The Mint Museum Auxiliary

In 1936, the Mint Museum of Art opened as North Carolina’s first art museum although it had no collection.  A year later, four paintings comprised its art holdings.  Over the next two decades, the collection grew slowly and was dependent entirely upon local donations.  Then, in the mid-1950’s, the museum was to benefit from the efforts of a dedicated group of community volunteers. With the founding of the Women’s Auxiliary, as it was known then, a long roster of members have since contributed thousands of volunteer hours to generate funds to the support the museum and its collection.  The Auxiliary has a long and celebrated history with the Mint Museum.

Today, the collection at the Mint Museum numbers over 29,000 items.  The Mint Museum Auxiliary has been a major purchasing power behind the collection.  The Auxiliary has acquired thousands of artworks for the museum that include paintings, ceramics, costumes, sculptures, crafts and works on paper.  It has been a rich journey that began in 1960 with the Auxiliary’s first art acquisition, a Portrait of Sir Andrew Cherry by the English painter Frederick Richard Lee.

The most important purchase of 1960 was In the Glen by American painter John La Farge.  In the 1970’s, the Auxiliary purchased 112 items including Storage Jar.  This piece dates to 2200 BC and represents the oldest Chinese piece in the collection.  Also in this decade, members of the Auxiliary founded the Mint Museum of Art’s costume collection which now numbers over 8,500 items.  In the 1980’s, the Auxiliary purchased a variety of artwork including works from some of North Carolina’s most important potters, and a work by Harvey Littleton, known as the Father of North Carolina glass.

In the 1990’s, the Auxiliary purchased over $200,000 worth of Spanish Colonial Art and acquired Nature’s Rushing Force which was painted in 1868 and depicts the North Carolina wilderness.  Also in the 1990’s the Auxiliary set about to create an acquisitions endowment, nicknamed EMMA, the Endowment for Mint Museum Acquisitions.  The purpose of this endowment is to acquire works of art consistent with the curatorial goals of the Mint Museum in accordance with the Auxiliary’s acquisitions procedures.  The funds are raised through the Auxiliary’s annual Mint To Be Yours Tag Sale and the Room To Bloom spring celebration.  The funds are currently managed by the Foundation for the Carolinas.

Over the years, the Auxiliary has contributed greatly to the wealth of the museum’s permanent collection.  The funds generated by the Auxiliary members have touched nearly every area within the museum’s collection.  The partnership between the Mint Museum and the Mint Museum Auxiliary has been rich, strong and beneficial to both the museum and the city of Charlotte.