Press Kit> History of Hibel Museum

The HIBEL ^TM Museum of Art will begin groundbreaking at its new location in Jupiter, Florida on the beautiful MacArthur Campus adjacent to the Honors College of Florida Atlantic University. The museum will incorporate an atrium, studios and classrooms for its wide variety of cultural programs. The design also includes a spacious exhibit hall and sculpture garden. Due to open its doors in the Summer of 2001, the museum will showcase the art of Edna Hibel and host other popular exhibits. What a perfect setting to house Edna’s work, amid the feeling of community, family and education that has become the core of her art..., and her life.

The story of the Hibel Museum of Art dates back to 1960 when Clayton and Ethelbelle Craig, well-known patrons of the arts, first visited the Edna Hibel Gallery in Rockport, Massachusetts, where Lena Hibel was presiding over a display of her talented daughter’s work.

The Craigs immediately fell in love with Edna’s work, and during the first visit purchased five of her paintings. Three years later when the Craigs met Edna, there was an immediate rapport which grew into a lasting relation­ship, and into a rare and enduring communication between artist and admirers that culminated in the January, 1911, opening of the Hibel Museum of Art. The Craigs founded the Hibel Museum—the world’s only non-profit, public museum dedicated to the art of a living American woman

—as a permanent repository for their renowned collection of 380 Hibel orig­inal paintings, drawings, stone lithographs and porcelains. Donations have since increased the museum’s collection to more than 2000 art works.

Aware of the richness and profundity of Hibel’s unique contributions to America’s and the world’s art heritage, the Craigs envisioned the Hibel Museum as a multi-functional cultural and educational institution where scholars, artists, and the public could find the resources for the study and appreciation of a broad collection of Hibel’s work.

In January, 2000, the Hibel Museum of Art moved to its new location in Lake Worth, Florida. Taking its place among the shops along Lake Avenue, the Hibel Museum of Art and Gallery has become a favorite place to explore Edna’s work and enjoy the light, airy feel of the new surroundings.

The Hibel Museum continues to grow and expand its services as a cul­tural and educational institution. Among the museum’s many cultural pro­grams are exhibitions, lectures, films, slide shows and other events, such as the Annual Fall Festival and the Promenade Concert Series. In addition, the Hibel Museum’s traveling exhibitions at the invitation of museum and government officials throughout the world have endeared themselves to countless followers, including thousands of members of the Edna Hibel Society—the world’s oldest artist fellowship.

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