Spotlight on Scenes from the American West Continues with April First Friday Art Tour

TYLER, TX—The American experience west of the Mississippi—as captured by the artists who witnessed it unfold—is the focus of the Tyler Museum of Art’s April First Friday Art Tour celebrating the exhibition, Scenes from the American West: The Phelan Collection.

Kim Schaefer of the TMA education department will lead this month’s tour, scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, April 3, in the Museum’s North Gallery. First Friday Art Tours are free and open to the public, but reservations are requested and may be made by calling (903) 595-1001.

The April tour will spotlight the depictions of the settlements featured in Scenes from the American West, an exhibition showcasing more than 60 artworks from the collection of Arthur J. Phelan, a Maryland native who began to stoke a lifelong fascination with the American frontier upon his first travels to the Western states in the 1950s. Since acquiring his first piece of American Western art in 1967, Phelan’s collection has grown into one of the best-known of its kind in the United States.

The exhibition, organized by the TMA, continues through May 17 in the North Gallery. Sponsors are Austin Bank and Potter Minton P.C., with additional support provided by Collectors’ Circle sponsor, The Robert M. Rogers Foundation; and Corporate Member sponsors, Hibbs-Hallmark & Co. and Texas Oncology-Tyler. Media sponsor is KLTV Channel 7.

The Tyler Museum of Art, accredited by the American Association of Museums, is located at 1300 S. Mahon Ave., adjacent to the Tyler Junior College campus off East Fifth Street. Regular hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. (The Museum is closed Mondays and major holidays.) Lunch is available in the Museum Café from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and the TMA Gift Shop is open during exhibition hours. For more information, call (903) 595-1001 or visit www.tylermuseum.org.