Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park, was founded in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year and is now among the largest and most important art museums in the United States. Originally the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, its inspiration was the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) in London, which grew out of the Great Exhibition of 1851. The museum opened its doors to the public on May 10, 1877. Its current building, on which construction began in 1919, saw its first section completed in the spring of 1928.
Each year the Museum puts on 15 to 20 special exhibitions and is visited by 800,000 people. Some of the larger and most famous special exhibitions, which have attracted hundreds of thousands of people from every state and around the world, include shows featuring Cezanne (in 1996, attracting 548,000) and Salvador Dali (in 2005, attracting 370,000).
Widely regarded as a world-class art institution, the Philadelphia Museum of Art includes not only its iconic Main Building, but also the Rodin Museum (also on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway) and several other historic sites. The recently acquired Perelman Building (across the street from the Main Building) is projected to open in 2007 and will house for public display a few of the Museum's more popular collections.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is particularly known for its important collections of Pennsylvania German art, 18th century and 19th century furniture and silver by early Philadelphia and Pennsylvania craftsmen, and works by prominent Philadelphia artist Thomas Eakins. The museum houses the most important Eakins collection in the world.
Besides its architecture and collections, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is well known for the role it played in a famous scene in the film Rocky. Visitors to the museum can often be seen mimicking Rocky's famous run up the front steps. A bronze statue of Rocky was briefly placed at the top of the steps for the filming of Rocky III. The statue was moved afterwards to the Wachovia Spectrum due to a furious debate over the meaning of "art". The statue was returned for the filming of Rocky V, and also appears at the top of the steps in the movies Philadelphia and Mannequin, but has since been re-removed.
On July 2, 2005, the steps of the museum played host to the Philadelphia venue of Live 8, where artists such as Dave Matthews Band, Linkin Park and Maroon 5 performed. The museum closed for Live 8, but reopened at regular hours the following day.