about
The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) is the official national museum, education center, and repository for intuitive, self-taught artistry.
What is Visionary Art?
Like love, you know it when you see it. But here's the longer definition, straight out of our Mission Statement:
"Visionary art as defined for the purposes of the American Visionary Art Museum refers to art produced by self-taught individuals, usually without formal training, whose works arise from an innate personal vision that revels foremost in the creative act itself."
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In short, visionary art begins by listening to the inner voices of the soul, and often may not even be thought of as 'art' by its creator.
Museum history
1984
Museum founder Rebecca Alban Hoffberger has the idea for a unique new museum and education center that would emphasize intuitive creative invention and grassroots genius while she is employed as the Development Director of People Encouraging People, Inc.—a program of the Department of Psychiatry at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
A Top-10 Place to See Before You’re 10.
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—travel & Leisure magazine
American Visionary Art Museum
800 Key Highway
Baltimore, MD 21230
phone: (410) 244-1900
fax: (410) 244-5858