Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street.

The building has since expanded greatly, and the various additions—built as early as 1888—now completely surround the original structure.

Trained as a dentist, Winzeler opened a private practice in the tiny town of Archbold, Ohio, in 1900.

The Museum's Beaux-Arts Fifth Avenue facade and Great Hall, designed by the architect and founding Museum Trustee Richard Morris Hunt, opened to the public in December 1902.

Winzeler launched The Ohio Art Company in October 1908 with 15 employees.

In 1910 Winzeler bought his own stamping machine and consolidated production.

Barnard opened his original Cloisters on Fort Washington Avenue to the public in 1914.

Rising demand spurred moves to progressively larger plants, until Ohio Art moved to the town of Bryan and a specially built plant in 1915.

The 1916 purchase of Chicago's Holabird Manufacturing Company broadened the product line to include glass-framed calendars featuring popular Ohio Art prints.

In 1917 Ohio Art acquired both the C.E. Carter Company's Erie toy plant and the Battle Creek Toy Manufacturing Company.

In 1927 H.S. Winzeler retired from Ohio Art to concentrate on his West Coast businesses.

Fifteen-year-old son Howard W. ("Howie") Winzeler started working part-time at Ohio Art in 1930 and joined the firm full-time three years later.

Craftsman Studios, a manufacturer of brass and copper tableware, was acquired in 1931.

The Cloisters opened to the public on May 10, 1938.

When H.S. Winzeler died in 1939 Howie was appointed to fill the vacant seat on the board of directors.

The Winzelers had drawn Killgallon from a rival toy company to become sales manager in 1955.

1960: Ohio Art launches the Etch A Sketch during the holiday season.

1962: Strydel, Inc. is formed as a subsidiary focusing on custom metal lithography and molded plastic products.

Described by the New York Times in 1966 as "harsh, but handsome," its crisp granite facade—sometimes dark gray, often pinkish—steps up and forward over the entrance, peppered with distinctive asymmetrical windows that reveal almost nothing of the interior activity.

In 1968 Ohio Art acquired Trinc Company, a truck leasing firm formerly owned by Ohio Art executives, and a controlling interest in Emenee Corporation, a manufacturer of toy musical instruments.

Getting Started In 1969 Bob Amend was a loan officer at Liberty National Bank & Trust Co.

The founding Winzeler family sold its controlling stake in Ohio Art to William Casley Killgallon in 1977.

The company's efforts to parlay its long-running (yet only moderately profitable) Etch A Sketch franchise culminated in the 1986 launch of the Etch A Sketch Animator.

The Treasury, which contains objects created for liturgical celebrations, personal devotions, and secular uses, was renovated in 1988.

Art, craft, and educational toys offered to "Make Creativity Fun." Sales and profits peaked at $55.6 million and $3.4 million in 1992.

In a more low-tech vein, Ohio Art launched a color Etch A Sketch in 1993 that used the traditional two-knob drawing method but featured six colors and produced a color copy of each drawing.

Sales declined by over 25 percent to $41.1 million in 1994, and profits dropped by more than three-quarters to $824,000 during the same period.

In honor of the toy's 35th birthday in 1995, Ohio Art introduced pocket models in jewel tones.

The loss widened to $5.1 million in 1997.

From May through September the company's stock was suspended from trading on the American Stock Exchange because Ohio Art had not filed its annual report for 1998.

The Ancient Near Eastern Art galleries reopened to the public in 1999 following a renovation.

2000: Ohio Art announces it will shift production of the Etch A Sketch from Ohio to China.

The goal was to reduce annual operating costs by $2.5 million by the fall of 2001.

Meantime, it was reported in mid-2002 that Ohio Art was trying to sell its Strydel injection-molding subsidiary, hoping to use the proceeds to fund further toy development.

Culminating three years of research, the Urban Institute published its report, Investing In Creativity, in 2003.

Galleries for Oceanic and Native North American Art also opened in 2007, as well as the new Galleries for Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Paintings and Sculpture and the Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education.

In 2008, when the Artist INC program was designed, a primary focus in artist support was providing training and development through knowledge delivery.

The heart of Artist INC programming, its eight-week seminar, was launched in 2009 and has been completed by 347 Kansas City artists in its first decade.

On November 1, 2011, the Museum's New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia opened to the public.

On the north side of the Museum, The Met's New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts reopened on January 16, 2012, signaling the completion of the third and final phase of The American Wing's renovation.

2013 Mid-America Arts Alliance Joins Partnership to expand Artist INC programming.

2014 Artist INC Seminar Launches in Austin and Omaha

On March 18, 2016, The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened The Met Breuer, a space dedicated to modern and contemporary art.

2017 Mid-America Arts Alliance fully aquires Artist INC. As of 2017 1,054 Artists have completed the seminar in ten communities across the M-AAA six state region.

2019 Over 347 Kansas City Artists have completed Artist INC seminar in its first decade.

LINC. (n.d.). LINC. Retrieved 02 13, 2020, from lincnet.net: http://www.lincnet.net/ National Endowment for the Arts. (n.d.). National Endowment for the Arts Appropriations History.