History
Our story and architectural heritage
The John J. McDonough Museum of Art, founded in 1991, is the University Art Museum for Youngstown State University and the Valley’s Premier Center for Contemporary Art. Internationally known architects Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, who worked together with the then local firm Ricciuti, Buchanan and Balog, designed the 20,000 square foot facility. Paul Ricciuti participated in the dedication ceremony held on October 26, 1991. The museum stands as a testament to modernist design in its simplicity and sensitivity to the site. Gwathmey was known for his ability to create buildings that “seamlessly blend into the urban fabric.”
The man
In 1978, when Dr. John J. McDonough, a Youngstown physician and avid art collector, sold his collection of American paintings, Sotheby’s, the auction house that handled the sale, called it a “landmark auction.” At the time, it was the largest sale of American art by a single collector and became national news. The 63 works McDonough had carefully selected over the previous 12 years formed, according to Thomas Norton, “an almost comprehensive cross-section of the principal artists, themes, and periods of representational American art.” Indeed, the collection was exhibited at major museums across the country before it was dispersed.
Within months of the sale, Dr. McDonough began to form an even finer collection of American art, this time focusing his attention on the 50-year period between 1875 and 1925. This collection, numbering about 100 paintings, earned McDonough the designation “the quintessentially focused collector” by John L. Marion, who conducted the Sotheby auction. “McDonough is thoroughly familiar with the period and has selected carefully and knowledgeably, making his collection a jewel of the art world.”
Despite the fact that many of his paintings increased in value over time, Dr. McDonough said that he did not collect art as a financial investment. “I think paintings should be loved and enjoyed,” he said, “and I don’t think they should be bought for sale and profit, really. You should go into the stock market for that.”
Dr. John J. McDonough belonged to a Youngstown philanthropic tradition dating back over a century, including visionaries like Edward Powers, Henry Stambaugh, Joseph Butler, and Volney Rogers, to name but a few. An outstanding art collector in his time, Dr. McDonough wanted to ensure YSU had adequate means to foster the growth of interest in what artists of our time have to say to all of us about our shared human experience.