James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art reflect devotion to art

St. Petersburg, FL (U.S.), Mar 22 (Medium): James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art in St. Petersburg, Florida was founded and developed by Tom and Mary James, through their personal relationships with artists and many travels to the American West, media reports said.

The significant collection of the museum consisting of ​over 400 works in the museum, all from the James’ private collection including about 3,000 pieces.

The James Museum has its roots in the deeply felt passion for art and culture shared by co-founders Tom and Mary James, and their love for St. Petersburg, the city where they lived. During their travel to the West, a long time back they were captivated by the art of action and attention to place created by contemporary artists. This led to their buying pieces not only for their personal pleasure, but also to help the artists earn a living.

They started collecting works in oil, in ink, and in stone and soon led to the growth of a vast artistic legacy of emerging artists and living legends.

In doing so Tom and Mary also have succeeded in their aim to share their vision and devotion to art with you and thousands of others.​

The collection, reflecting interests in history, storytelling and the human spirit, are arranged in themed galleries: Introductory Gallery; Early West; Native Life; Native Artists; Frontier; Wildlife; and New West.

Each of these galleries with different colored walls connect to each other displaying hundreds of paintings and sculptures for enjoyment, education, and inspiration.

There are a number of bronze sculptures in the lobby and along the staircases leading up to the main galleries. The visitors can hear the light rush of a granite waterfall that serves as the lobby’s backdrop.

​The introductory gallery (sand-colored) includes an orientation theater along with several paintings of landscapes and bronze sculptures of historical figures creating the feeling you’re walking through a canyon and ​includes the following:

Early West gallery (rust), features works by Russell and Remington and portray the oldest paintings in the collection, from the 1890s to the 1940s. ​

Early West Gallery flows into the Native Life gallery (blue-gray), which focuses on the daily and cultural life of American Indians in the 1800s through a variety of styles and mediums.

​The Native Life gallery opens up into the Native Artists gallery (deep gold) which is is dedicated to art by 20th and 21st century American Indian artists. Cultural influences are prominent in much of the work, shown using a variety of styles and techniques. The Jewel Box within this gallery celebrates contemporary Native American jewelry.

From the Native Artists gallery, visitors can enter the Frontier (burnt sienna), which gives a bit of a visual history of the work involved in making the colonial concept of manifest destiny happen. It also provides a window into less frequently explored themes with works by Chinese artists many of whose families were involved in building the railroads and who were, subsequently, denied citizenship — a topic that bears more than a passing relevance to issues the country faces today. It explores cowboy life and their independent, hard-working culture. Also included are visual stories of expansion westward, the fur trade, and the adventurous Wild West.

The Wildlife Gallery showcases paintings and sculptures of North American mammals and birds, then expands to animals from around the globe.

The New West Gallery features Western subjects inspired by Pop Art, Cubism, and other movements portraying the independent spirit of the West in new ways.

Special exhibitions feature the following:

The Arroyo Gallery portraits the following:

(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)