The Cincinnati Art Museum is one of the oldest arts institutions in the United States, founded in 1881. Its extensive collection houses more than 60,000 works of art spanning an incredible 6,000 years. The ‘Art Palace of the West’ as it has come to be known, has something for everyone: painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, costumes and textiles. The museum boasts a vast collection of galleries, ranging from Near and Far Eastern to Native American and African art. Amongst its remarkable collection includes old masters such as Rubens, Titian and Van Dyck as well as works modern greats such as Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet and Chagall. In addition to paintings, the museum holds an impressive collection of sculptures from ancient civilizations such as Egypt, Rome, Greece and Mesopotamia as well as 19th and 20th century designer fashions. The Cincinnati Art Museum became the first arts institution in the country to dedicate a permanent gallery space to its city’s heritage. The Cincinnati Wing opened in 2003 and displays more than four hundred works devoted to nearly two hundred years of art, history and culture in the Queen City. Artists such as Henry Francois Farny, a 19th century French immigrant to the city who chronicled scenes of Plains Indian life and John Henry Twachtman, a Cincinnati native known for his impressionist landscapes are just two of the many artists represented. Cincinnati has long been associated with ceramic art, its contribution to the decorative arts are best exemplified by the stunning ceramics of the celebrated Rookwood Pottery Company, the nation’s leading art pottery firm founded by Maria Longworth Nichols Storer in 1880. It was no surprise therefore when the city’s art museum opened the Cincinnati Wing in May 2003 as a testament to the artistic heritage of Cincinnati, it was the first art museum in the country to reinterpret its art collections with a regional emphasis. With eighteen thousand square feet of handsomely renovated gallery space, ceramic art takes up much of this collection including many styles which originated from Storer and the Rookwood Pottery Company such as the iris glaze, the tiger eye, design and vellum glaze. Influences upon the Cincinnati ceramic movement are also present within the collection, with significant works and designs from both Japan and the American Indian era on view.