Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum
The Smith Institute first opened to the public on 11 August 1874. It was an occasion for great celebration in Stirling, and the shops in the town closed at 12 noon to allow people to attend the opening. Nevertheless, there were some mixed feelings, for Thomas Stuart Smith, had died in 1869 and the location of the building was felt by many people to be too far away from the old town.
Paul J. Smith (arts administrator)
Upon joining the staff of the American Craftsmen's Council in 1957, Smith established a new ACC program for traveling educational exhibitions. Since 1960, when he became officially involved with the museum, he has been responsible for organizing and presenting over 200 exhibitions, ranging from surveys of contemporary craft to one-artist retrospectives and innovative thematic exhibitions. Notable theme-focused exhibitions he organized include "Cookies and Breads: The Baker's Art" (1966), "Designed for Production: The Craftsmen's Approach" (1964), "The Teapot" (1965), "The Door" (1968), "Body Covering" (1968), "Plastic as Plastic" (1969), "Objects for Preparing Food" (1973), "Portable World" (1974), and "The Great American Foot" (1978). He initiated more than 75 one-artist exhibitions, including retrospectives for Dorothy Liebes (1970) and Peter Voulkos (1978).
Smith also played a pivotal role in opening the American Craft Museum’s new facility at 40 W. 53rd Street in the fall of 1986. On that occasion, he curated the exhibition "Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical", which toured nationally after its New York premier. A revised version, "Craft Today USA", toured to fifteen European cities under the auspices of the United States Information Agency's (USIA) Arts America Program from 1989 to 1993.