Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum
The Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum – formerly The Smith Institute – has played a very special part in the history of Stirling since its foundation in 1874. Established by the bequest of artist Thomas Stuart Smith (1815–1869) on land supplied by the Burgh of Stirling, it is an historic public-private partnership which has continued to the present day. It was founded as a gallery of mainly contemporary art, with museum and library reading room ‘for the benefit of the inhabitants of Stirling, Dunblane and Kinbuck’.
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.