When Andrew Carnegie founded his Pittsburgh art museum in 1895, he gave it an unusual mission: collect the art of the present day — the ‘old masters of tomorrow.’ More than 130 years later, Carnegie Museum of Art still lives by that charge, pairing a storied permanent collection with the oldest international contemporary exhibition in North America, the Carnegie International (founded 1896).
The Scaife Galleries hold the hits across centuries — Impressionists, American masters, modern icons — while the museum’s photography, decorative arts and architecture collections rank among America’s finest. The building itself is a landmark: Beaux-Arts marble halls, the soaring Grand Staircase and the Hall of Sculpture, modeled on the Parthenon.
Carnegie Museum of Art is at 4400 Forbes Avenue in Oakland, sharing the grand Carnegie Institute building with the Museum of Natural History. One admission covers both museums — plan a whole day.
